A new role created by the Down County Board with the remit to increase Gaelic games participation in the Mournes will be appointed in the next few weeks.
Regarded as a pilot that could be rolled out in many schools, the first GAA Participation Officer will be based at St Louis Grammar School, Kilkeel. It is a two-year role which will be assessed after each year. It is hoped that the successful candidate will begin work at the start of the new school year.
Conor O’Toole, Down GAA’s County Head of Games Development, will oversee the new role alongside the vice principal at St Louis. He believes the role will provide great value for the county.
He told the Mourne Observer, “We see it as something that will massively benefit Gaelic games in the county and particularly in the Mourne area. This is not a reaction to a decline in numbers. Far from it. It is an attempt to raise standards, to bolster and improve numbers, and to complement the great work already taking place both in the school and the surrounding clubs.”
Conor explained the reasoning behind the creation of the role. “Having a full-time Gaelic Games Participation Officer who is not timetabled for classes, for example, will give the postholder a flexibility to really broaden and expand the provision of Gaelic Games in St Louis.”
Whilst the successful candidate’s primary role will be to assist with the coaching and preparation of the various St Louis school teams, they will also enable the school to engage more readily with those kids who are not part of school teams, or who do not want to be part of the competitive teams but still want to play Gaelic games.
“If you have a year group of 100 kids and 30 of them make a school team, of those remaining 70 it is very likely—especially in a place like Mourne—that there are 40 or 50 other boys or girls who are involved in local clubs but are not getting the benefit, per se, of being involved in a school team and receiving the coaching and participating in the games that are associated with that.
“We would be strongly encouraging having developmental teams working underneath the school teams, so that whether kids manage to make a school team or not, there is an opportunity for them to play Gaelic games in whatever capacity they wish to play. That will raise standards in the clubs and the schools and, from our perspective, raise standards in the county.”
In the full article the role is explained more fully, as well as the potential benefits for the local clubs.
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