Secretary’s Report to Ballymacelligott GAA Club AGM 7th December 2003.

Réamhrá:

Bhí bliain mhaith ag Cumann Peil Baile Mhic Ealagóid i 2003 agus ag féachaint romhainn tá an Chumann dó chasach in a lán slithe. Bhi bliain ana mhaith ag ár bpeilidoirí óga agus tugann sé sin dóchas duinn. Bhi cluichí breá, bríomhar spóirtúil againn i mbliana i gach aois agus dheineamar ár dhiceall an peil a fhoirbairt mar is cóir.

The year under review was another busy and successful one for Ballymacelligott GAA Club. All our competitions with the exception of Tralee Town Board have been completed. For the football lover it was a great year as we had a choice of games to watch all year in our own ground and simply that is what we are about. Sadly Ted O’Keefe our former chairman died in March this year. This club was his life and I am sure he was close to us all year especially when the blue and gold played at home.

This was my first year as Secretary of Ballymacelligott GAA Club and it was a pleasure to work with all personnel at every level in the Club. I want to thank all the players and management teams for their cooperation and help all year. I wish to especially thank Mike Sweeney for his help and guidance, I needed his vast Secretarial experience many a time and his honest advice is greatly appreciated.

Senior Team
Our Chairman John DeLacy dealt with the senior team all year and his report is attached. The team had its ups and downs all year and we know the roads of South Kerry well after this summer. We were lucky to stay in Division Two of the County League and we had some highs and lows on the way. Hopefully we can build on this next year and play consistently and contend for promotion in 2004. We started the year with a lot of injuries and a lot of last year’s players were looking on for a lot of the year due to this. It was good to see Gene O’Keeffee and Kieran Savage back after recovering from serious injuries. It takes a lot of courage and determination to return from such injuries and we admire their commitment. Congratulations to our player of the year for 2002 Dominick O’Shea who got married at the end of the Season. Dominick has given exceptional service to our club and we wish Dominick and Kathy every happiness.

The management team for 2003 was:
Trainer: Jimmy Fitzgerald
Selectors: Jimmy Fitzgerald, DC O’Keeffe and DD O’Rahilly.
Kieran O’Callaghan was to continue taking the team for physical fitness.

Minor Team
This was not a great year for our minors. They did not have a lot of joy in the County League. Injuries marred the year with key players sidelined for a lot of games. This must be the toughest age group to train and we had difficulty in getting the entire panel to train and give full commitment during the year.
The minor team mentors for 2003 were: Dennis O’Connor, Tom O’Shea, Paul Sugrue and Nealie O’Sulivan

Junior Team
Our junior team had a very good year and reached the semi-final of Division 2 of Junior League. There never was a problem with players and all gave great commitment. Enjoying playing was good and winning was better. The junior team was used as an experiment for the text message notification that I mention later and it worked well. I want to especially thank John Brosnan and Ger Collins for their cooperation and communication all year. The B Team mentors for 2003 were: John Brosnan, Ger Collins and Liam Galvin. John Brosnan’s report on the year’s work is attached.

St. Kieran’s
St Kieran’s is the team for all our top players. It’s all players’ ambition to win a County Championship medal and for Ballymacelligott players St. Kieran’s is the team that gives this opportunity. Our Club was privileged to have Liam O’Sullivan captain the St. Kieran’s side this year. Both Liam and Paul Galvin played pivotal roles in all St. Kieran’s team that was trained by Timmy Brosnan. Success was not theirs this year and we wish St. Kieran’s every success in 2004.

Bord Na nÓg
I wish to briefly mention our dynamic Bord Na Nog. Maurice O’Reilly its tireless secretary will give his own detailed report to its AGM. I wish to compliment all the personnel involved. We are lucky to have such a vibrant underage structure in the Club. We thank all the parents who support us in various ways during the year and especially all the fathers we have as mentors around our underage teams. We are lucky to have them and that they give so much of their leisure time to us. We are reaping the rewards of their unfailing commitment: winning the U12 and U16 County League was exceptional and our U14 were runners-up. Many fathers give us eight years as mentors/coaches while their sons play in our underage structure. This structure has served us well and we thank them and their families sincerely for the time and commitment given to Ballymacelligott GAA Club.

In the latter part of the year we got some hurlers training every Sunday morning under Mike O’Donnell. It was great to see hurling being played in the club grounds. We hope this will continue and continue to prosper into the future.

Tony Riordan who has been involved in Bord Na nÓg for years was taken ill during the year and we were delighted to see him back in full form at the end of the season.

Sports and games have been important to cultures all over the worlds for centuries. It is acknowledged that team sports are especially important for children as it helps them stay physically fit, learn to interact with their peers and mentors. The benefit to the players of organised physical training and games is not to be underestimated. Thankfully we continue with this tradition in our Club with a very strong Bord na nÓg that offers training and games to boys and girls from under 8s upwards. The benefit to children of organised physical training and games is not to be underestimated.

The club took the decision to take our juvenile medal presentation away from licensed premises earlier this year. I fell this was a very bold and strong move. We acted with the best possible motive and the club executive is to be complimented on this. Nationally the move away from licensed premises for all minor and under presentations and celebrations is now taking hold.

 

Scór
The Club Scór was organised and ran by Tom Herlihy for 2003. We thank Tom and all the representatives for their time and sharing their talents with us Ballymacelligott was represented in three disciplines in Senior Scor in 2003.

We congratulate them all and thank them continuing the tradition of representing the club in Scór.

Referees
We now have four referees. We started off with Ger Collins and Jeremiah Lynch who give great service to our club and county. Having attended County Board training Denis O’Regan and Stephen McSwiney joined them earlier this year. Our games are dependant on referees and we are blessed with four hardworking referees. In all our referees have refereed over 60 games all year. Umpires and linesman from the Club have ably assisted our referees at home and away all year. We wish to thank them for all their work as well as their unfailing commitment to our Club.

Coaching and Games Development .
Ger Collins and Kieran Savage attended a senior training course run by Coiste Chontae Chiarraí.
Ger Regan and Jeremiah Lynch attended U16 and minor training course run by Coiste Chontae Chiarraí.
Kerry Coaching and Games ran a foundation level course over two nights in our clubhouse for all our underage mentors.
I have one reservation about the timing of the Senior and minor training courses. Our senior team had commenced training so we could not have the attendance required. Hopefully these courses will be run earlier in future and before teams recommence training for the new season.
We had hoped to run two weeks Summer Camps and it did not come to fruition and it is hoped that we can get it up and running next summer.

Development and Maintenance of Club facilities:
Our chairman John DeLacy has been in charge of our field and development again this year. John gives a lot of his time to every aspect of the club and ensuring the filed is well maintained takes up a lot of it. Our grounds always look well and we thank John and his team of helpers for this work. John also has been the person that arranges the timetable of games at the field. Our club, district and county boards as well as colleges and Cumann Na mBuncscoil use our grounds. This year we had the Under 14 County Development Squad, which included five of our own club players for four Saturdays. We have had no clashes of games all year and the secret to this is to have one person in charge that knows what games are being played.

We also got new juvenile goal posts and nets during the year. Next year we hope to do the same at senior and get our nets in place for 2004!

This year again we are very grateful to Joe Moynihan and his team of FAS workers for the work they have done at our grounds. Their top class craftsmanship, attention to detail and work ethic ensures that we get a lot of good work done each year. This year they put in a new kitchen for us so that we now have a kitchen/reception room. They also sheeted and painted our viewing stand and this makes a big difference to the comfort of our spectators.

They also painted and generally did a great maintenance job. We sincerely thank them for their work and commitment to us during 2003.

Finance:
The Clubs finances were well looked after this year by Siobhan O’Keeffee, Maurice O’Reilly and Willie Costello. The three worked exceptionally well together and kept the finances in good order. Siobhan has kept meticulous records all year on a very good computer package. A lot of work goes into recording all monies that come in and goes out in our Club today.
Willie collected the membership, Player Injury and all the finances in relation to the golf classic. Membership is a particularly difficult task and hopefully members will not need to be prompted too often this year.
Maurice took charge of the lotto all year. He did an excellent job of keeping track and coordinating the lotto each week. He had an excellent team of sellers and team leaders that ran the lotto each week. The lotto is our one regular income and we especially thank Maurice for all the exceptional hard work and commitment he gave to it all year. It’s a job that has to be done every week and we thank everyone involved for his or her support.
Our three treasurers work very well as a team and showed us the way in collective responsibility all year. Their work all year is a credit to all three.

Golf Classic
Denis O’Connor, Denis Regan and John Lyons organised and ran a marvelous Golf Classic for the club this year. Willie Costello took charge of all the financial side of the classic and did a superb job. A lot of hard work and time went into the organisation of this much-needed fundraiser. Once again we are thankful to all our sponsors for their generosity especially Finnegan’s Restaurant, Denny Street, Tralee that sponsored the classic. It was great to see so many people getting involved and helping out in many different ways. We sincerely thank them all for the marvelous work done prior to, during and after the event. Not only did the Golf Classic raise much needed funds-it also did a very good PR job for the Club. The leadership shown by both Denis’s also generated great team spirit and it was a joy to see this particular sub committee in action.

Communication:
Our PRO Stuart DeLacy ensured that detailed club notes appeared in the local newspapers all year. This was continuous all year and we thank him for all the work done for fifty-two weeks of the year.
Posters were printed and distributed locally for games and lotto results each week.
We used text messages to keep members informed of games and other highlights during the year.

County Board :
Michael Savage was our County Board Delegate for 2003. Michael attended all County Board meetings and reported back to our committee following each one.
He accepted the County Boards condolences following Ted O’Keeffee death and spoke eloquently on the great contribution Ted made to our Club at the April County Board meeting.
The County Board set up a sub committee to look at Minor Competitions in the County and asked all Clubs for suggestions.

A questionnaire was issued and we completed it. We suggested that The County Board prioritize by organising more Games at County Level at a better time, have a look at the East Kerry set up at Minor level, which appears to work very well and use this as a template if necessary. A full discussion took place on this important matter at the last County Board meeting and our delegate represented us.

Kerry reached the All Ireland semi-final and we fulfilled all requests for tickets for all games. I wish to thank Eamon O’Sulivan, Runaí, Coiste Chontae Chiarraí for his help and courtesy when dealing with ticket requests for this club all year.

Use of Information Technology

I would like to see email correspondence next year between our local schools and us. This would help us all in many ways.
All in all our club is to the fore in the County as far as IT is concerned and I wish to thank Tommy O’Donnell for all his help and suggestions during the year.

Code Of Conduct
The club executive drew up a code of conduct this year. This was the subject of long discussion and we were happy with the final draft that was issued to all underage players and their families.

We had a very good disciplinary record on the field at all ages this year and I am proud to say that I did not attend one disciplinary hearing on behalf of the club.

Social 2003.
The Club Social took place on Friday 24th January at Ballingarry House Hotel. Looking back this social has sad and sweet memories for the club. It was a very good night that was enhanced by the presence of Ted O’Keeffe our former chairman. Also present was Dan Culloty who was Teds inseparable companion at games and GAA functions for years. The setting was Ballingarry House where Teds and our Clubs longstanding friend Eoin McGillcuddy reigned. Sadly all three have left us since then. May they rest in peace.

AIB Club Of The Year
This year we entered for the Allied Irish Banks Club of the year award. There are two special prizes this year. One for small clubs (Up to two adult teams only), and one for large clubs. Each prize will be to the value of €3,000 and all clubs who submit an application form will be entered into the draw in the separate categories. A winner will be selected in each County. The winner will receive a commemorative certificate and a €2,000 development grant.

Trustees
The Munster Council asked all clubs to update their Trustees to include a Trustee from The County Board and Munster Council. At present our Solicitor is in the process of updating the deeds. This is a slow process and we hope it will be completed in early 2004.

Sponsors
Our main sponsors are McMahon’s and once again we thank them and Denis O’Connor for their sponsorship and loyalty to our Club. Curran Brothers Painters and Decorators have continuously sponsored our Lotto tickets. We have had other sponsors during the year-all are mentioned by our Treasurers. We thank them all for helping us promote football in our Parish.

Local Community
Once again this year we had Community Games competitions and training in our grounds. This was enhanced by the presence of our World Champion Hill racer John Lenihan who trained the children for Athletics. John traveled to Alaska and took part in the World Hill racing championships.

Congratulations to Maria Daly, Sharon Twomey, Ashley Prendiville and Sandy McSwiney of Ballymacelligott Handball Club who won five World titles and two runners up at the World Handball Championships earlier this year.

Both Kielduff and St Brendan’s Community Centres have been very generous to us with equipment and facilities down through the years. All of these local communities have links with us through their athletes and working personnel. In our Community the old saying is very true: “Ar scáth a chéile a mhaireann na daoine”

Conclusion:
Every year brings new and different challenges to our clubs. Next year we will embrace the Irish Sports Council Code of ethics on dealing with children. We have to be mindful of having plenty of mentors around all underage teams. We invite all parents to get involved and help especially at underage.

Our Club is about football and promoting it on a voluntary basis. All our players, officials, mentors, coaches and administrators do the work for the club voluntarily. Our volunteers do all this work while they hold full time “day jobs”. We have to be mindful of this. The increasing demands of “day jobs” limits our availability for voluntary work. Ideally we should have a bigger team of workers will less work for each individual.

This year we had a very diverse committee that I feel worked very hard in various areas to help promote and ensure that all our players played football. Our chairman John DeLacy worked very hard all year with everyone to ensure that we all worked to our best to achieve this goal. John has delegated well and keeps himself well informed as to what is happening in every area of the club. He is always available to lend a helping hand no matter what the job.

We are indebted to all our volunteers for their contribution big or small to the running of our club. Every little helps from selling a lotto ticket to supporting our teams. We also wish to thank all the family members of those who give so much time to Ballymacelligott GAA Club. It is appreciated.

We need everyone and the more helpers we have the less work overall.

Go raibh mile maith agaibh go léir.