AVIVA 2011

Tramore AFC - AVIVA Club of the Year 2011

One Night in Ennis

(Members of the traveeling Tramore contingent pictured with John Deleaney, Giovanni Trapatoni and Marco Tardelli)

On Friday 15^th July, Tramore AFC travelled to Ennis as a monthly winner of the AVIVA club month for April and competed with seven other winners for the prestigious award of AVIVA club of the year. The intinery for the day was to set up and supervise a booth that would best showcase all the work we do here at Tramore AFC and also to have ready a presentation for the judging panel that would be preceded with a questions and answers session. After this the judges would come look at the booths as would everyone attending the FAI official gala dinner that evening.

(Ciara O'Brein, John Power, Kate McGrath and Stuart Kennedy posing at the booth !)

Our booth was not prepared over night! There were many nights of deliberation as to how would be best kit out the booth. Without the help of David Kent of Graphic Image it is fair to say we would not have had a booth of such a high standard. A big thanks must go to David who was putting off holidays to help us finish this project. A mix of pictures, information and items that we as a club were extremely proud of were included in the booth. Also in the booth was a DVD playing on loop, showing off our club and all it had to offer. Mark Waters put together this piece for us (with the help of Gwen Howlett as leading actress!) and again we must say that this was and will be a great asset to the club. In the end the booth was ready for Ennis and all we needed to do was make sure we brought everything with us.

(The club booth which we prepared for the day with the help of David Kent of Graphic image)

The preparation of the presentation was also a slow process to make sure we fitted all we needed to say in the allocated time frame. This was accompanied by a PowerPoint presentation for the judges. Tremendous work by Tommy Griffin and Oliver Power was done to ensure that our presentation had unique items of inclusion that would highlight the point that Tramore AFC is moving in the right direction. The practice of the speech was flawless and it was only a matter of bringing this to the table in front of the judges.

(Proud members of the club listen to Chairman John Power accepting the award for club of the year)

We arrived in Ennis before midday on the Friday and prepared our booth while also mixing with the other clubs who were also there for the same reason. There was competition on the day but all the 8 clubs present were winners and had something that their club and county would be so proud of them. The time came and Tommy led his team into the presentation as the rest waited anxiously at the booth for news as to how it went. However, when they came back they were extremely proud as to how it all went.

(Young members Tramore AFC present on the night for the club of the year awards. Ciara O'Brein, Kate McGrath and Gary Hunt)

The award was to be presented at the end of the dinner to the winning club. In the meantime local sports photographer Noel Brown and team Tramore Rangers were presented with photographer of the year and website of the year respectively. A big congratulations to both parties on their success. Only 6 members were permitted to the dinner while the remaining club members waited in the bar for the dinner to be finished. When we went to go in someone in a blue jumper halted us in gaining entry, however he quickly changed back into his Tramore attire! So the moment came as the official sponsors were invited up on stage by John Delaney to announce which club had been named AVIVA club of the year. All teams went quite with an air of nervousness and anticipation surrounding the hall. A quietness followed by the name TRAMORE AFC was greeted with scenes of jubilation from all club members on such a huge achievement.

(Chairman John Power being congratulated by fellow club member Tommy Griffin)

This award though was not just won on the day but over the course of our history as our club Tramore AFC has evolved from a single team club 59 years ago to a club which now caters for 22 teams and various different community projects. A big thank you must go to everybody that has helped out in any shape or form over the years. Everybody has helped to the continuous development of Tramore AFC and even though we are now crowned AVIVA club of the year 2011 we will still aim to improve as a club to offer our services to the people of Tramore and beyond. Also a big thanks to the FAI for hosting such a great day and their help throughout the years. Main sponsors The Irish Star and Clarion Hotel and also AVIVA who we appreciate for supporting the grassroots clubs in Ireland.

(Tramore AFC - AVIVA Club of the Year 2011)