Sports Dinner & Awards 2024
Mr Canning, our Head of Sport, reports on last Saturday’s Sports Dinner and the awarding of ‘Colours’.
The annual ‘College Traditional Team Sports Dinner’ was held on Saturday the 25th of May after the colour and fun filled Sports Day. Many thanks to Mr. Havenga and all the teaching staff and external coaches who helped make it a special day filled with colour and combining fun and traditional athletics events.
During the evening we celebrate the participation and successes of our traditional teams over the year. Of course, individual sporting success is important but we hold particular store in our pupils’ involvement in a team sport.
Our guest speaker was was Old Columban Sophia Cole who left the College during the Covid evacuation of March 2020. In the Second Form Sophia played on the Senior Girls’ Hockey team that won the Senior Schools’ Trophy Cup. She represented Leinster at Under 16 and under 18 level. She also represented Ireland at Under 16, Under 18, Under 21 and Under 23. This included playing for Ireland in the Junior World Cup in South Africa in 2022. She was part of the 2020 Senior Training Squad for the Tokyo Olympics. She was awarded an Ad Astra Sports’ Scholarship to UCD where she is currently the Club Captain.
Sophia was awarded College ‘Colours’ for her hockey achievements while in St.Columba’s and she would certainly have been Sportsperson of 2019-2020 if Covid had not completely disrupted that academic year and beyond.
In her address to the pupils Sophia talked about her overall sporting experiences. She touched on the camaraderie and closeness of team mates, the travel experiences and the buzz of the competitive match arena. She also talked about the challenges and difficulties of being an elite sportsperson. How under the surface she experienced anxiety and a lack of self confidence; that she managed to hold this at bay by implementing a focused and determinedly positive mindset reinforced by a systematic mantra whenever those internal doubts surfaced.
She openly shared that she had been playing in considerable pain since her schooldays and was only diagnosed as suffering from Compartment Syndrome in her calves; while playing in Australia last summer. She is currently recuperating from a relieving operation on the calves of both legs. Hopefully, a full recovery will mean that she will be able to play and train pain free in the future. We certainly hope that Sophia’s dream of being part of the Irish Ladies Squad aiming to play in the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles will be realised.
Sophia’s talk resonated with our pupils. The fact that she is only a few years older than them, candidly shared her thoughts and feelings so generously and openly. The fact that she is a fellow Columban made her talk even more special. I cannot thank her enough for giving us her time the day after her final commerce examinations ended. We wish her the very best while travelling through South East Asia before starting her accountancy internship. LC
College Sports Colours
We hold great store in what being awarded Colours means. Those who are awarded Colours are exceptional in every way.
- They have excellent ability and an excellent attitude.
- They are committed on and off the playing field.
- They play and practise with consistency.
- They are reliable and have character, resilience and courage.
- They are an example to others either as leaders or soldiers on a team.
- They are the ones who stand up when things are personally challenging or difficult for the team.
- They are selfless and put others before themselves.
- They are true team players.
Colours were awarded to 24 pupils this year and they were:
Boys’ Basketball: Connor Bermann, Chris Atkins, Finn Tabb
Girls’Basketball: Abbie and Raicheal Murray
Cricket: Isaac Dijkstra, Sean Roets, Sebastian Dijikstra, Harry St.Leger
Boys’ Hockey: Cristoph Geyer*, Julius Tenge, Joon Schultheiss, Harry St Leger
Girls’ Hockey: Helena Schoen, Leopoldine Buenau, Elizabeth Hart
Rugby: Noah Kutner, Cameron McKinley, Ned Chambre, Aaron Murray, Tomas Dwyer, Audrey Gardner, Hugo Laurenceau.
Multi Sport Colour (Special Category): Sarah Cron (For consistent commitment to a variety of Senior traditional team sports in the College over more than one year (Hockey, Basketball, Cricket and Tennis), as well as being consistently involved in all our traditional team sports through her five years in the College)
Sports Persons of the Year
We do not always award this. The reason is that we have a standard and that standard needs to be met for it to be awarded. We narrowed it down to two candidates this year. Both represented two College Senior Teams Hockey and Cricket for the last two years. They have also represented their country at a variety of age levels.
At Cricket Sebastian Dijikstra has represented Leinster at U15 and U17. He has been on the Leinster Schoolboys’ team for the last two years. Last year he was on the Irish U17 team and is again. He was also on the U19 training panel and will be on that panel later in the summer.
Harry St. Leger has represented Leinster and Ireland Hockey Teams at U16 and U18 Levels. He also represented Ireland at an U19 tournament last February. He will be playing for the Leinster Schoolboys cricket team against the MCC.
The Heads of Sport Committee felt it would be invidious to separate them so they shared the award and the honour. Joint winners – Sebastian Dijkstra and Harry St. Leger (pictured above with our guest speaker, Sophia Cole).
Sports Team of the Year – Senior Boys’ Cricket XI
The team reached their Leinster final two years in a row. This year’s final was one of a very high quality. St. Columba’s lost the toss and were set the daunting target of 298 runs. The pulses of the game went them and they replied with a creditable 192.
Although they did not win silverware the cricket team are playing in the very top league in the province. The gained 2nd position last year and maintained it this year. They have four Leinster players on the team and two Irish players. This speaks of the standard they are playing at. On that basis the Senior Boys’ Cricket team beat off strong challenges from both the Senior Girls’ Basketball and Hockey teams.
Many thanks to Rev Owen for his wonderful photos of our very special sporting occasion.
