Sports Day in Athboy Community School 

Athboy Community School held a very successful Sports Day in beautiful sunshine on Thursday May 8th last. The event was a school-wide celebration of sporting endeavour, team building, fun and healthy living and was organised by Deputy Principal Mr.O’Dowd together with P.E. teachers Miss Ruth Fitzgerald and Mr. Freddie Williams. The Transition Year class also helped to run the many events on the day. 

From the first bell in the morning, students, tutors, teachers and the staff of the school engaged in a programme of events divided into 5 one-houractivity sessions with a prize-giving ceremony hosted by the Principal Miss Garrihy during the final hour of the school day.  

Each year group and their Tutors and Year Head stayed together for each of the five rotations of events during the day. In each home class, students had signed up to compete for their class in each of the various events. Although the object of the day was to have fun, there was a measure of competition added too as 3 points were awarded to the winning class in each event in each year group, 2 points for second place and 1 point for third so that an overall winning class in each year group could be unveiled at the end of the day.Paul’s Last Lap Café were on site providing crepes, hot chocolate and snacks and a professional photographer Kevin was there to capture all the excitement.
 

Each year group rotated around the five sections of the Sports Day. Out on one side of the pitch there was a 60m dash, a Hurdles race, Team Building exercises and races, a Penalty Shoot-out competition and a Lemon& Spoon race. On the other side of the pitch there was a Relay Welly Race, a Merciless Mile, a 3-legged race, a Sack Race and a Wheelbarrow race. 

Meanwhile on the grassy area to the side of the sportsfield there were huge inflatables that created great excitement. This included inflatable Sumo Wrestling, a giant Velcro Football Dartboard game, an inflatable Donkey Derby and an inflatable Bungee Run competition.In the school gymnasium there was an Obstacle Course Race. 

On the basketball courts there was a Wet Water Race, a Basketball Free-Shots competition, a Fit-Skip competition, a Musical Statues eventand a Beanbag Target competition.Meanwhile, inside in the school’s General Purpose Area there wasa Year Group Quiz event. 

When all the points from allthe events were totted up by Miss Mooney on the giant scoreboard, the winning class in 1st year was Class Mew with 34 points. In second year, Class Brigid emerged victorious with 33 points while in 3rd year it was Class Cezanne that took the spoils with a whopping 38 points. At senior level in the 5th/6th year group, Class Trinity won with 35 points and the Transition Years themselves scooped 45 points.  

All the students in each of the winning classes werelater presented with prizes to great acclaim and excitement by the Principal, Deputy Principal, Year Heads and staff. The day was an outstanding success and the students went home happy, already looking forward to next year’s event.