Female Sports Star of the Month for February 2015

Sometimes for women involved in sport, be it in a team sport or an individual sport, they find it very hard to get coverage in the media for what they are trying to do.

Sometimes, it’s very easy to put the blame for this on editors in the written and spoken media, but this is unfair, as there are restrictions on the amount of space they can give to each sport, and to be fair to them, they will always give the most coverage to the more popular sports.

It also has to be remembered that editors can only give space to a sport if they are made aware about it.

The offer was made some time back to those involved in women’s sports to have their sport promoted here. It does not matter what the sport is. It does not matter at what level of competition it is. If you are involved in Women’s sports and want coverage, email me the details (keanethomas@eircom.net) and they will be uploaded. To get extra promotion, all that has to be done then is to like and share when you see something pop up on your Twitter or Facebook pages.

In January of this year, something new was started here.

It was decided to pick one female or a female team out that impressed in one way or another and name them as the player or the team of the month.

Dungarvan’s Emily Foley was the first winner for her achievements in kick boxing. Another month has ended and in the February of 2015 there were many impressive performers, some of whom are mentioned here. At the end of the piece, the monthly winner will be announced.

It must be remembered that there is no prize out of winning, apart from getting a mention from me. What more would you want LOL.

Maxol WIT Wildcats may not have won any games in the league in February loosing twice to Meteors, as well as Montenotte and Killester, but they had one player who stood out with some impressive performances.

Helena Rohan hit 21 points against Killester, 12 against Montenotte and 34 in her sides two games against Meteors and was well up there with teams further up the league when it came to challenging for the top scorer for the month.

Niamh Briggs in Rugby was named as Captain of the Irish team this year and has put in some solid performances.

In her first six-nations game as captain she scored ten points against Italy, a try, conversion and penalty while in the same game another Waterford lady Fiona O’Brien made her Irish Debut coming on a sub and again impressed.

Waterford at the end of February sit top of Division three of the Ladies National Football League with four wins from four games.

In these games, Waterford had a number of good performers, with Maria Delahunty constantly in front of the oppositions goal since she rejoined the panel earlier this year.

For the game of Camogie, the month of February was again a great month for the game.

Lismore’s Senior Camogie team have to get a mention for their performance in the All-Ireland semi final against Galway side Oranmore Maree, and more over for the way they reacted to getting their quota of players very harshly cut at the start of the second half.

WIT in February won a sixth Ashbourne Cup Final in seven years which is a remarkable achievement. In the panel were three Waterford players - Valerie O’Brien, Vikki Falconer who captained the side and Trish Jackman who was named as the player of the final. On the Mary I side that won the Purcell Cup after a replay were Fiona Morrissey and Jenny McCarthy while Deirdre Brennan and Becky Kavanagh were with the Runners-Up – DIT. Johnanna Houlihan, Niamh Rockett and Sarah Fenton were part of sides beaten in semi finals over the weekend.  

Staying with Camogie, Waterford has a new manager for the counties Intermediate team this year in Sean Fleming. He has brought some of the best young players that have impressed at under 16 and minor levels into the panel this year and they helped the side make a winning start to this year’s league, beating Tipperary at the WIT Sports Campus in Carriganore. Beth Carton in that game hit six points for Waterford and also played a major roll for the County Minor side in their games played this year.

Kaeisha Tobin also had a very impressive performance for the County under 16 side in their narrow defeat to Limerick in the Munster Championship recently. The versatile Dungarvan hit 3-3 for the side in the game played at Ballybrown.

And finally in Camogie, the Mercy Secondary School in Waterford qualified for the All-Ireland Junior Final recently following a brilliant 5-5 to 2-7 win over Chríost Rí from Portlaoise, Gailltir’s Ciara Jackman proving to be one of their stand out players on the day.  

WIT advanced to the final of the WSCAI League after a 6-0 win over NUIG at the WIT Sports Campus at Carriganore. Ciara Rossiter put in a player of the match performance for the Waterford College playing in the middle of the field and rounded off her performance by scoring two goals towards the end of the game.

Taekwondo is a sport many have heard about but see get very little coverage.

The 16^th Irish National Open Championships were held recently in Dublin and for Dungarvan’s Grainne Curran they proved very fruitful as she returned home with two medals, a bronze in the first degree female patterns competition and gold in the        -50kg female sparring competition.

In athletics West Waterford A.C.’s Lisa Houlihan took part in the Irish University Indoor Championships in Athlone recently. The Maynooth student took part in the Pole Vault competition and returned home from the competition with a Gold Medal.

The Ard Scoil Na Déise Minor Cross Country team had an excellent result recently at the Munster Cross Country Championships at Cork Institute of Technology.

The team of Lucy Holmes, Sarah Lacey, Aoife Dee, Anne McGrath, Kate Hickey, Orla Keane and Talithakoumi Macauley ran an excellent race and finished as a team in fifth place against very strong opposition.

However, each month there can only be one winner, and while there is some impressive performers named above, it is hard to go beyond Kelly Proper as the overall best performer in the month of February.

She took part in a number of different competitions including the AAI Indoor Games in Athone where she won the Long Jump with a leap of 6.25 metres and the 200 metre sprint in a time of 23.76 seconds.

She also took part in the British Indoor Championships in Sheffield and finished fifth in the Long Jump with a leap of 6.21 metres.

Back in Athlone at the National Indoor Championships, the Ferrybank Athlete won three golds to take her number of National Titles won to 19.

The first of her golds was won in the Long Jump in a leap of 6.22 metres. The 60 metre dash was won in a time of 7.46 seconds and the 200 metre final was won in a time of 23.27 seconds.

The Ferrybank Athlete to date has had a marvelous career, both indoor and outdoor and surly many more titles will come her way in the years ahead.