Owing greatly to the development of our basketball and tennis courts in 1992, the St. Michael’s Boys’ Basketball Team are now very strong contenders it the county’s basketball scene. Each year we compete in the Longford National School’s Basketball Tournament. The school’s basketball team consists mainly of boys from 5^th and 6^th classes. Our coach is Ms. Nora Horan.

LONGFORD NATIONAL SCHOOLS’ BASTETBALL
TOURNAMENT 1999.

This tournament was held in the Mall Complex on Saturday and Sunday, 25^th and 26^th of April. We were drawn in Group A with Ballymahon B.N.S. and St. Emer’s NS. Our first match was against Ballymahon , which we won comfortably, 29-8. We were a little more apprehensive facing St. Emer’s. However, with Phelim, Barry, Conor and Stephen getting all the rebounds, and our supersubs Sean and Patrick putting in outstanding performances, we easily overcome the St. Emer’s boys. We played Stonepark in the semi-final. A very tough match indeed!! We won 21-16. Unfortunately, our good run came to an end in the final. We had to succumb to a slightly stronger Melview side, by a margin of only 5 points. We were bitterly disappointed. Coach Ms. Horan was very proud of our display, and we received our runners-up trophies. We’ll be there again next year, and we fully intend leaving the Mall as tournament winners. The team – Phelim O’ Halloran, Barry Gilleran, Stephen Deely, Pauric Brogan, Sean Meenaghan, Patrick Kiernan, Conor Murphy.

Report by Phelim O’ Halloran.

The benefits of swimming for all round fitness have been well documented. Its two main benefits are, 1; as a form of exercise in its own right, and 2; in injury recovery / rehabilitation.

Our school has a very positive attitude towards swimming. We are proud of the fact, that, for the past twenty years pupils from St. Michael’s’ classes, accompanied by their teachers, have attended the weekly sessions in Longford Swimming Pool. Here we wish to acknowledge the support of parents and pupils alike.

Many of our past and present pupils are members of Longford Swimming Club, which is affiliated to the Connaught Branch of I.A.S.A.

Pupils from St. Michael’s’ have the finals of Invitation Galas, Community Games and Irish Schools Finals.

St. Michael’s has a long and proud tradition in both track and field events. In fact, Catherine McKiernan’s manager, Ray Flynn, is a past pupil of ours. Ray also holds a number of national and international titles and records.

In the past two years we have focused mainy on outdoor field events. The season starts in early October and continues until late February depending on the level of the competition.

The preliminary event is held in the Mall. This has aways proven to be both an arduous but most enjoyble competition. The participants are from the town and county region.

Last year we entered two very strong competition teams. We were fortunate that our A Team, Kevin Belton, Conor Murphy, Hughie O’Leary, Peter Brady, Rossa Waldron and Brendan Belton qualified for the Connaught Cross-Country Championships. These were held in Claremorris, Co. Mayo, and the team soared into a triumphant second place. Much to our dismay there was no All-Ireland Final at this level.

This year we were unfortunate not to qualify for the Connaught finals. The team consisted of David Trappe, Hughie O’ leary, Paul Kane, Steven Devlin, Conor Murphy and Michael Gilraine. On the second team was Ciaran Carey, Jonathan Nevin, John Hynes, Aaron Gannon, Patrick Hackett and Francis Gavin. Great effort and stamina proved not to be enough on the day.

Hopefully next year we will have a strong, fit and competitive team. Training twice weekly has proven to be enjoyable and well attended. It is the intention of the school to buy equipment enabling us to participate in more events- javelin, discus, high jump and hurdles.

By Sinead B. Cleary (Trainer).

My name is Stephen Dealy.I live in Abbeycartorn. I am twelve years old. I enloy swimming, gaelic, soccer, hurling and tabletennis. For three years I was a member of Longford swimming club and I represented the club about forty times at galas all over lreland. The events I swam in were backstroke and freestyle and I won over a hundred medals. I am the St. Michael’s goalkeeper in Gaelic football and also play in goals for Longford North, Parkvilla, Teffia Harps and the school soccer team.

School Hurling Team

Our new teacher for 5^th class Mr. Barry is our new hurling coach. He takes students from 5^th and 6^th classes in the Mall after school. About twenty boys go training.

On the 23^rd September they had a hurling bitz in Longford Slashers from ten o’ clock to a quarter past two.