Spikeball blitz in Coláiste Muire

Coláiste Muire, Ennis has been selected to take part in the Volleyball Association of Ireland’s transition year girls spikeball leaders award programme. This initiative is funded by the Irish Sports Council ‘Women in Sport’ project encouraging girls to actively participate in sport.
In January, the school was visited by Mary Lawlor, a development officer from the volleyball association, for a full-day course.
Mary introduced the students to spikeball, an adapted game of volleyball. The girls learned the rules, how to play and how to introduce the game to primary school students. They also learned about coaching, refereeing, sports reporting and organising a blitz.
The 14 TY spikeball coaches split into groups of three and were each assigned classes of primary school children to teach. Some of the schools participating in the initiative are Crusheen National School, Ennis National School, Holy Family National School and Gaelscoil.
The best part of the course for the TY girls was experiencing teaching a young class. Everyone enjoyed helping the children and playing a sport. The children were very enthusiastic and learnt a great deal. Although it was difficult to get the children to understand the rules and specifics of the game, they learnt the game within six weeks.
The transition year students organised a spikeball blitz where all of the primary schools come together and play against each other in small teams of five and six. The blitz was held in the gym at Colaiste Muire on Monday and there are plans for a similar event in the coming weeks.