Young netball stars shine

This year saw an exciting new squad selected as The “North Coast” Regional Development Academy under 13’s. This Tournament took place in the Valley Leisure Centre and this includes squad from Belfast, Southern, Western, South East, North East, and now North Coast.

Trials were held in Loreto College, Coleraine in November 2011 and an amazing 55 girls were put forward from their school to get a place on this new squad. The squad was cut down to 25girls from a range of schools in the North Coast area, Loreto, North Coast Intergrated, Dominican, Coleraine College, Ballymoney High School, Our Lady of Lourdes Ballymoney, Cross & Passion Ballycastle.

Training commenced on 14th December and continued one Wednesday a month from 6-8pm in Loreto College up to 7th May. The girls worked hard in training and this was evident from their success at the Youth Games tournament on 12th May in the Valley Leisure Centre.

Both the ‘A’ and ‘B’ teams played extremely well throughout the day. They were very nervous to start with for their first games, but full of enthusiasm & excitement. As the day went on, they gained so much confidence during matches and they really enjoyed their overall experience.

North Coast A section won against Southern 9-5, North East 10-2, Western 14-2, they lost against Belfast 7-9 & North East 7-9. The girls played fantastic in the last two games, the finals score where so close. A team – Aine Donnelly, Orla Donnelly, CLiodhna Donnelly, Caoimhe Wright, Megan Burns, Emer O’Neill, Aimee McCaw, Orla Roughan, Danielle Graham & Niamh McVeigh (Captain)

North Coast B team section had 2 wins, against North East 3-11, Western 5-4, they lost against South East 9-4 & Belfast 10-3. B team – Leah Dollard, Erin Millar, Darcy Kelly, Kirsty Gillis, Nikki Barkley, Kealey Neill, Cathlin McFaul, Megan Logan, Aoife Boorman, Megan Ennis, Tori McIntyre (captain).

Both Brenda Boyle (head coach) and Leann Penn (assistant) were happy with the teams’ results.