Hockey
Hockey has traditionally been a major sport for the girls of Mount Sackville. Approximately 250 girls play hockey with 16 teams participating in Leinster or North Dublin leagues and cups. Training occurs every afternoon from 4-6pm and each team works with a dedicated coach.
The School's Sport’s Captain, Sophie Boucher, is the 1st Team captain.
The 2012/2013 Hockey Secretaries are Clodagh Fullston, Claudia Boucher and Sarah Hawkshaw.
Interprovincial & International Representatives
In 2012 we had our very own Sarah Hawkshaw representing Ireland and captaining Leinster.
During the summer, she played a number of series with the Irish U18 hockey team playing Germany, Scotland and England. The team then went on the win the Celtic Cup on the 6 - 8 July at Peffermill, Edinburgh beating Wales, Scotland and Switzerland in their path.
Trials then began for the Leinster squad once again. Beginning in September for the interprovincial tournament being held in 3 Rock Rovers in Rathfarnam on the 20th & 21st of October. Not only did Sarah make the squad, she had the honour of captaining the Leinster U18 team. They finished in 2nd place after a physical and mental game against Ulster who won 1-0.
Sarah is currently undergoing trials once again for the Irish U18 team for her final year. This year the Irish team will be playing the European tournament in UCD in early August.
We wish her the very best of luck!
Meet the Captains
Team captains are very important to the successful running of our hockey programme. They are the link between the coach and the players and wear their captain’s armbands with pride. Congratulations to all the captains who are doing an excellent job this year.
Senior 1 Sophie Boucher & Sarah Daly Senior 2 Grainne Marron
Senior 3 Amy Flattery Senior 4 Niamh O’Keefe
Senior 5 Lauren Ingle Senior 6 Shauna Roche
Junior A Anne-Marie Troy Junior B Sarah Toner
Junior C Jenny Best Junior D Carragh O’Donnghue
Minor A Emily O’Neil Minor B Kate Galvin
Minor C Hannah McCarthy Minor D Aoife Dooley
Minor E Cody O’Brien
Meet the Coaches
Mount Sackville is very privileged to have an excellent team of coaches that are recognised for their achievement and coaching ability countrywide. They work cohesively together to achieve standards of excellence, whilst also ensuring players enjoy participating in training and match play:
Ms Una McCarthy Senior 1 & 2
Junior A
Ms Sheila Carroll Senior 3,4,5 & 6
Minor A & B
Ms Mary Taffe Minor C D & E
1st Years
Ms Eileen Ring 1st Years
Junior B C & D
Ms Hilary Hurley 1st Years
At Mount Sackville we are also very lucky to have an excellent fitness coach who has all of the teams prepared for the upcoming season and also helps maintain the fitness of all players on every team throughout the year: Ms Brigid Corrigan
Latest News
March 2013
SENIORS:
Senior 1 through to Semi-Final of the plate to be played on Friday 8th March 2013
JUNIORS:
Junior A through to Semi-Final against Muckross on Wednesday 6th March 2013
Junior B who came out of their League group in 2nd place have their Final against Foxrock on the 7th March
MINORS:
Minor A are up against Alex for the Semi-Final on Tuesday 5th March 2013
Minor C to play Sutton Parks Minor A team in Semi-Final on Tuesday 5th March 2013
Match Updates from 7th January 2013
SENIORS
Senior 1:
Senior 1XI had the best start to the season with 3 league wins back to back over Teresians, Loreto Foxrock and St. Columba's. In early November, we trained like professional athletes, and had 4 days of warm weather training in the lovely city of Barcelona, with plenty of team bonding and fun thrown into the mix, as well as a near attendance to a La Liga game in the Nou Camp home of champions FC Barcelona.
After coming home, we faced the always strong Alexandra College, with the result unfortunately not going the way we wanted. After picking ourselves up, we went head to head against league leaders St. Gerard's and got the result of the season from them, as well as 3 points in the bag.
The coveted Senior Cup eventually came around, after many cancellations with frozen pitches, but sadly it wasn't meant to be, with our old rivals High School coming out on top with the win and the ticket into the next round.
Our final match before Christmas saw us travel to Ballinteer to face Wesley College and after a good performance we thought we would come out with a draw. Unfortunately, with three minutes to go, a well taken short corner found the back board and saw the home side come away with the 3 points.
We play again on Thursday January 10th in an all or nothing encounter against Muckross Park.
By Sarah Daly
Senior 2:
The Senior 2s have had a good season so far and should be proud of themselves. We had a hard first league match against the supposed dominant team, Mount Anville in which we drew 0-0. Following this was a match against St. Gerards where the score was 1-1; another tough match. Things started to pick up when we beat Alexandra College 2-1, which was a well-earned 3 points. This leaves us with 9 points out of 12 in the league so far and we have a big match coming up against St. Andrews which we will be preparing for with hard training over the next two weeks. We have worked hard so far this year and intend to keep it up and perform well training alongside our Senior 1 team.
By Gráinne Marron
Senior 3:
The Senior 3s are a mixture of 6th and 5th year girls. This year we have beaten any team to have crossed our path including St. Dominics, Wesley and Alexandra College. Having beaten the top teams in the league this leaves us in an extremely good position to progress and hopefully make it into a final. Keep up the good work girls!
By Amy Flattery
Senior 4:
Senior 4 are in a Senior 3 league so the matches have been tough. We have lost three matches and won one match in the league. Even though some of the matches have been tough, girls always give their best during every game. We have been playing very well as a team this year.
By Niamh O’Keefe
Senior 5:
This year we have played Tullamore, St. Andrews, High School and Our Ladys Templogue. Out of these four matches we have gained maximum points, leaving us on 12 points so far for the Senior 5s. We hope to keep up our great winning streak and make it all the way to the final this year!
By Lauren Ingle
Senior 6:
The Senior 6’s consists of a lovely and friendly bunch of fourth, fifth and sixth years. We all work as a team for both matches and during training.
So far in the league we have lost against Mount Anville, Loreto College, Rathdown School and St. Andrews leaving us with 0 points. We have been unfortunate in the majority of our matches however the enthusiasm and hard-working spirit of every player has never suffered.
By Shauna Roche
JUNIORS
Junior A
The Junior A team have been playing well all season. They were unfortunate to lose in the 1st round of their Cup to a very good side, St Killians. The league started well as they beat KH but were then unfortunate to loose to St. Andrews and more recently to Gerards. They have yet to face Rathdown and Wesley to give them another chance.
By Anne-Marie Troy
Junior B
The Junior B's had a tough start to the year in our first few weeks back, but luckily they were just friendly matches. We have improved a lot since then both individually and as a team. In our league matches so far we have lost against Alexandra College, we drew with Loreto Dalkey which was one of our toughest matches so far this year, and we won against St Gerard's and Loreto Beaufort. We hope for the rest of the season to continue working hard and with a bit of luck we might bring home a trophy.
By Sarah Toner
Junior C
The Junior C’s have played 3 league matches so far. Two upcoming matches giving them a chance to get into the knockout stages,hopefully! They have played Loreto Dalkey away in October and lost 1-0, they then played St. Gerard's away and won 3-0, and then played KH and lost an unfortunate 1-0. The Junior C’s all play well together as a team of third and fourth years.
By Jennifer Best
Junior D
The D team are finding the league very tough they have won 1 match against High School. There are more matches to play, which will give them a chance to come back in the league. Captain Caragh O’ Donoghue says “we are working very well as a team and if we all keep working well together we can win this league ”.
By Caragh O’Donoghue
MINORS
Minor A
This team is at present the most successful hockey team in the school. With no losses so far and only one draw, the Minor As sit in the leading position of the league tables and are in the quarter finals of the Cup against Mount Anville.
Their toughest matches so far have been against Loreto Foxrock and Muckross who however came out with the win on both occasions.
The team work very well together and are an example of hard work and dedication which is seen in their training and matches. We wish them the very best of luck in their future matches!
Minor B
The Minor B’s have had few league matches yet but are a team that holds great concentration. Recently they played Mount Anville in one of their most testing league matches and came out with a 2-1 win due to their determination and drive with Ellen Gillespie putting away the 2 goals.
Minor C
This is another one of Mount Sackville’s many teams peaking in the Dublin and Leinster schools hockey leagues. With 3 games won and one to play they are in a strong position out of the group stages. Out of these 3 games they have scored 8 goals .
Minor D
All of the D’s matches have been won apart from one scored draw. They have been playing exceptionally and are currently on 8 points in the league.
Jeanarat Flanagan is 2nd at the moment in the schools top goal scorer competition on 5 goals and only 1 goal behind the leader .
Minor E
Luck hasn’t been as much in favour of our Minor E’s. With 2 games played and 2 losses they will have to win their next 2 games to get out of their group. Their first game against Loreto Foxrock ended in a 3-0 loss. Against Kings Hospital we held 90 percent of the possession but were unfortunate to give away a goal and the finishing score was 1-0.
1st Year Christmas Tournament
As the first half of the hockey season was coming to an end, what better way to spend the last cold Friday evening than by playing a Christmas themed tournament? With each first year student being assigned to a team, either Dancer, Prancer, Dasher, Comet, Cupid, Blitzen, Vixen or Rudolf, their inner competitiveness came to the surface as the tournament commenced! Dressed in their Santa hats and reindeer ears it was a close one between Dancer and Dasher. Unfortunately for Dasher, Dancer just scraped the win on goal difference! Well done girls and best of luck in your matches over the next few months!
Senior 1 and 2 Trip to Barcelona
On the 2nd of November 2012, the Senior 1 and 2 hockey teams met in Dublin airport, bright and early in the morning. It was one of the most highly anticipated days of the hockey season: the day we travelled to Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. However, our journey to Barcelona had started long before then.
It was around mid-March when the idea was put forward. Soon after, the team began the first fundraiser with the help of our dedicated coach Una McCarthy. An Easter hockey camp ran for three days during the midterm break in which many players spent some of their holiday coaching aspiring hockey players from the surrounding area. The camp was such a success that a second one took place in August. Cake sales were also part of our fundraising plan. Ms C’s baking was a big hit and her delicious Mars Bar squares were gone in minutes.
Shortly after we started back in school, Ms Ring approached us with the fantastic idea of a fashion show. With our trip right around the corner there was no time to waste and we began the preparations. Within two weeks, the Senior 1 and 2 teams managed to pull together and put on a show that over 300 people enjoyed. Nevertheless, none of this would have been possible if we didn’t have Ms Ring, who kindly dedicated her time and effort to us.
We arrived in Barcelona and with no time to waste, we made our way to our first match of the weekend. We played against a Spanish team for much of the afternoon. It was a beautiful sunny day, the opposite of our usual training climate. That evening we took a short journey on the metro to Gaudi’s famous cathedral “La Segrada Família”.
After a good night’s rest, we went to Club Atlética de Terassa for a long day of matches and training. During our match, we practiced our newly acquired skills against an excellent team. An hour for lunch was much appreciated by every team member after the tough match. Promptly after, we met our coaches for the evening, Frank and Oriol. They played for one of the top teams in Spain. We were taught new skills and played different games which everyone benefitted from.
We gave our thanks to our coaches for the day and returned to the hotel, catching a glimpse of Real Madrid and Barcelona playing in Noucamp on our way. That evening almost two teams squeezed into one room for an evening of team bonding.
The next morning we walked around the corner to Club Polo de Barcelona where we were introduced to Sander Van der Wiede, a former international Hockey player, who played in there Olympic Games. We spent the morning practicing skills, tricks, shooting and attacking. Everyone thouroughly enjoyed the session and we were all delighted to play with such ana experienced hockey player.
A short metro journey brought us to the main tourist area of Barcelona later that day. Las Ramblas is a long pedestrianized road in the heart of Barcelona City. We spent the afternoon wondering down the street, getting souvenirs at the stalls and watching the street performances.
With our suitcases packed, we waved good bye to Barcelona city on the Monday morning. We arrived safely in Dublin airport, exhausted from our weekend of training. The trip improved our ability to play hockey but also brought us closer together as a team and now, we not only trust each other on the hockey pitch but off it as well! The memorable trip to Barcelona was the perfect start to the season of hockey that was in front of us.
More photos can bee seen in the Photo Gallery.
October 2012
Senior Trip to Barcelona
The Senior Squads are heading to Barcelona on November 2nd for what should be a very exciting trip for these two teams. Having won the Leinster Senior Plate competition, The Northside Dublin Junior A League and being runners-up in the Senior Premier Claudia Tierney Final last season, the squad members persuaded Ms Mc Carthy to arrange a trip for these two teams to allow them to play and train together in the pleasant environment of Club Polo De Barcelona.
The players have run two very successful coaching camps for the 1st Year students as fund raisers for this trip and are now gearing up for the Fashion Show on Thursday 11th October.
Sarah Hawkshaw Captains Leinster
Congratulations to Sarah Hawkshaw on being appointed Captain of the Leinster U18 team for the up-coming Interprovincial series which is being held in 3Rock Rovers Hockey Club on October 20/21st. Sarah also played on the Irish U18 team last season and will be looking to make this year's U18 team following the Interprovincials.
TY Coaching Course
Seventeen TY students took time out from their normal timetable to participate in a hockey coaching course for two days last week. Congratulations to all involved and good luck with your coaching and umpiring of our own First Years over the next few weeks.
Goalkeepers Training
Hockey on the Internet
Interested in finding out the latest news about schools hockey, your club's hockey and the international action going on but don't know where to look?
The links below cover every aspect of every sort of hockey happening in Dublin and Ireland:
Irish Hockey Association - the ruling body for hockey in Ireland:
The Hook - Leinster Hockey's only blog, for all the latest news and opinions on hockey:
You can also follow these websites and associations via Facebook and Twitter.
To follow on Facebook:
To follow on Twitter:
