{"id":873,"date":"2016-12-13T17:53:57","date_gmt":"2016-12-13T16:53:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rahenyshamrock.ie\/?p=873"},"modified":"2016-12-13T17:53:57","modified_gmt":"2016-12-13T16:53:57","slug":"when-young-stars-met-all-ireland-champions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rahenyshamrock.ie\/?p=873","title":{"rendered":"When Young Stars met All Ireland Champions"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"20161207_185805\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Wednesday December seventh was a particularly memorable evening, a night that our Juveniles members will remember for a long time to come. <\/span><\/p>\n

When Raheny\u2019s recently crowned Kings of Cross Country had the pleasure of meeting the club\u2019s future stars, and were greeted with a rapturous response from over 100 very excited children.<\/span><\/p>\n

Every Wednesday evening, approximately 120 Raheny Shamrock juvenile athletes come together with a common purpose.<\/span><\/p>\n

These athletes range from 6 up to 12 years of age, and although appearing at first glance to be nothing more than fun and games with an element of mayhem, it is in fact young athletes\u00a0learning the FUN-damentals of athletics, the ABC\u2019s; Agility, Balance and Coordination.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

These young athletes are being introduced to the disciplines of running, jumping and throwing, with the expectation that with determination and hard work, they will reach their full athletic potential and one day represent their club.<\/span><\/p>\n

Among these kids are the champions of tomorrow. Many of these kids have recently started competing in Cross Country and even more are regularly participating in the Junior ParkRuns.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When initially approached about visiting the Juveniles, senior men\u2019s road and cross-country captain\u00a0Dick Hooper was exuberant in enthusiasm and support, comparing it to the Sam Maguire visiting schools.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"20161207_184437\"<\/a><\/p>\n

However, this topped even Sam\u2019s visit as the kids might have cheered on the Dubs, but rather than just support Raheny from the side-lines, these kids are on the same team as Mick, Mark, Conor & Kevin.<\/span><\/p>\n

Led by the living legend Dick, the winning team of Mick Clohissey, Mark Kirwan, and brothers Conor and Kevin Dooney took time out of their own training schedule to spend an extremely enjoyable and engaging hour talking with the kids. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Like a true rock-star, Mick arrived almost in disguise. The kids hardly recognised him without his trademark sunglasses! <\/span><\/p>\n

The lads were bombarded with questions and were only too willing to answer as honestly they could. <\/span><\/p>\n

The Bling was on display and the kids loved every minute of it. <\/span><\/p>\n

In fact it was hard to see who was enjoying it more. The lads clearly, and deservingly relished the adoration\u00a0and afterwards they hung around patiently for what must have felt like a million photographs. <\/span><\/p>\n

It wasn’t just the kids who were a bit star-struck!<\/span><\/p>\n

Dick had some extremely inspiring words of encouragement, emphasising that even if they never get to the Olympics, or so much as win a medal, it\u2019s not the winning that counts, but the taking part. <\/span><\/p>\n

Dick went on to emphasise the social benefits of being part of a club, and remaining involved for life. Surprisingly, he didn\u2019t mention \u201cOne Life, One Club\u201d, but even still, the kids got the message.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The kids were blown away by the fact that two of their fellow club members had competed in Rio. <\/span><\/p>\n

They were equally blown away by the fact that only a few weeks ago another had won Bronze in the Dublin Marathon and as for winning the National Senior Cross Country for the first time EVER in the club’s history!<\/span><\/p>\n

\"20161207_184437\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Even the youngest in the room knew that this was of enormous significance and a source of tremendous pride for the club!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The boys and girls were left in no doubt that they were in the company of legends! But what really drove them wild was not the fact that Dick was a 3-time Olympian, nor a 3-time Dublin Marathon winner. <\/span><\/p>\n

Instead, it was hearing that since starting running, Dick has run a total distance equivalent to three quarters of the distance to the moon!<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>To them, that was just out of this world\u2026.<\/span><\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"reddit\"<\/a>\"pinterest\"<\/a>\"linkedin\"<\/a>\"tumblr\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wednesday December seventh was a particularly memorable evening, a night that our Juveniles members will remember for a long time to come. When Raheny\u2019s recently crowned Kings of Cross Country had the pleasure of meeting the club\u2019s future stars, and were greeted with a rapturous response from over 100 very excited children. Every Wednesday evening, approximately 120 Raheny Shamrock juvenile athletes come together with a common purpose. These athletes range…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","hentry","category-juvenile","category-latest-news","post_format-post-format-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rahenyshamrock.ie\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rahenyshamrock.ie\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rahenyshamrock.ie\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rahenyshamrock.ie\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rahenyshamrock.ie\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=873"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/rahenyshamrock.ie\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":879,"href":"https:\/\/rahenyshamrock.ie\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873\/revisions\/879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rahenyshamrock.ie\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rahenyshamrock.ie\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rahenyshamrock.ie\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}