Hazelwood College

Munster Driving Campus

Leaving Certificate Applied students (from left to right) Stephen Coughlan, Alan Murphy, Darren Geary. Padraig O Kelly, Conor Begley, Tara O Leary, Georgina O Sullivan, Chloe Sheehy, Emma O Callaghan & Chloe Sexton on a recent visit to in Mallow. Munster Driving Campus is the only off-road driving campus in Ireland that gives the student all the challenges which they will encounter on our country roads, minus the traffic.

LCA1 students Alan Murphy, Padraig O Kelly, Conor Bagley, Darren Geary, Stephen Coughton, Emma O Callagjan, Chloe Sexton, Chloe Sheehy, Tara O Leary with their certificates having completed an intensive safety awareness course with Munster Driving Campus

LCA Meets Munster DJ Hire

Hazelwood College Leaving Certificate Applied I students, as part of their Enterprise task, invited a guest speaker Mr Paudie Walsh (third from left, seated) to discuss how to establish and run their own businesses. Paudie, a Hazelwood College graduate, set up his own company Munster DJ Hire and was able to draw on his own experiences for his presentation to Leaving Certificate Applied students.

Hazelwood Ladies Crowned Munster Champions

Hazelwood: 5-08
Meanscoil San Nioclás: 1-04

On 17th January 2015, the Hazelwood Senior Ladies’ Football Team were crowned Munster Champions after a tough battle with Meanscoil San Nioclás from An Rinn, Waterford. The match was played in Glanworth, Co. Cork, and heavy underfoot conditions and bitter cold proved challenging for both sides.

From the whistle, it was clear that both teams had similar intentions, and it took 12 minutes for the first score to be registered on the board, after Laura Stack finished a good passage of play from Hazelwood forwards with a point. It wasn’t long before Meanscoil levelled the score after a pointed free. Hazelwood pulled away in the next 10 minutes with points from Tara Fitzgibbon and Laura Stack, and Cliona O Callaghan found the net to give Hazelwood a five point lead. Meanscoil responded well and scored two points in reply. With 5 minutes left in the opening half, both sides were pushing for scores before half time and Hazelwood were rewarded for their efforts with a point from the left boot of Cliona O Callaghan and a goal from Emily Rose Mulcahy giving them the advantage at half time. The half time score read 2-4 to 0-3 points in favour of Hazelwood.

After being refreshed at half time, both sides took to the field for the second half. Meanscoil had a better start to this half, and began putting pressure on the Hazelwood girls. However, having failed to convert all of their chances they only scored one point in their 10 minute purple patch. Hazelwood found their feet again after points from Katie McCarthy and Tara Fitzgibbon, but Meanscoil quickly responded with a well taken goal after dividing the Hazelwood defence. This left 5 points between the sides, and Meanscoil had the crowd’s support and the momentum entering the final quarter. The Waterford side had several chances to reduce the deficit, but missed frees as well as two top drawer saves from Hazelwood goalkeeper Rebecca McGuinness prevented them from clawing their way back. Hazelwood took advantage of Meanscoil’s inaccuracy, and with 8 minutes left on the clock, Hazelwood hit 3 goals in 3 minutes to finish the game as a contest, one from Katie McCarthy and two from Laura Stack. As the Meanscoil girls’ heads dropped, Hazelwood thoughts turned to celebrations as Laura Stack pointed from play and Chloe O’Brien finished the game with a superb point after an individual run of the length of the field. When the final whistle blew Hazelwood players and supporters rejoiced, with the Munster title heading to Dromcollogher. The final score read 5-08 to 1-04.
Cliona O Callaghan was awarded Player of the Match and Jerome Casey, Munster Treasurer, presented the cup to Hazelwood Captain Ciara McCarthy. On behalf of the team, Ciara thanked referee Shaun Cronin, manager Tom Halpin, coach Moss McCarthy and assistant coach Siobhán McCarthy. This was a well-deserved win for the girls, as they trained very hard, even twice over the Christmas holidays! Hopefully more silverware will come their way throughout the year.

Scorers: Laura Stack (2-03), Cliona O’ Callaghan (1-01), Katie McCarthy (1-01), Emily Rose Mulcahy (1-00), Tara Fitzgibbon (0-02), Chloe O Brien (0-01).

Team: Rebecca McGuinness, Claire Sweeney, Ciara McCarthy, Meadbh McCarthy, Cathy Foley, Chloe O Brien, Norma O Sullivan, Bríd Flanagan, Megan Fitzgibbon, Sarah Shanahan, Tara Fitzgibbon, Cliona O Callaghan, Katie McCarthy, Laura Stack, Emily Rose Mulcahy.
Subs Used: Áine Cunningham, Ellanna Mulcahy, Briana O’ Connor, Aoife McMahon, Marie Danaher.
Subs: Donna Mulcahy, Sharon Carmody, Emma Sheehan, Sarah Sheehan, Róisín Cunningham, Ava Mullane, Laura Enright.

Picture 1: Back Row (left to right): Mr Tom Halpin, Roisin Cunningham, Sarah Sheahan, Laura Stack, Bríd Flanagan, Cathy Foley, Emma Sheehan, Sharon Carmady, Rebecca McGuinness, Claire Sweeney, Katie McCarthy, Medhb McCarthy, Cliona O’Callaghan, Norma O’Sullivan, Laura Enright, Donna Mulcahy, Moss McCarthy, holding Muiris McCarthy aloft. Front Row (left to right): Briana O’Connor, Marie Danneher, Ava Mullane, Tara Fitzgibbon, Emily Rose Mulcahy, Ellana Mulcahy, Áine Cunningham, Chloe O’Brien, Ciara McCarthy, Sarah Shanhan, Megan Fitzgibbon and Aoife McMahon

Picture 2: Pictured from left to right Ciara McCarthy, Mr Tom Halpin coach of the Hazelwood College Senior Ladies’ Football team and Sarah Shanahan.

Picture 3: Hazelwood College’s Cliona O Callaghan being presented with her Player of the Match trophy by Paul Murphy

Picture 4: Hazelwood College Senior Ladies’ Football captain Ciara McCarthy (left) being presented with the cup by Jerome Donovan

Picture 5: Pictured from left to right Hannah dePaor, captain of Mean Scoil, referee Mr Sean Cronin and Ciara McCarthy, captain of the Senior Ladies’ Football team

Athletics News Roundup

Hazelwood College Athletic First Term Round Up

The first term was a very busy and what turned out to be a very successful one for the Hazelwood athletes. The season kicked off with the Munster Schools Indoor Combined Events. This event requires the athletes to compete over five events, after which their points would be tallied. Hazelwood had four athletes compete at the competition, Kevin O Leary, Laoise Bennis, Gerard O’Donnell and Alison Healy, all four athletes competed very well, all four had personal best performances; Alison got a personal best in the Hurdles in a time of 11.55 and the shot, where she threw 7.06m. This was Gerard O Donnell’s first time doing this competition, but he performed admirable, achieving personal best in the 60m hurdles (12.14 seconds) , the 800m (2:41.5) and the 200m (28.30 seconds). Kevin O’Leary was competing his first year U17 so had a stiff competition to qualify. He ran close to his personal best in the hurdles (9.25 seconds) and ran a new personal best in the 200m (27.20 seconds), the hurdles bagging him close to a massive 700points. Laoise Bennis was on form on the day and despite suffering with shin splints she got 4 personal bests out of the five events: Hurdles (10.09 seconds), shot (7.15m), high jump (1.55m) and the 800m (2:43.7 min). This fantastic performance was enough to secure her first place as Munster Champion and secured her qualification for the Irish School Combined Events Finals in Athlone IT. Despite their fantastic performances Kevin, Alison and Gerard all narrowly missed out on qualification.

Laoise went on to compete in the Irish School Combined Events Finals in Atlone IT International Arena on Saturday the 15th of November. With a place on the national team for the top four places at stake, Laoise opened the completion well, reducing her personal best over the hurdles to 9.93 seconds. Next up was the shot putt where she had a solid throw of 7m. However, issues with her run-up on the long jump meant she only got 4.39m with 2 foul jumps close to 5m. A consistent jump in the high jump of 1.54m meant that she was going into the 800m in fifth place and a real chance of getting onto the national team. But some fantastic runs from her competitors meant that she finished in eighth place. Despite her narrow miss, it was a fantastic achievement.

Among the most impressive results of the first term were those of Noelle Lenihan, who competed in the Cork and Waterford para game. Noelle competed in the shot putt, discus and javelin, winning gold in all events. The most impressive aspect about her in that the games are open to all ages and, as 15 year old, she had to compete against adults to secure her medals. Noelle is now waiting for classification to be able to compete in further para games, with the possibility of making the national team and representing Ireland in international competition.

On the 21st of October, a group of 38 Hazelwood athletes travelled to Fota Wildlife Park to compete in the Munster Schools Orienteering League. This was the first time that Hazelwood had competed at the competition, so much was learned by many of those competing. Hazelwood’s best finishers, on what turned out to be an extremely wet and windy day, were Amy O Sullivan and Rosin Normoyle who did fantastically to finish in seventh and eighth places respectively in the First Year Girls’ Competition. Cory Knipe and Douglas Woolam came in fourteenth and fifteenth place in the Second Year Boys’ Competition. Hazelwood’s athletes faced crowded fields, manned by more experienced athletes, so this was an excellent result for compete beginners and bodes well for future orienteering events.

With an action packed first term packed with some fantastic performances, the second term look promising. This term we have the cross country, outdoor schools and more orienteering action.

Watch this space.

Picture 1: Laoise Bennis with the gold medal for first place in the Munster Schools’ Indoor Combined Events.

Picture 2: The Hazelwood College team who participated in the Munster Schools’ Indoor Combined Events. Pictured are (left to right) Alison Healy, Laoise Bennis, Kevin O’Leary and Gerard O’Donnell.

Picture 3: Hazelwood College’s Noelle Lenihan with the three gold medals she won in the Paralympic Games Cork Regional Final and the three medals she won in the Paralympic Munster Finals, which she won for Discus, Shot Putt and Javelin.

Picture 4: Hazelwood College’s Athletics team which travelled to Fota Wildlife Park to compete in the Munster Schools’ Orienteering League. Hazelwood College students Amy O’Sullivan and Rosin Normoyle came seventh and eighth respectively in the First Year Girls’ Competition while Corey Knipe and Douglas Woolam came fourteenth and fifteenth respectively in the Second Year Boys’ Competition

Hazelwood Shines at Munster Schools Multi Events

Hazelwood College Shine at Munster School Multi Events.

Recently, four of Hazelwood College’s top athletes made the trip to Nenagh to compete in the Munster Multi Events Competition. Our four competitors were Laoise Bennis, Kevin O’Leary, Alison Healy and Gerard O’Donnell under the guidance of teacher and coach Mr. Kevin Grant.

First up were the boys. Their competition consisted of a 200m sprint, 60m hurdles, long jump, 800m and shot put. Gerard O’Donnell was competing in his first Multi Events and throughout the day his inexperience did not show as he performed very well in all events and was unlucky not to qualify for the All-Ireland series. Kevin O’Leary competed in the Intermediate Grade for the first time and was running against students two his senior. However this did not stop Kevin from putting in a very solid performance throughout, securing bronze medal place in the 60m hurdles, his favourite event.

Next were the girls, whose competition consisted of high jump, 60m hurdles, long jump, 800m and shot put. Hazelwood’s two female athletes, Laoise Bennis and Alison Healy, were taking part in the same grade. Alison, like Kevin, was significantly younger than the majority of her competitors, but put in some excellent performances throughout the day, especially in the long jump. Next year with age on their side and more training these two athletes will definitely be towards the top of the placings in the competition. Last, but not least, was Laoise Bennis, a very technical and experienced athlete. She performed exceptionally well all day, winning her favourite event, the high jump, and was placed highly across the board in all events. When scores were counted, Laoise Bennis was victorious in the Intermediate Grade age group. This was a fantastic result for Laoise and we now wish her the best of luck in the All-Ireland series. Hazelwood’s athletes will now turn their attention to cross country competitions, which take place soon.

Picture 7 is of Laoise Bennis, Hazelwood College, who won the gold medal at the Munster Schools’ Multi Events Competition for Intermediate Grade.

Picture 8 Hazelwood College Athletes who participated at the Munster School’s Multi Events Competition. Pictured are (from left to right) Alison Healy Laoise Bennis, Kevin O’Leary and Gerard O’Donnell.