On Wednesday 26th May Diarmuid Scullion was at St Johns primary school, Swatragh for the official opening of their new state of the art training pitch by Christy Cooney. Well done to all involved, Diarmuid is certainly looking forward to next thursday for P.E on the new pitch!
B Winners: Greenlough Runners Up: Banagher
C Winners: Castledawson Runners Up: Drumsurn
Well done to everyone who helped out in organising the event, a special mention to the young lads from the secondary schools who helped with the refereeing.
We started Monday morning with Christy and Pat in Foyleview and Belmont Special School's before moving to Templemore Sports Centre where 300 children got to meet the president's and get their photograph's taken. After lunch it was off to Brooke Park leisure centre where 200 children turned up.
On Tuesday Christy had to go to Dublin so Aoghan Farrell, Ulster GAA President stepped in for him and done a tremendous job at Roe Valley Leisure Centre Limavady and the University of Ulster Coleraine. Approximately 400 children were present between the two centres. Tuesday night was the Under 14 7's football blitz with 700 players taking part in what was a superb night of football.
On Wednesday Christy was back with us for an early morning visit to Kilronan special school before going across the road to Meadowbank Sports arena where 400 children from Magherafelt district council met the men. The ladies under 14 footballers had their blitz on Wednesday evening at Owenbeg.
Thursday was the Gaelic football festival for primary school children from all over the County to take part in boys and girls football. 700 children arrived and demonstrated their skills to Pat and Christy to a very high level. Each school that attended were presented with a special signed certificate to mark the occasion. The final event of the week was the official launch in the Guildhall Derry on Thursday evening. The cultural show piece was a remarkable night and a fitting launch to what is a superb competition. Only one month to Féile Dhoire 2010, it's going to be good!!
On Thursday 14th June Derry GAA organised their North Derry Primary School League blitz for Boys football and Camogie. 20 teams took part in the day of games at Owenbeg.
On Wednesday 12th April Magherafelt Cúchulainns took part in a cross community Gaelic Football Tournament which was held in the Mid Ulster Sports Arena in Cookstown. Four teams competed in the cross-community tournament: Lurgan-Armagh, Dungannon, Magherafelt and Enniskillen. All teams were made up of players from a mixture of schools from the controlled and maintained sectors.
Today’s tournament is an extension to Ulster GAA’s pioneering cross community Initiative, which brings together young people from a range of backgrounds who have little or no experience participating in Gaelic Games.
The initiative is backed by the ‘Unite Against Hate’ Campaign which embraces the Northern Ireland Assembly’s vision for the future as: “A peaceful, inclusive, prosperous, stable and fair society firmly founded on the achievement of reconciliation, tolerance, and mutual trust and the protection and vindication of human rights for all”.
Ulster GAA Provincial Secretary Danny Murphy said, “Ulster GAA is very proud of this flagship cross-community initiative – the Cúchulainn Cup. When we first set out to develop this initiative we hoped that it would bring together young people from all sections of our community to experience and enjoy Gaelic Games and to break down barriers through sport. That hope is now been realised with the Cúchulainn Initiative continuing to grow from strength to strength. The tournament is also about raising awareness and respect of Gaelic Games and the Association to those from non-GAA backgrounds.
“All the lads who participated in this year’s football and hurling tournament, are playing their part in building a better society, breaking down barriers and promoting good relations. I commend all the schools and teachers involved who have made this possible, and I also pay tribute to the parents and families of the young men who are taking part, and the young men themselves.
The Magherafelt team were coached by Diarmuid and Tony Scullion.
On Tuesday 18th May 150 Year 9 Secondary School pupils enjoyed a Gaelic Football Coaching and blitz day organised by Chris Collins.
The Oak Leaf Cycle Slam is a new fundraising initiative by Club Derry and the County Coaching and Games committee with all proceeds in aid of the Derry Schools GAA Coaching Programme. The gruelling 700 mile cycle will begin on Sunday 22nd August from Owenbeg with all the cyclists hopefully returning back to Derry on Tuesday 31st August. Those cyclists confirmed at present taking up the challenge include County coaching staff Chris Collins, Richard Ferris, Diarmuid Scullion and Emmett Stewart. Chris Collins, Derry’s Coaching and Games manager explains the rationale behind the idea, “Currently we have 14 full time coaches in place within our schools throughout the County providing services such as physical literacy coaching to children at key stage 1, Gaelic games coaching to key stage 2 and secondary school pupils, GAA foundation and child protection certification to sixth form students, professional development for teachers and supervisors and, of course, a substantial programme of games and blitzes for players to compete and demonstrate their skills in.
We believe that the schools within our County are an essential element in building future success on the field of play. We therefore see it as a matter of paramount importance that we keep our level of support at the standards we have set over the past twelve months. We have always provided these services free of charge to the schools. Last year Club Derry thankfully funded a Coaching and Games deficit of £42,000. In the current economic climate we understand that everybody is facing constraints, and although we are adamant that we don’t want our schools to suffer, we also don’t want to start charging for our services as the majority of our competitors already do.
As a solution to help ease the financial pressures we have come up with the novel Oak Leaf Cycle Slam with all the proceeds going towards the County School GAA Coaching Programme. We are hoping the school children and the wider public will get behind us and sponsor the cyclists whatever they can afford to help us to consolidate our services for the 2010/11 school year totally free of charge to the schools.”
Chris was also keen to point out that if anyone would like to take part in the cycle they should contact him via email at chris.collins.gm.derry@gaa.ie, “If any cyclist at any level of experience would have time from the 22nd to 31st August and would like to take part in the cycle slam we would be delighted to have them on board. We’ve only just started on the bikes ourselves and are new to the world of lycra so there will be no one out of the depth. I know a few teachers have already expressed an interest to take part which is great.”
Route details, training logs, sponsorship forms and online sponsorship will all be available from the Derry and Club Derry websites www.derrygaa.ie / www.clubderry.org There will also be a live log kept on facebook: www.facebook.com/oakleafcycleslam
Today 4 hurling teams took part in an Ulster vocational schools hurling qualifier at Owenbeg to determine who competes in the Ulster Under 14 finals. Schools from Kilrea, Dungiven, Ballymoney and Buncrana all took part in the day of hurling. 
On Tuesdays after school's Gaelic Football at Termoncanice PS is in full flow with Richard Ferris.
This morning approximately 600 Under 8 footballers from 34 different clubs enjoyed a superb morning of football at Owenbeg. The excitement was there for all to see as some players dawned their beloved club jersey for the very first time.
Today the Club Derry Under 17's took part in their first Ulster blitz of the season. Derry were pitted against Down and Donegal in the blitz that took part in Ballymaguigan.
Tonight in a sunny Owenbeg 56 teams took part in their first Outdoor Go Games blitz of the year. The standard of football on show from the 550 players was excellent, all the players and their coaches keep up the good work!
