Trip to Killarney
On Saturday 14th April the Highfield Squash Club took their junior members on their annual trip this year the venue being the Gleneagles Squash Club in Killarney. We set off at 9am on a fairly overcast dull morning from the club house with twenty-two excited juniors, our junior officer (Anne Cogan) and four of our parents (Brendan Connolly, Micheal Crowley, Fergal O’Connor and Aidan Delaney) - not forgetting Tony the bus driver. Our junior’s ages ranged from under U10s right up to U17s.
We arrived at the Gleneagles Squash Club at approximately 10.30am where we spilt all our juniors into two groups. The first group, which consisted of our younger juniors, changed into their swimming gear, hats and goggles and made a bee-line for the swimming pool whereby they swam, splashed, laughed and joked in the big sized pool. It was great to see our younger juniors really bond with each other in the pool especially those that didn’t know each other too well beforehand. Some of our parents braved the waters for a dip also whilst others supervised in a drier capacity by the pool-side.
At the same time our other group of older juniors changed into their squash gear, warmed up and started a blitz amongst themselves. Throughout the course of the morning there were many exciting close games played and a lot of fun was also had playing three quarters in the court (ask your son/daughter for explanation J ). After a couple of hours of games it was time for our older juniors to cool off with a dip in the pool.
Time for our younger juniors to take to the courts and have fun. We divided them out and organised several games amongst each other – it is fair to say everyone got the chance to play each other. The improvement these guys are making on the court is impressive which is great to see and long may it continue. Outside the court it was very encouraging to see our juniors laughing, joking, sharing goodies, etc., amongst each other. It is fair to say new friendships were formed on this day J
Four pm rolled around very quickly so it was time to fill the bellies with some good nourishing food from McDonalds. The smiles on their faces as they tucked into their meals and mcflurrys was priceless. The addition of winning free food, ice-creams, drinks in McDonalds added to the enjoyment. So back on the bus and time to go home – the noise levels increased ever so slightly from the much needed sugar rushes!
We arrived safely back to Highfield exactly on time all safe and sound to be met by all the parents/guardians. To finish we had a fantastic day and it was an absolute pleasure to take our juniors away – they are a terrific bunch of kids being so pleasant and polite. I would finally like to thank all of our coaches for all their time and effort throughout the year teaching and preparing our juniors for these trips and for competitions. Also big thanks to our junior officer Anne for making this year such a success. We are really looking forward to next year’s outing already.
Brendan Connolly - April 2018.