Almost 250 young players line out for St Loman's Street League
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The players in this group are the Junior Clare and Kildare teams.Image 2 of 22
The Offaly Junior team.Image 3 of 22
The Sligo Junior team.Image 4 of 22
The Leitrim Junior team.Image 5 of 22
The Laois Junior team.Image 6 of 22
The Intermediate Meath team.Image 7 of 22
The Roscommon Intermediate team.Image 8 of 22
The Down Intermediate team.Image 9 of 22
The Westmeath Intermediate team.Image 10 of 22
The Cavan Intermediate team.Image 11 of 22
The Louth Intermediate team.Image 12 of 22
The Monaghan Intermediate team.Image 13 of 22
The Cork Intermediate team.Image 14 of 22
The Armagh Intermediate team.Image 15 of 22
The Derry Intermediate teamImage 16 of 22
The Donegal Intermediate team.Image 17 of 22
The Mayo Intermediate team.Image 18 of 22
The Dublin Intermediate team.Image 19 of 22
The Galway Intermediate team.Image 20 of 22
The Tyrone Intermediate team.Image 21 of 22
The Kerry Intermediate team.Image 22 of 22
Darren from Kinnegad Candys played a great game in the ice cream van last Wednesday evening, as every young player got a treat from the club. Here Darren is serving Rebecca.It will be no surprise to the large crowd who attended the finals of the Street League at St Loman’s GAA ground last Wednesday evening that it takes a lot of volunteers to make it a success.
The Street League is held on Wednesday evenings in May, and the younger players in the club are organised in mixed teams of girls and boys and named for the counties, so in the finals there were some interesting matches! Mayo played Donegal, Dublin played Galway, Tyrone played Kerry and Armagh played Derry – top teams, all in Mullingar.
Tommy Lambden, underage assistant secretary and lead coach for the U12 boys, led the organising team for this year’s league. "It’s not a one-man thing. We had maybe 15 people in the (Whatsapp) group, and they all played their part. It’s great for the club and we’re in a good position that we have so many kids that we can do this. It’s not every club in the county or the country can do something like this, where you’d have 250 to 300 kids, aged between five and 12 years, down here on a Wednesday night.
"It’s great because you can have brothers playing with sisters, which you can’t do under normal circumstances. It’s for the community and the family and the kids. It’s great to see grandparents, brothers, sisters, younger, older, everyone here. They’re all enjoying the day. We were blessed with the weather, on the last four Wednesdays too."
A lovely part of the finals is the St Loman’s senior players, ladies and men, who give their time to spend the evening with the young players. They take the role of ‘celeb coach’ and in the parade from the changing rooms to the pitches at the start of the evening, they march out with their teams.
"We had about 20 senior players," said Tommy. "We had 10 of the men and 10 of the women. They don’t have to give up their time either. They’re all busy ,they’re all away at college, they’re working, they’re training with various county teams. They put in enough, but it’s great to see them coming down and giving something back.
"The Street League is running for a few years now, so a lot of those celebrity coaches would have been in the kids’ position five, six years ago. It’s great to see them back down as celebrity coaches.
"It’s everything from the top to the bottom of the club. It’s just brilliant."