College Awards Sport Scholarships

UCC sport, under Director of Sport and Activity Declan Kidney, awarded sports scholarships for the coming academic year to successful students at the Mardyke on Wednesday afternoon. The awards, which gave out scholarships to 98 students, were presented by former UCC sports science lecturer, Eamon Ryan. Ryan recently managed to Cork Ladies to an unprecedented tenth All-Ireland victory in eleven years.     The scholarships were awarded to students from a variety of sporting disciplines including Rugby, Hockey, Tae Kwon Do, Basketball, Triathlon, Gaelic games, Rowing, Kickboxing, Sailing and Soccer. Declan Kidney said that the purpose of the scholarships were to help UCC’s athletes get to the ‘‘next step and develop as both a person and athlete’’.     The scholarships application system required each athlete competing in a team sport to fill out a form discussing their goals and objectives for the season ahead in line with UCC’s policy of awarding these scholarships to not only the most talented, but also the most driven individuals. UCC can be very proud of its scholarship program which allows funding for a huge amount of students with a sporting talent and provides real strength behind these students. Compared to other universities UCC provides, along with its partners, significantly more scholarships than some other College’s throughout Ireland. College’s such as Trinity award scholarships which cover students expenses to and from matches as well as full scholarships where UCC have looked to award as many full scholarships as they could where warranted. This year in particular has seen a large group of athletes from UCC qualify for funding which in turn is hoped to spur UCC’s individuals and teams onto great success this year to replicate the stunning achievements of the 2014/15 academic year.     First year sports science student Eamonn Cashin spoke at the event with a firm message to the award receipents, ‘‘Winners never lose...it is the moments that challenge us the most which truly define us.’’ Cashin is aiming to be the first Irishman to complete ‘the coolest marathon on earth’ by completing in the Polar Circle Polar bear Challenge in Greenland later this year. The challenge includes a full marathon followed by another half-marathon the following day through ice and snow. Cashin was keen to stress the vitality of physical and mental endurance in sport using his own example.     UCC awarded a total of 39 scholarships to it’s athletes while further awards were sponsored by patrons of UCC sport. For a full list of scholarship awardees please see below.[hr gap="1"]UCC Sport Scholarships: Athletics: O Murray, B Thistlewood, L Shanahan, D Cussin.Bank of Ireland: E Scally (Ladies Gaelic Football), B Keohane, D Keohane (Both Rowing)Basketball: , K Diggin, L Wilkinson, J. O’Mahony.Camogie: L O’Sullivan, O Cronin.GAA: J McGuire, I Maguire, S Cronin, M Martin, L Connolly, M Ambrose.Hockey: A O’Grady, N Kerr, S O’Leary, E Barber, P Coulter.Hurling: J Barron, T Devine, D Morrissey.Rowing: S O’Connor, S Hogan.Rugby: S O’Hanlon, C Barry, C Gallagher, C Slowey, B Burns, C O’Regan.Jason Foley Memorial(Tae Kwon Do): M O’Leary.Jason Foley Memorial(Basketball): A O’Sullivan.Kukri(Rugby): Paul Derham.MJ Dowling(Hurling): R O’Shea, Tadhg Bourke, A Cadogan, D Dawson.Soccer: T Murphy, A Gannon, C Murphy, E Browne, D Lucey, S O’Callaghan, D Walsh, J Bridgeman, R                    Lynch, B McAuliffe, P Cronin, S McLoughlin.Roy Keane(Soccer): K McCarthy, S O’Mahony.Kickboxing: L De La Cour.Kukri(Kickboxing): P Begley.Orienteering: J O’Sullivan- Hourihan.Sailing: D O’Sullivan.Swimming: E Cassidy.Trend Micro(Soccer): L Lynch, L Murphy, D Pender.