Stellar students: Galaxy of rising sports stars honoured at UCC Sports awards
SPORTS STAR: Caoimhe Perdue, on right, celebrates with team-mates after scoring Ireland's opening goal in the Women's Junior World Cup 2022.
Olympic medallists, Paul O’Donovan and Emily Hegarty are among those honoured Monday as UCC Sports Stars by Professor John O’Halloran, President of the college.
Sponsored by the River Lee Hotel and Bank of Ireland, the awards recognised the achievements of a whopping 19 students who have excelled with their UCC clubs, external clubs and representative teams in the last twelve months.
Among those to also receive awards are Munster Rugby’s John Hodnett and Alex Kendellen, along with Kerry football ace, Diarmuid O’Connor, each of whom are already household names.
In addition to the individual awards, UCC Women’s Senior Hockey team has been selected as Team of the Year Award, in recognition of their Munster Senior League success, and for reaching the Munster Senior Cup Final and EYLeague 2 Play-offs.
The team’s coach, Graham Catchpole, won the Coach of the Year Award, while Caoimhe Perdue, a key member of the Hockey team, also picked up an individual award for captaining the Irish Junior Women’s team to a top 10 finish at the Junior World Cup in South Africa.
Christina Dring, another member of the successful hockey team, also picked up an individual award for her exploits on the hockey and soccer fields, where she won the Lydon Cup with the University team and lines out for Cork City in the SSE Airtricity Women’s National League.
Basketball star, Amy Dooley, was recognised after she played a key role in helping UCC Glanmire win the Champions Trophy, the Women’s Superleague and the National Senior Cup this season and helped UCC reach the intervarsity final.
Morgan Buckley, Head of UCC Sport, said that the awards recognise the excellence of UCC students who have represented the University, their club, county, province and country in their chosen sport.
"Usually, we present 10 awards each year. However, due to the success of our student athletes on the national and international stage, we honoured 19 students. Fourteen students and alumni represented Ireland and the University at the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo.
"It is important that we acknowledge their achievements alongside those athletes who are breaking into representative teams across the country or are making waves in individual sports."
: Ruby Millet (Athletics), Conor Morey (Athletics), Mary Fitzgerald (Athletics), Amy Dooley (Basketball), Diarmuid O'Connor (Gaelic football), Mark Kehoe (Hurling), Katie Quirke (Ladies Football), Caoimhe Perdue (Hockey), Christina Dring (Hockey and Soccer), John Hodnett (Rugby), Alex Kendellen (Rugby), Meg Ryan (Gymnastics), Paul O'Donovan (Rowing), Emily Hegarty (Rowing), Tara Hanlon (Rowing), Aoife Casey (Rowing), Margaret Cremen (Rowing), Lydia Heaphy (Rowing), Ronan Byrne (Rowing). The Kieran Dowd Coach of the Year for special achievement: Graham Catchpole (Hockey).
