I used to love camogie…
That was back when I played u10 & u12. Since then everything has changed, the sport got competitive, don’t get me wrong I love a bit of competitiveness but this was too much, from the age of 13, I was fighting hard to get a place on the team. I never won.
I played with a well-known club in Wexford, known for their talented under-age players but what no one knows is the people who aren’t on county teams, the people who don’t get asked to play for the seniors when they are just 16.
I have trained hard, I have been freezing cold and dying with the flu but I still managed to go training in the lashing rain, other girls have a small injury and don’t go to training for weeks. Yet who gets played in the next match? The girl never goes training but is on the county team. Yes, I understand that she is better and has more natural talent but is it fair for this to happen?
I am 16 and I have given up a sport I love because I wasn’t given a chance. I wasn’t given a chance to show my full potential, from an age that I was supposed to be finding myself I never even got a chance.
I’m not bad at camogie, I can do all the drills good enough, however, I don’t even know if I am good at playing in matches anymore, I can’t remember the last time I wasn’t sitting on the sideline and bringing on water for my team-mates.
I beg any coaches who read this, don’t be that coach. Give everyone a chance, I know these days it is all about winning but it is really winning if there are girls sitting on the sideline with no confidence left because they were never given a chance?
______
Wexford Weekly
Please use the form below to submit an article:
