Douglas Community School athletes continued their outstanding Cross-Country season with some great individual and team performances at the Munster Schools Cross-Country Championships at Cork IT recently. The course proved to be a big hit with the athletes with plenty of fast running. First into action were the minor boys over 2000m where the DCS team had a superb team win with 29 points. The team had six athletes finish in the top 15 and easily won the team title. Jack O’ Mahony led the team home in a superb 3^rd with other great runs from Liam Harris 5^th, Kevin Horan 9^th, Alan Horgan 12^th, Jamie O’ Connell 13^th and Luke Varian 15^th. The junior boys raced over 3,500m and the race of the day came from Brendan Couch who eventually finished a superb 5^th. Brendan has come into great form in recent weeks and continues to get stronger. Behind him the team battled hard with Daniel Mason, Fintan Cadogan, Paul Lehane and Eric O’ Neill all having good runs to get the team into 6^th place. The intermediate boys team lined up in their 5000m with high hopes.  They produced the goods, winning the team title easily with 45 points.  The ‘B’ team came 3^rd with 93 points. Mark Seacy had his best race to date finishing a superb 5^th and with other great runs from Ian Tobin 12^th, Emmet Bracken 13^th, Andrew O’ Keeffe 15^th and Jamie Sullivan 16^th Douglas Community School had a great team win. Finally the senior boys’ race over 6000m proved to be a one-sided affair with Shane Quinn running away from the field. Patrick Coleman had a fine 2^nd place, running on his own for the whole race. With great runs by Cullen Lynch 7^th, Alan O’ Brien 11^th and Brian Murray 15^th DCS easily won this team title also. The team was without their 2^nd scorer in Peter Hanrahan, but will have him back in action in two weeks time. Douglas Community School also had the added bonus of winning the best overall school cup for the 5^th consecutive year.

Steven Macklin

Douglas Community School athletes competed in the latest leg of their Mile Challenge series recently at Cork IT track. The first year race was won by Jack O’ Mahony with a superb time of 5.34 and he was followed home closely by Liam Harris 5.38, Kevin Horan 5.42 and Jamie O’ Connell 5.43. Other great runs came from Luke Varian, Rory Barry, Stephen Cotter and Declan O’ Herlihy. In the older race Cullen Lynch had a fine win in 4.52 with other superb runs coming from Ian Tobin, Mark Seacy, Andrew O’ Keeffe, Billy Murphy and Jamie Sullivan. Next up for the athletes is the Munster Schools Cross-Country Championships in Cork where the school aims to retain the best overall school cup for the 6th consecutive year.

Steven Macklin

U16 A team

After having a very successful year in second year the school was upgraded to A level school. This was going to be a challenge for the school teams. First to play was the U16 team. The boys started a heavy training schedule training at 7.30-8.30 twice a week and on afternoons each week. The national league coach from Blue Demons offered to help with the trainings as his son Alex started to play with the school.

In our pool we played St Aidan’s and Crosshaven away. St Aidan’s game was the first of the session. The boys started badly, letting the opposition run in easy layups and take a substantial lead. In the second half Peter Mullane, Klaus Ozolins, Alex D’Alessio, Darragh Fleming and Kiran Chopra found their form and played solid defence. The baskets finally started to drop, in the end the team only lost by five points.

The Crosshaven game was a great defensive game. On offense we fought for every basket. Fast breaks then saw Darragh, Klaus, Alex, Kiran and Peter run in some easy scores. It was great to see dedicated players like Kevin O’Leary, Simone Alade and Robert O’Reilly getting some court time. Douglas won convincingly in the end.

After the pool the team qualified for the semi-final, where we had to travel to Ballincollig to face Colaiste Choilm. The team played well, playing strong defence and attacking well also, but Colaiste Choilm were too strong for our young side. The Douglas team never let themselves down with Peter Mullane putting in a very impressive performance.

U19 team

As we only had 4 players playing U19 this year we decided to play challenge matches and prepare for next year.
Our first challenge match was against Crosshaven, it was great to see Stephen Neville and David Barrett don a school jersey. Michael Keating had his greatest game ever for the school scoring from all angles and making some great steals. We hope to have a Blitz later in the year for these players.

Rosanne O’Callaghan

Seven of the schools athletes and coach Steven Macklin travelled to Italy to take part in the IAAF Cinque Mulini International Cross-Country at the end of January. The athletes took part in the youth 6km race for those born in 1993/1994 and raced to a superb team win, with 6 athletes finishing in the top 18. The races were held in the town of San Vittore Olona just outside Milan on a wonderful course. The course proved a big hit with the athletes with fast sections, small sharp banks and a trip through some old historic mills. The seven athletes took to the line in the youth 6km race in confidant fashion. The pace was very fast from the start and Patrick Coleman settled into the break away group of six athletes. He battled well throughout and was rewarded with a superb fourth place finish in 19.51, just six seconds from a podium place. Behing him the team had a great run, with Cullen Lynch and Ian Tobin having a wonderful last lap battle, eventually finishing ninth and tenth respectively. Mark Seacy had a fine run to come home in 13th and with other superb runs from Andrew O’Keeffe 15th, Jamie Sullivan 18th and Emmet Bracken 26th they easily won the team event. Well done to all the athletes, who had an experience I am sure that will stand to them for the World Schools Championships in April.

Steven Macklin

Douglas Community School athletes finished their 2009 Cross-Country season with some more outstanding performances at the All-Ireland Uneven Ages Cross-Country Championships held at the University of Ulster Coleraine recently. First into action was the u13 team in the boy’s 1200m race. There was chaos at the start of this race resulting in our six-man team left standing on the line while all the others took off before the gun. The team chased courageously but could not make up the ground. Jack O’ Mahony finished a great 40^th and Liam Harris 51^st considering the start. Other great runs came from Rory Casey, Stephen Cotter, Rory Barry and Luke Varian. Next into action was the u15 team racing over 20000m. Eoin Bourke led them home with a superb 16^th place finish and he was ably assisted by Billy Murphy 43^rd and other super runs from John Durcan, Brendan Couch, Alan Ring and Jamie O’ Connell. The team came a very creditable 6^th.

All-Ireland u13-u19 Cross-Country Coleraine, December 2009.

In the u17 4000m Patrick Coleman made their intentions clear from the gun where he joined a group of 9 runners who broke away from the rest of the field. Patrick kept in touch with the leaders but couldn’t stay with them on the last hill. He raced to a great 6^th place and behind him the team was battling hard to retain their All-Ireland title. They were missing there 4^th and 5^th scorers in Ian Tobin (13^th u16 All-Ireland) and Emmet Bracken (14^th u16 All-Ireland) but all the others really stepped up when it counted. Conor Foley had his greatest race of the season finishing 46^th and other great runs came from Jamie Sullivan, Rob O’ Neill and David Kelly. In the end the team took a fantastic 1^st place. In the boys u19 6000m race there proved to be heartbreak stuff for the team losing out on the bronze medals by just 1 point. Peter Hanrahan had an off day leading them home in 34^th place and he was followed by great runs from Alan O’ Brien 39^th and Adam Kelleher 44^th.

Steven Macklin