Ó Fiaich College students collect Sky Sports Living for Sport award in London

Students from Ó Fiaich College in Dundalk collected their prizes in London at the weekend after being named as the Project of the Year winner at the Sky Sports Living for Sport Awards.

Broadcast on Sky Sports 1 on Sunday evening, students from the college received the award from the cast of popular TV show Soccer AM.

The hour-long awards show, hosted by Di Dougherty, featured a number of sports stars including Sky Academy Ambassadors Jonny Wilkinson, Thierry Henry, Jessica Ennis-Hill, Darren Campbell and Nick Dougherty.

The Awards celebrate the outstanding achievements of students and teachers in using sport stars and the skills learnt through sport to build life skills in young people as a result of their involvement in the programme.

Sky Sports Living for Sport is part of Sky Academy, a set of initiatives using the power of TV, creativity and sport to help one million young people in the UK and Ireland build practical skills and experience to unlock their potential.

Soccer AM’s Tubes said: “It’s great to present the Sky Sports Living for Sport Project of the Year award to the students of Ó Fiaich College. The project they pulled together inspired all 19 students to better themselves and make the most of their education through sport, and for that they are worthy winners.”

Chloe Rochford from the winning Sky Sports Living for Sport Project of the Year group said: “It’s been a great experience at Sky Studios and for us to win the Project of the Year award tops off an amazing day.

“Sky Sports Living for Sport has helped me and 18 other students improve our attendance and helped us to reach our full potential in all aspects of school life. It’s allowed us to become better people and we’re excited that our project has been recognised as the best in the UK & Ireland.”

The college received the Project of the Year award for successfully setting up a Sky Sports Living for Sport project to encourage positive behaviour and raise motivation levels amongst their students.

With the aim of improving both their fitness and behaviour in 10 weeks, the 19 students met every Wednesday to play a different sport. Rugby Union, football, boxing and tennis all featured in the project and the students’ involvement and enthusiasm throughout was unprecedented.

After 10 weeks and at the end of the project, all 19 participating students had improved their attendance in school and had steered clear of any misbehaviour. One student whose attendance was only 20% before getting involved with Sky Sports Living for Sport was positively affected and did not miss a single day of school throughout the project.

As part of their Award, Ó Fiaich College spent an exciting day at Sky Studios with exclusive behind the scenes access and a special Sky Academy experience. They were joined by other Sky Sports Living for Sport Award winners, including Rory Doherty of St Pius X College, who was named UK & Ireland Student of the Year and Ashley Smith, the Teacher of the Year.

You can watch a clip of the students on Soccer AM here.

O Fiaich College triumph in Sky Sports Living For Sport project

Some of the students from O Fiaich College who took part in the Sky Sports Living for Sport project

O Fiaich College in Dundalk have been announced as the overall winner of the Sky Sports Living For Sport Project of the Year award for Ireland and the UK.

The announcement was made on Sky Sports News yesterday, with students set to collect their awards at a ceremony in London this weekend.

A statement from the school said: “This is an amazing achievement and one which the school are very proud of.

“Considering over 1,700 schools took part in the project, it makes this recognition all the more amazing. The group will now collect their awards on Saturday in London and then meet some world famous athlete mentors. We are all so proud.”

Having noticed an increase in behavioural problems and students lacking motivation and self-belief within school, O’Fiaich College set up a Sky Sports Living for Sport project to encourage goal-setting and raise motivation levels.

At the start of the project, each student set their own goal and outlined how they planned on improving themselves both physically and behaviourally in the coming 10 weeks. Each Wednesday, the group worked on a different sport – from rugby union and football to boxing and tennis – and the students’ involvement and enthusiasm throughout was unprecedented compared with any previous extra-curricular activity the school had carried out.

By the end of the 10 weeks, all 19 students had improved their attendance in school and have since steered clear of any kind of misbehaviour. One student whose attendance was only 20% before getting involved with Sky Sports Living for Sport was particularly affected and did not miss a single day throughout the project.

The valuable like skills which all of the students picked up throughout have been put into practice outside of the project, too, and the whole group now has a more mature outlook on life.

O Fiaich’s Brendan O’Malley was also nominated for the Sky Sports Teacher of the Year award.

Kearney drop goal key as Leinster come from behind to win on his 50th Heineken Cup appearance

Kearney converts his drop goal attempt against Castres on Sunday

Leinster’s Rob Kearney marked his 50^th Heineken Cup appearance in style on Sunday with a man of the match performance away to Castres in the Stade Pierre Antoine.

Despite trailing 14-0 after 25 minutes, the province fought their way back into the game to win by 29-22 in the end.

Key to that comeback were two Jimmy Gopperth tries, followed by a monster 42m drop goal from Kearney that put Leinster in front for the first time.

A Jordi Murphy try completed the comeback with Kearney insisting his side showed great character to ground out the win.

“After those first 20, 25 minutes, we needed to show a lot of character,” the Willville man told Sky Sports.

“Teams that don’t have that sort of character won’t come back from those 14-0 scores. We knew if we kept building, had confidence in our own ability, kept going through some phases.

“We may not be the biggest side in Europe but we will always back our intensity, that if we keep building phases we will break teams down.”

Kearney agreed that Leinster were assisted by having the wind at their backs in the second half but added that ‘we still had to play a huge amount of rugby’.

“There were times there that we were playing out of our own 22, to try build phases and score tries,” he said. “When the opportunity was there and we felt there was a sniff to make some ground with ball in hand, we did that too.”

Commenting on his drop goal, Kearney said: “I’ve kicked some ugly drop goals and that’s certainly up there but they all count.”

Kearney brothers interview to feature on Sky Sports tonight

Rugby star brothers Rob and Dave Kearney’s interview with Sky Sports will air tonight at 8pm on Sky Sports 2.

The interview, which was recorded at the start of the month, will feature on tonight’s Rugby Club programme.

Also being interviewed as part of the Christmas edition of the show are fellow rugby brothers the Youngs of England and the Whitelocks of New Zealand.

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Christmas with the Kearneys

Just about everyone has heard the joke recently about Rob and Dave Kearney having their own show ‘Keeping Up With the Kearndashians’. While that might be but a pipe dream, the Willville brothers are set to feature in a Sky Sports Rugby Christmas special.

Cameras were rolling in Dublin yesterday as Sky interviewed the Leinster and Ireland stars for their Rugby Club Christmas Special, which will air over the Christmas period.

Certainly one for Sky+.

Dundalk boxer Bracken meets Olympic hero Katie Taylor

Katie Taylor signs a pair of gloves for Colm Bracken

It was a “dream come true” for 13-year-old Colm Bracken when he got to meet Olympic champion Katie Taylor yesterday.

Colm was one of a few local students to meet the Bray girl at an event in Dublin to launch the Sky Sports Living for Sport outreach programme.

As an ambassador for the programme, Katie is helping students to learn about teamwork and achieve more at school.

Colm, who also met Sky Sports presenter Rachel Wyse at the launch, is a junior welterweight boxing champion in his own right.

The O Fiaich College student also got a momento to treasure when he received a pair of signed gloves from Taylor.

You can view a video from SkySports, featuring Colm and other O Fiaich students, below: