Top awards for Maeve Gallagher and Aaron McLoughlin in 2017
By Stuart Tynan
With no Young Sports Stars Awards taking place this year due to Covid-19, The Connaught Telegraph will be taking a trip down memory lane reviewing each of the five awards ceremonies that have taken place to date. Up next is the 2017 Young Sports Stars Awards.
THE third Connaught Telegraph Young Sports Stars Awards took place in Breaffy House Hotel on February 10, 2018.
A total of 29 recipients, as well as five teams, across 12 different sporting disciplines, including table tennis, karate, boxing, Gaelic football, soccer, handball and athletics, were honoured on the night.
There was major recognition for the Mayo SL Under 15 project that took months of behind-the-scenes work to get off the ground and accepted by the FAI, and even at that they were playing catch-up with League of Ireland clubs as well as having the talent pool being dipped into with a lot of players joining other outfits, notably Sligo Rovers. For this, the players and mentors were awarded with the Eric O'Reilly Memorial Cup.
Ballinrobe Community School, who won the All-Ireland B colleges championship after a thrilling extra-time win over St. Ciaran's of Ballygawley, Co. Tyrone, were crowned male team of the year, while another All-Ireland winning team, the Under 19 basketballers from St. Joseph's College, Charlestown, claimed the female team of the year.
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Sharon Kelleher (front, centre) making the presentation to the St. Joseph’s Community College, Charlestown, coach Anne Leydon and team members, who were honoured as Team of the Year at The Connaught Telegraph Young Sport Stars of the Year 2017, in association with Togher Tyres. Included in the photograph are Stuart Tynan and Helen Summerville of The Connaught Telegraph, and Ian Johnson, team coach. PHOTO: MICHAEL DONNELLYImage 2 of 2
Meave Gallagher was named Outstanding Young Sportswoman at the 2017 Connaught Telegraph Young Sports Stars Awards, in association with Togher Tyres. She collected the Melissa Patterson Perpetual Cup at the awards ceremony in Breaffy House Hotel, Castlebar. PHOTO: SPORTSFILESuch was the standard being set for team success that a special recognition award was presented to Manulla NS boys and girls table-tennis teams, who also bagged All-Ireland titles in 2017.
In addition, the continued excellence of so many individuals meant that a number of special merit awards were handed out on the night. Those awards were presented to Shane Boland (hurling), Cillian Heaney (soccer), Dayna Finn and Maggie Byrne (both basketball).
Two brand new names were added to the list of overall outstanding sportspeople winners as Maeve Gallagher won the Melissa Patterson Perpetual Cup for Outstanding Young Sportswoman and Aaron McLoughlin won the Darragh Doherty Perpetual Cup for Outstanding Young Sportsman.
The other main award winner, selected by The Connaught Telegraph readers, was Claremorris ace Patrick Murphy, the winner of two All-Ireland handball titles.