Beech Hill Table Tennis Club

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Season 2001-2002

Beech Hill Table Tennis Club was Founded in 2001 by Terence Mc Sweeney and Rory O'Connor with the help of the Cork City Council, Cork Table Tennis Association, and the Cope Foundation. With the help of our hardworking committee and the support of the players from St. Angela's College along with their parents the club startup was very successful.

Season 2002-2003

We commenced our 2nd season with the addition of 5 new Level I coaches. This brings to 7 the number of coaches operating at the Club. As well there has been additions to our playing ranks at all age levels, including young players from the local schools, so we should see some very positive results over the coming seasons.
With the season all but finished The players and coaches can justifiable be proud of the achievements. Some highlights are Teddy O'Connor being selected for Team Ireland Special Olympics, National Coach Column Slevin attending at a Munster training camp at the club. Our Junior Girls helped Munster to Gold at the interpro's and St. Angela's to an 8th consecutive All-Ireland. We also had a number of players and coaches selected for Munster and Ireland. At the other end of the scale our under 12's and 10's performed admirably throughout the season with very promising results. We also provided all the team for Mayfield Community Games which won the Cork finals.
Our plan for the coming season is to build on what was both learned and achieved this season in order to make the club more professional on all fronts. To improve player standards & coaching techniques, to have better organised training sessions, to increase the number of coaches, to improve overall communications and general management, and last but by no means least to increase the awareness among the members of our involvement with Special Olympics.

Season 2003-2004

This season saw three of our Senior ladies depart for UCC, UCD, and Garda Training College. On the other hand it saw the arrival for Brian Fitzgerald to the coaching staff. We changed our training sessions to provide a separate session for the younger players with a mixed reaction. Season 2004-2005 sees us revert to one session for all players.

Our Junior players again made a number of the interpro teams. My own role in the club was somewhat diluted by my role as munster secretary. I do not intend to allow this to happen next season.

The club did not get involved in community games this year as those who normally look after the team were not prepared to get involved now that the age had dropped to U13 and our eligable players were all under 10.
Our long-awaited trip to the UK took place at the end of the season and appears to have been a huge success. We look forward to a return visit and to our hosting a visit by them during 2005. 2005 is most suitable as it is Cork city's term as European City of Culture.

Season 2004-2005
This season saw the first of our "home grown" players begin to make their mark. Katie McSweeney at under 17 had an excellent season as did Evelyn Mullane at under 14. Clare O'Callaghan came good late in the season with an excellent win in the Ballincollig Open. Our younger players did very well. In particular David Gillen, Aisling Healy at Under 10's. Scott Shellard at under 12. Stephanie McKenna, and the twins Chelsea and Josh are showing great promise. Ian & Ruairi had Junior Cert to contend with but they intend to back to full strength next season.

Our Committee has also been expanded with Alice_Anne Oliver and Marie McKenna adding their support to the Club. Our PRO Kim Sin Yap did a brilliant job.

Treasurer Amy, as always kept the Finances under control and congrats to Jo on a fabulous Leaving Cert and good luck at 3rd Level in Dublin.

Our Wednsday nights Special Olympic session run by Terence McSweeney was extremely successful. The Club had more foreign Senior players joining this season but we were sad to loose Ludovic Martin to Dungarvan.

The plan for the coming season is to involve more parents and qualify more coaches. Helping local schools to get involved in the sport.

As always the club is most grateful to the COPE Foundation for it's support.

Season 2005-2006
It was a season with a difference. For various reasons, we did not make any concerted effort to recruit from the local schools this season. This will have a knock-on effect in years to come. However we did increase our senior representation with the arrival of players from the new EU states of Slovakia. Romania and the Ukraine.
Special Olympics really took of last year with very large numbers on Wednesday nights. Beech Hill has established a connection to the Glen Resource Centre and it is hoped to build on this next season. Some of our senior players are training there at week-ends.

Unfortunately we lost out Ballincollig contingent to the Ballincollig Club. This has left a void that will take some time to fill. While this was inevitable, we were sorry to lose all that talent.

The plan for the year ahead is to start to rebuild from the gound up for Juniors by recruiting from the local schools, encourage more senior to join and to take up coaching. Continue to develop the Special Olympic/COPE Services Clients.

Thanks Alice-Anne for all your help.

 

The main objectives of the club are as follows:

To provide continuity for players from school through to employment and beyond.
To provide a club that can provide a structured support scheme for young players in terms of coaching and travel to tournaments.
To provide an additional opportunity for more people to play the table-tennis.
To provide another sports outlet for the people of the area.
To provide a club which caters for all skills levels, age groups.
To provide a multi-gender club, to facilitate family participation.
To provide another outlet for the game of table tennis to be played.
To provide an outlet for Special Olympic table-tennis players to train and participate with mainstream table-tennis players.
To provide organisational and technical support to special olympics table-tennis, if requested.
To provide an opportunity for new players to participate and develop new skills.
To provide a facility for those who used to play to return to the sport.
To provide a "Regional Centre of Excellence," for the development of Elite Table Tennis in Munster.