Registration day for the new season of our Little Saints Coaching Academy is on September 9^th from 3pm to 4pm at our Clubhouse at Larkhill Road / Crestfield Whitehall D09 HY42

Our Academy is widely regarded as one of the best in the country as an introduction to the game of soccer for boys and girls from 4 to 8 years of age.

Our aim is to provide the very best football coaching for young children. Many players who have started their football journey at this basic level here with us have gone on to be household names in Irish football while others have played the game at a level they felt comfortable with – but this is where it all starts.

Each child’s enjoyment and the fun they have at our sessions is what we have built our reputation on and has been vital to our success over the years.

All sessions are devised by our head coaches overseen by a qualified lead-coach along with other coaches and assisted by parents.

The goal at this early stage is to introduce children to the basic concepts of football. We also try to help the children develop their social skills, interact with other children and most importantly, have fun!

We try to help each child learn the basics of the game while at the same time ensuring every player enjoys each session with activities to keep them interested with plenty of time on the ball and individual coaching, as well as interacting with other children with whom they will become friends.

If any club member or a family member or friend is interested in taking up refereeing there is a beginners course being run by the DDSL later this month.

It will take place in the FAI Media Room on Saturday 26^th August in Abbotstown from 10am to 4pm.

It is very important that as many clubs send ‘Potential Referees’ to this session as we need as many Referees as possible…given the continued growth of the teams within the DDSL League.

There is an FAI Fee of Euro 50 but this will be refunded to those Referees who Ref in the DDSL. It will be refunded to those clubs/Refs at the end of December 2023.

This Referee Course will cater for up to 29 Referees so book early. If there are more applicants, we will look to put on another session.

https://faiconnect.ie/mycomet/private/seminars/6017748

Our Under 14’s SKB/BOHS finished off their week in the best possible way this morning by becoming the Gold Trophy Champions at the Oakham tournament.

By topping their group yesterday after eight qualifying games they ensured a play off for the trophy with the second and third placed teams – Shrewsbury Town and Galway United with each team playing one another and the team with most points winning the trophy.

In the first game they repeated their group round victory over Galway United – this time 3-0 with the goals coming from Josh Phoenix, Rhys Cullen and Sam Rooney and a draw – this time 1-1 – led to great celebrations as the trophy was clinched against Shrewsbury Town with Luke Chukwu getting the all important strike

SKB are delighted to be back in Leicestershire at the Oakham football tournament this year with five teams drawn from both our own sides and those teams who represent us as part of the SKB/BOHS partnership.

We have always enjoyed competing in this prestigious tournament having been successful on previous visits.

The first of our teams taking part – the 2008’s – who play in the FAI National Under 14 League arrived early on Monday morning and later in the day played 2 friendlies vs West Brom (1-1 – Tommy Toth) and Northampton (4-0 Luke Chukwu, Sam Rooney (2) and Oskar Keely).

Five more games today (Wednesday) spread over the morning and afternoon started against Dundee FC and ended 2-2 with goals from Christian Coyle and Marcel Schabrowski and a 2-0 win against Galway United with Sam Rooney again on the score sheet and Oskar Keely,
This afternoon’s games saw convincing wins over against Home Farm (3-1 – Luke Chukwu 2 and Chris Coyle) NCE New York (3-0 Marcel Schrabowski, Luke Chukwu and Sam Rooney) and the ISFA representative squad (3-0 Marcel Schrabowski, Sam Rooney and Sam Kierans) – a tough programme but the team are now assured of topping the group and have qualified for the final stages tomorrow.

The competitive element to the tournament started on Tuesday afternoon and the squad continued their excellent form with wins over Nottingham Forest (3-0 Sam Rooney (2) Marcel Schabowski) ,Man United (1-0 Sam Rooney) and a 0-0 draw in the third game against the table toppers at the end of the first day – Shrewsbury Town.

The games are played over 36 minutes duration each in relative quick succession that puts great demands on the entire squad especially as the tempreture was in the high 20’s on Monday and again yesterday.

The full squad is;

Finn Mc Donnell, John Markham, Leon Laban, Zac Kielty, Paddy Brides, Rhys Cullen, Josh Phoenix, Sam Kierans, Christian Coyle, Tommy Toth, Sean Whelan, Bobby Malone, Luke Chukwu, Roan Hickey, Oskar Keely, Sam Rooney, Chris Idah and Marcel Schrabowski.

The squad is excellently led by Paul Doolan and Stephen Lawlor.

Next week from the 8th to the 11th our 2007’s and 2011’s play and the final week the 15th to 18th our 2009’s and 2010’s take part.

Following the exceptional exploits of former St Kevin’s players Matthew Costello and Cian Lynch who both starred for their respective counties over the past two weeks in Croke Park – Costelloe playing a huge role in Meath’s Tailtean Cup success and Lynch gaining a fifth all Ireland medal captaining Limerick senior hurlers to a fourth all Ireland success in a row.

It is hoped that another former St Kevin’s player Darren Daly can make it a unique hat trick in his role as coach/selector to the Dublin senior football team in the all Ireland final next Sunday against Kerry.