Underage Football
Under 8's
Under 10's
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Under 14's
Under 16's
Minors
Hurling
Under 10s
Under 12s
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Girls Football
Under 13s
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Schools League
Youth 2004
Youth 2002
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Welcome to Bredagh Youth 2003 - HOME OF CHAMPIONS!
U-12 Football Captain Declan O'Hara raises the East Down A Championship Shield, won by Bredagh on August 30th, 2003. Scroll down for more successes at youth level....
U-14 Hurling Captain Eoin Costello with the Shield won by Bredagh at the 2003 Down Feile...
St Bernards Primary School Captain Conor McCloskey receives the SOUTH BELFAST NEWS Cup from Maria McCourt at the close of the 2003 SCHOOLS LEAGUE, organised by Bredagh....
Bredagh U-10s carried the club flag with pride at the Carryduff Tournament in June 2003, finishing 2nd out of eight teams.
Conor McCloskey with the Magill Cup from the Warrenpoint U-10 Tournament, which Bredagh won in August 2002.
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS IN 2002
DANIEL STARS ON MAY DAY
Under-10 forward Daniel Nolan starred on the Bredagh team that reached the semi-finals of the St Galls P5 Tournament in May.
Here are more pictures from the St Galls P5 Tournament on Monday, May 6th. Bredagh amazed everyone, including their Coaches, by qualifying from their group and reaching the semi-finals of the prestigious tournament.
Manager Damian McCloskey with the team.
Youth Report 2001
U-16s Win East Down B Championship
After a drought of several years, silverware returned to Bredagh when our Under-16s landed the East Down B Championship with a thrilling extra-time victory over Ardglass. As the darkness and mizzly rain fell at Darragh Cross on that September evening, Conor Rafferty kicked the winning point in the 0-13 to 1-9 success, to the delight of his Dad and team mentor Sean Rafferty. The team's other managers, Gerry Conlon and Pat Matthews, also had sons starring on the team. Ciaran Conlon worked tirelessly at half-forward, while goalkeeper Shane Matthews saved a penalty in the first-half.
Team captain was Rory McCaughey, a product of Bredagh's Youth Development Programme, while Man of the Match had to be Paul Alexander, with four points from left-half-back. Another defender, Kieran Murray, scored an inspirational point in extra-time. Henry Deasy battled gamely on with a knee injury, CJ Carson was magnificent, midfielders Michael Thompson and Kieran McArea never gave up the chase, while substitute Chris Donnelly kicked the point that forced extra-time.
Bredagh team: Shane Matthews, Kieran Murray 0-1, Aaron Quinn, Conal O'Neill, Conor Carson, Henry Deasy, Paul Alexander 0-4, Michael Thompson 0-2, Kieran McArea, 0-1, Ciaran Conlon, Rory McCaughey 0-1, Conor Rafferty 0-3, Ian Galway, Nick McKee, Michael Lee. Subs: Chris Donnelly 0-1 for Michael Lee, Paul McGlade for Nick Mc Kee. Subs not used: Conor McCaughey, Paul Milligan, Conor McDaid.
KIDS 'GET A KICK OUT OF BREDAGH'
215 boys and girls took part in a major youth initiative at Bredagh in 2001. The children, all of Primary School age and new to the sport, were coached in the basics of gaelic football on eleven Saturday mornings from April 28th-June 30th. Every child who registered was given a tee-shirt sporting the logo 'Get a Kick out of Bredagh', which was designed by St Michaels PS pupil Colum Coyle. HELM were the main sponsors of the scheme, while Fila provided footballs, O'Neills donated more footballs and jerseys for prizes, BT provided prizes, and there were cash donations from McCormac Physio & Co and the South Belfast News.
The male coaches were led by Eunan O'Brien and Liam McGarry, while other regular helpers were Paul Doran, Bill Gardner, Ciaran O'Keeffe, Cillian Short, Paul McEvoy, Paedar Doyle, and Kieran Kelly. But the big plus for the scheme was the regular attendance of up to one hundred girls, mainly due to the innovative and dedicated coaching of Martina McCafferty's 'A' Team - Mairead Guinness, Maura McArdle, Joanne Lavery, Cathy Gallagher, Paula Evans, Lorraine McCaffrey, Ciara Gallagher and Cera McArdle.
Special guests Paul Brewster, Eilish Gormley, Michaela Downey, Brian Burns (from sponsors HELM), and Arlene McCloskey gave the Scheme a great send off on the final day, while Down gained a new generation of supporters as around 40 county jerseys were either sold or given out as prizes.
There was also a bus trip - 90 boys and girls from the Youth Scheme went to Casement Park to see the Down v Armagh game in the All Ireland Qualifiers. Primark helped to sponsor the trip.
TELEVISION STARS
Young Bredagh players starred in an television advert for the BBC's Championship programme in August. The boys and girls wore a variety of county jerseys to help explain how the new Back Door system worked out.
TEAMS IN COMPETITIONS
Bredagh entered football teams in East Down at four levels - U-10, U-12, U14, and u-16. Most, if not all home games, were played at Cherryvale. Dermot MacGreevy held coaching sessions through the winter and up to the start of the season in April. From then, there were matches on Mondays (u-16s), Thursdays (u-14s) and Saturdays (u-12s), as well as training on Tuesday & Thursday nights at Cherryvale.
Parents once again were an important help with transport throughout the year.
UNDER-10s
There were not as many games as we would have liked. East Down did not provide any formal competitions until September, and even then it was neither consistent nor well-attended. Jerome took a team to play Kilcoo at Teconnaught and we held our own quite well, but Kilcoo informed us that they had played some 30 matches throughout the year. We then took part in a tournament at Loughinisland, where we drew with eventual winners Kilcoo, lost to Bryansford and beat the host side by a big score. Jerome and Nicky took the U-10s to St Peters Lurgan in October, where they enjoyed a superb one-point win, and to St Brides for the last game of the year on Sunday, November 11th.
All in all, the boys got plenty of football with the youth scheme and some games, and there are some excellent players such as Conor McCloskey, the Nolan brothers, Donal Hughes, Emmett Costello, Declan O'Hara and Ryan Johnston, but we should aim to provide more games during the year at this level.
UNDER-12s
Managed by Dermot MacGreevy in the early part of the year, helped by Cillian Short and others. They had some good results and what appeared to be a championship victory over Carryduff, but that result was unfortunately wiped out over a registration problem. Carryduff went on to reach the East Down Final. Jerome took the team from there on, but had great problems in fielding during the month of July, which is something the club might take up with the county for next year. Still, the boys had a few challenge games later in the year as guests of St Endas in Hightown and St Peters Lurgan.
Eoin Costello, Oisin Quinn, Niall Colton, John McKenna and Conal Hughes played very well and St Peters remarked on how well-mannered the u-10s and u-12s were on the visit to their club.
UNDER-14s
Managed by Damien Canavan for the first time, the boys put up some sterling performances and showed well in training. Dermot MacGreevy helped out in the early part of the season and at one match in Cherryvale we had 28 players. However, we did not field in our last game against Carryduff. Kevin Harte emerged as our u-14 Skills winner and a few players attended East Down trials.
UNDER-16s
Gerry Conlon, Pat Matthews and Sean Rafferty successfully moved on from u-14 to u-16 with a great bunch of players who came good with the championship win at Darragh Cross. The managers and players deserve extra credit because of the fact that their season was disjointed because of games being called off here and there. Most of the team will be available again next season, when the team could do with better seeding by East Down when they draw up their league sections - a point for the incoming committee to take up.
YOUTH PRESENTATION NIGHT
The 2000 Youth Presentation Night took place at the end of February at St Bernards PS and was a great success. Bredagh's All Ireland winning ladies players were the special guests and a video was shown of their game in Croke Park. Dermot MacGreevy also put up a picture display and several others helped organise the evening, such as Bill Gardner, James Conlon, Gerry Conlon, Liam McGarry and Seamus Sammon.
Our next Presentation Night is to be in February/March and hopefully at St Michaels PS. All suggestions and offers of help will be very welcome. Members are also asked to support what is a very important evening for the whole club.
NEW KIT
Thanks mainly to a private donation, we were able to purchase a new full kit for the youth teams. Thanks to Ciaran O'Keeffe for his work in getting the kit.
SUMMER CAMP
Bredagh had a good representation at the Down Summer Camp at Lough Moss in August with Richard Vandenboss, Shane McCarron, Kevin Duffin, Malachy Clarke, and Conor Hinds just some of those who attended the whole week. Their photograph appeared in the South Belfast News.
SOUTH BELFAST NEWS
Talking of the South Belfast News, the paper has been a great supporter of the club in 2001 and it is hoped that we can have a regular club notes section in the paper for next season.
SPONSORSHIP
The main sponsor of Bredagh Youth in 2001 was HELM. A link was formed at the start of the year with Sean Sweeney from HELM and his club Newry Mitchels. It is hoped, and indeed it is very much needed, that this sponsorship will continue in 2002.
HURLING/CAMOGIE REVIVAL?
Some of you will know that hurling was played at Bredagh briefly in the 1980s. It has been going for the last two years at St Michaels PS thanks to Mr Tony Dougan, and Ann Costello has started up a camogie club at the same school. The club helped secure equipment for the school, and it is now hoped that Bredagh can compliment the progress by running a hurling/camogie academy in 2002. There are several interested coaches, the boys and girls are very keen (indeed some of them cross the city to play for other clubs), and an application is being made for a grant.
SCHOOLS
As well as the hurling and camogie, Bredagh also helped initiative gaelic football coaching in both St Bernards (for the second year) and St Michaels in the Summer term. The coach was Rory Gardner and the scheme was organised through the schools' parent schools and the Sports Council.
The club feels that this kind of work in the schools and indeed the growing relationship with the schools is vital to the future of both of the club and gaelic games in the area.
THE FUTURE
If we start up a hurling academy, run the youth scheme again, and add a Minor team and a girls football team, Bredagh is in for it's busiest year in a long time. There's also the possibility of a Schools competition sponsored by the South Belfast News.
For all this, we need improved communications and more people. A new website will help, as will proper registration at the start of the year. I have already forwarded a series of proposals for 2002, ranging from a Code of Conduct to plans for attracting more helpers. It is aimed at laying the foundations for a successful year in the next few months.
However, the message is the same as every year - we need strength in numbers and that means help from wherever we can get it. If you are interested in either becoming part of a management team, or in doing any other jobs, no matter how small, please contact me. We need help with registration, updating the website, compiling an email list of players/parents, a youth PRO to liaise with the South Belfast News, someone to help with the presentation night, etc, etc.
And finally…
Watch out for pictures from the Youth Year in the Down Yearbook - out soon.
http://www.jeromegaabooks.com
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