Roe Valley Learning Community Gaelic Team

Under the ethos of Sharing Education, the partner schools in the Roe Valley have joined together again to field a team in the Ulster Vocational Schools competition. To date many of the activities and ventures through the Sharing Education Programme between the five schools have been curricular and classroom based however this marks one of the many initiatives outside the classroom setting. The team currently fields 6th Year players from Limavady Grammar School, St. Patrick’s College Dungiven, Limavady High School and St. Mary’s and Rossmar. The team have already played Holy Trinity College Cookstown, St. Ciaran’s College Ballygalwey and Sacred Heat College, Omagh. A very striking design incorporating the colours of all five schools was agreed upon and Sports Development Roe Valley has generously sponsored that strip that will be used in all future games. Ollie Mullan said that, “the partnership between the schools of the Roe Valley and Limavady Borough Council is continuing to flourish, particularly in the area of sports” It is a testament to the strength of the Roe Valley Learning Community that young people can now enjoy opportunities to learn together in the classroom, explore life issues together and come together on the sports field – a truly shared future.

Under 10 Go Games Football

Photos are attached from this weeks under 10 go-games. Lavey hosted Magherafelt, whilst Ballinascreen hosted Desertmartin and Swatragh. Bellaghy are hosting Glen and Castledawson tomorrow. The standard of football was very high.

St. Canice Dungiven After School Football

St Canice Dungiven PS After School coaching in Dungiven Sports Pavilion, some very good players to watch out for in the years to come, too many to name individually but they all have a good sound foundation in the GAA.

See photo with Development Officer Richard Ferris

Drumsurn Midnight GAA programme Alcohol & Drug awareness workshop

Drumsurn GAC Midnight GAA programme is nearing an end and on Friday night past (18th Feb) an Alcohol & Drug awareness workshop was held in the club hall by professional tutor Martin Connelly. The night drew great interest with 36 young people turning up, all of which are active on the sporting field. The presentation Martin ran through highlighted areas such as:

Alcohol and Exercise

"If you have alcohol 24 hours before exercising you are more likely to develop muscle cramps."

"After exercising the body needs to be rehydrated. It's not helpful to drink alcohol as it will just continue to dehydrate the body further."

What difference can a couple of drinks make?
What may surprise you is the number of ways the proverbial couple of drinks can affect your performance. If you take your sport seriously, and like to do the best you can for yourself or your team, it's worth knowing the facts and what you can do to drink sensibly.
Endurance

The blood sugar your body needs for energy is produced by the liver releasing glucose into the blood stream. Alcohol reduces your body's ability to produce this sugar, so you have less energy and less endurance capacity.

Remember - "if you were drinking the night before, when the time comes to really dig deep, there mightn't be anything there."

It is also important to remember that drinking before or during exercise can lead to injuries. Alcohol in the body can slow down the healing process leading to an increased recovery time from an injury.

Reaction Times

The relaxant properties of alcohol can flow on into your sport even well after you've finished drinking. Alcohol affects the central nervous system and slows down the information processing ability of the brain. This in turn affects your reactions, co-ordination, accuracy and balance - all the things most important for staying on top in any sport.

Roe Valley Sports Department Development Squad (Gaelic Football)

On Saturday 12th February at Drumsurn GAC, The Roe Valley Development Squad had its first Strength and Conditioning session, learning the proper techniques in strength training exercises with an emphasise on core stability. Each player has a weekly programme to follow to help them become fitter and stronger for the incoming year

The squad will have its next coaching session Saturday 5^th March in Faughanvale GAC 10am. This Squad is still open to other players to join. Contact Richard Ferris on richardferrisgpo@yahoo.co.uk

Improving Standards

On Saturday 5th February, Roe Valley Sports Department in conjunction with the Gaelic Games Development officer Richard Ferris,had its first squad session in Drumsurn GAC 20 players from the clubs in the borough attended a good start. The squad will have coaching sessions, strength & conditioning sessions, information on lifestyle management and will compete in games against Club Derry Development Squads (U16 & U17s) etc. The next session will be a Strength and Conditioning session in Saint Matthew's GAC Drumsurn at 10am on Saturday the 12th of February. This Squad is still open to other players to join.

Under-12 North West Indoor Hurling Competition

For the past 3 weeks, 17 clubs, from 3 counties have been taking part in the North West under-12 hurling competition. The game is played indoors, with full hurling rules. Teams play 5-a-side with teams scoring by striking the ball against the basketball backboard. The first 2 weeks of the competition were seeding rounds held in the Letterkenny Community Centre, The Old Library Trust Hall (Derry City) and Dungiven Sports Pavilion. The final round was held on Sunday past, 31^{st Jan.} The A section finals were held in Dungiven and the B finals in Letterkenny.

Overall the standard of hurling was very good and players were clearly developing as the competition went on. Congratulations to all the clubs, players and coaches for their efforts over the past few weeks. A special word of thanks must go to Donal McLaughlin (chairman of Donegal hurling Board), Emmet Stewart (Derry City GPO) and Shauna McCallion (Derry City GPO) for supervising at the various venues during the course of the competition.

The A final was contested between Kevin Lynchs and Ballinascreen with Kevin Lynchs coming out as worthy winners in the end. In the B finals Kevin Lynchs came out on top again, defeating Na Magha in the final.