The Finbar McCormack Memorial Award for Sporting Endeavour is awarded each year to the child in St Joseph’s Primary School, Carnacaville who has stood out, not because of their sporting achievements in terms of medals, trophies or certificates, but someone who has made a marked improvement or developed sporting skills or attributes which are beyond expectation. This year’s nominees were Callum Flynn, Natalie Cotton and Rachel Fletcher.
The winner of this year’s award was Rachel Fletcher. Rachel made tremendous progress in her school swimming lessons. She developed her stroke technique and breathing rhythm to progress into the next group. At the end of the term Rachel undertook the National Curriculum Award. There was one element of the assessment Rachel found to be very difficult and that was the diving for the brick at the bottom of the deep end. Rachel went to the pool at the weekends to work on this skill. The extra training paid off and Rachel successfully completed the award. That level of determination and will to overcome difficulties is a mark of who Rachel is. She is a girl with a big smile and she loves her sport but beneath the smile is a steely determination to give all and achieve the best that she can. On the basketball court she loves nothing more than joining the girls in challenging the boys, who have greater numbers. For Rachel, each basket is a small victory. Over this past year you can see that she has developed great awareness and slick hand to eye coordination. These same skills were transferred to her football progress and allied with that determination ensured that Rachel was very effective while playing for the school team.
There was tremendous competition for places in the Girls Cross Country and Indoor Athletics teams. In the first term Rachel was outside the top six but with some training and some very good 5k Park runs, Rachel made the teams and in fact finished well up the field in our final cross country and came second in the 60m and 400m race during the school’s sports day.
It was during the school’s Adventure Club that Rachel’s progress was most evident. Climbing provided Rachel with that physical and mental challenge which forced her to step well outside her comfort zone but in which she progressed wonderfully, climbing the wall with confidence and skill implementing all of the advice she was given by the instructors. In the third term when we moved to the water based activities, Rachel was in her element. Pushing herself beyond what she thought she was possible of doing was now coming easier to her and she relished each challenge in wet water bouldering, canoeing and paddle boarding. It was while we were paddling our canoes out onto Salt Island in the middle of Strangford Lough during a beautiful summers evening that Rachel’s sheer determination, paddling skills and leadership meant her team steered a course across the lough that left her teachers, instructors and fellow pupils astounded as the girls won the race leaving the boys and Mr Knight wondering how they did it. A lot of it was down to the skills and sporting endeavour of Rachel Fletcher. Don’t be fooled by the smiling face. This girl has what it takes to do very well in whatever field of sport she decides to pursue in the future.
