“New year, same old problems”, so say Kilkenny Storm who spent Sunday in Northern Ireland with the club’s under-15s team, coming away with a brace of wins.
The Kilkenny city-based club continues to fly the flag for minority sports – inline hockey and ice hockey – and while producing a number of international athletes in the sport and travelling near and far, issues around support for facilities, training and funding continue to raise their heads.
Taking to social media, head coach Paul Cummins outlined the club’s frustrations despite coming out on the better side of two tightly contested games on Sunday.
“I left Kilkenny at 7am this morning for Northern Ireland with my U15’s team and we arrived home at 6pm, 2 games 2 wins, first game was against the home team the Armagh Stars with us winning 8-5 in a great competitive game and a lot closer than the score suggests, and after a 10min break we lined up against the Dublin Ducks and coming out on top with a 6 – 2 win.”
“Again our Kilkenny kids forced (sic) to travel for 7 hours just to play an indoor sport because Kilkenny or even the southeast don’t have proper facilities !!!”
“These kids and all so-called minority sports clubs deserve a proper facility, at least just one at suits all, especially the successful ones.”
It’s a busy month for Kilkenny Storm on the inline hockey front who will meet the Ducks again at U13 level in Mullingar this coming weekend before heading to Cork for games against Armagh Stars and Bangor Chiefs at Elite level on 21 January.
