Scottish Schools' Champions and Record Breakers

SGG entered the Scottish Schools Relays this year for the first time. The championship took place at Hutcheson Grammar on Friday 2nd June. The school entered two teams, a Boys 4 x 400m and a Girls 4 x 400m. The boys team of: Lewis Grimmer, Aidan Tittmar, Lewis Conley and Calum Stewart finished in a credible 4th place. The team performed very well and were only 3 seconds away from the silver medals which shows you how close it was at the end. 

 

The girls team: Annabel MacDonald, Erin Houston, Erin Moran and Eilidh McDougall absolutely dominated the final and won by a considerable margin. The girls were so impressive, they smashed the Scottish Schools Record by 12 seconds to win in 4 minutes 17 seconds. Not only did the girls claim the Schools first ever National Sporting title and a Scottish Record, they were awarded a second trophy for the girls relay performance of the championship voted by the Scottish Schools Athletics Association! What a prestigious trophy to be awarded! Congratulations girls, you are Scottish Schools Champions and Record Holders! 

 

Sports Day 2017

This year for Sports Day we had: Hurdles, 100m, 200m, 600m, Triple Jump, Javelin, Shot Putt, Obstacle Race, Orienteering and Relays. Here's a selection of the photos, lots more to come. Well done to Hiort for their victory. 

 

    

 

    

 

    

 

    

S3/4 Netball win the Glasgow Schools League!!!

 

This has been four years in the making, the S3/4 SGG Netball team are Glasgow Schools Champions!!! A big congratulations to the squad:

Robyn Paton GK

Jessica Gow GD

Catriona Macleod GK/WD

Margaret Driscoll WD/C

Daisy Maguire WD

Annabel MacDonald C

Morag McKirdy WA

Sarah MacKay GS

Katrin Swan GA

Seona Macleod GS

Aimee Dunlop WA/GS

Abigail Cavanagh GS

This year due to the number of teams in the league the S3/4 was split into two leagues. Each team had to play each other once and at the end the top two teams from each division met in a final four playoff. Having won all but one of their league fixtures SGG went into the final four knowing that they could finish higher up than any other team in this competition from the school. 

Our first game on Finals night was against Hillhead. SGG started aggressively from beginning to end and ended up winning 30-11. With 3 x 28 minute games to play in a row the team knew that it would be a tough days work but it was good to go out and win the first game comfortably and settle the nerves. 

The second game was against Holyrood 2(S4s). Having never beaten this Holyrood team the girls knew that they would have to be at their best if they were to finish higher than 3rd. At the best they were, the girls produced a fantastic display of netball throughout the match win by 22-6. The girls were ecstatic about the win and having played so well. 

A top 2 placing it was for SGG but would it be first or second?! The girls played Holyrood 1 (S3s) in the final game. Holyrood 1 had beaten Holyrood 2 and Hillhead so this turned into a dramatic final, winner takes all. The girls maintained their hard work, effort and kept a relentless intensity during the match. SGG won the game 14-4. What was impressive was that the girls although tired displayed great team work, decision making and discipline throughout the match against quality opposition. 

To win the S3/4 Netball league is a huge achievement for the girls and the school. During the finals night the girls produced the best Netball the school has ever produced. They should be very proud of their achievement! Well done girls! 

 

Here's a link to the BBC Alba interview about the Netball successes at the school:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/naidheachdan/39790977

S1 Netball Team 2nd in Glasgow Schools League

A big congratulations to the S1 Netball team who finished in 2nd place in the Glasgow Schools League. The team has progressed very well throughout the year. All players in the team have been attending training every week since the beginning of S1! The team has changed a few times since the beginning of the year with lots of different positional changes each game. This means that most of the girls in the team are competent in a variety of different positions which is good news going forward into S2. Here's some information on the girls team:

 

Orlagh - GK - Great defence for the team. Made a lot of shot blocks with good defensive stance.


Rhianna - GK/WD/GS - Played in a number of different positions this year. Rhianna is also an excellent shooter and has played GS for the team.


Kerry - GD/GA - Very good in both positions. Great movement to get free, excellent interceptions and good accuracy when shooting.


Leena - WD/WA/GA/GS - A very good all round player. Leena has played in almost every postion this year. Played well in big games for us in WD and in the festival played very well at GS/GA.


Abbey - C/GD - Abbey has played Centre more so than any postion. Fast, strong and she has good endurance. She's also played for the S2 team in the Scottish Cup and started for that team in WD.


Ceitidh - WD/WA - great movement to get free from her marker. Her catching, passing has all improved a lot this year which has made her a regular starter for the school team.


Peggy-Nan - C/GA/WA - Peggy-Nan who didn't play Netball in primary has progressed very well this year. She has played the majority of the games at GA but has also started to play Centre due to her fantastic speed and endurance round the court.


Millie Soutar - GA/GS - Millie who started the year saying 'I can't shoot' has not only become a great GS for the S1s she was also starting GS for the S2 team on their way to the Scottish Cup Semi Finals. Her highest goals scored in a game is 26.

The girls will re-enter the Glasgow Schools' league next. Looking forward to it already! 

Congratulations to Holyrood Secondary for winning the league.

Glasgow Schools' Giant Heptathlon

The school yet again put together a strong athletics performance at the Glasgow Schools' Giant Heptathlon. The event takes place at the Emirates arena in the East end of the city. Sgoil Ghaidhlg Ghlaschu finished an impressive 2nd in this years event which was an incredible achievement for the pupils. The event involves 7 girls and 7 boys competing over seven different events: 600m, Javelin, 60mH, Shot Putt, Long Jump, 60m and Standing Triple Jump. Each individual result counts towards the overall team total making it a very competitive event, especially considering there were over 120 girls and 120 boys taking part. 

Girls 

The girls put in a great performance throughout the day. There were some very encouraging performances throughout each event with a number of top 20 results: 

600m 

Annabel 1st

Beth 11th

Peggy-Nan 12th

Abbey 17th 

Javelin

Annabel 14th 

60m Hurdles

Annabel 5th

Mirren 6th

Abbey 18th

Shot Putt

Annabel 4th

Mirren 8th

Abbey 10th

Beth 15th

Sileas 18th 

Eilidh 20th

Long Jump

Annabel 1st

Mirren 8th

Abbey 10th

Sileas 20th

60m 

Annabel 4th 

Abbey 17th

Triple Jump

Annabel 2nd

Abbey 4th

Sileas 6th

Mirren 11th

Well done to Annabel for her three individual medals, Gold in the 600m and Long Jump and Silver in Triple Jump. She should be congratulated also for finishing in the top 5 in 6 different events, very impressive. 

Boys

Here's the boys top results of the day. Well done to Jack for his Silver medal in the Shot Putt: 

600m

Robaidh 5th

Javelin

Jackie 4th

Robaidh 8th

Patrick 20th

60m Hurdles

Kyle 15th

Shot Putt

Jack 2nd

Jackie 18th

Triple Jump

Jackie 18th

At the end of the days competition there's a relay race event. There was a boys race and a girls race involving 6 athletes running 100m each. The boys narrowly missed out on the final, finishing 7th overall. The girls impressed in the semis, qualifying fastest for the final. In the final the girls went even faster and WON! They performed exceptionally well winning by over 3 seconds! That's 3 girls relay wins for SGG in a row at this event! 

Well done to our 14 athletes. You all performed to your best in each event and to finish 2nd out of 20 schools is absolutely fantastic! Mr MacKay and Mr MacCorquodale are looking forward to seeing how you get on in track and field events this summer. 

S1/2 Netball Team Semi Finalists in Scottish Schools Cup

What a year of Netball our S1/2 Netball team have had. They were the first netball team from the school to enter the Scottish Schools Netball competition and went all the way to the semi finals of the Gold Cup!! What a year it has been, here's a sum up of the year's netball.

The girls who won the Glasgow Schools League last year having won all their games and the playoff final knew that their performances would have to dramatically improve were they to do well in the Scottish Schools Cup. The team started their fixtures back in October and won both their group games with some fine performances against St Thomas Aquinas and Bishopbriggs. The team was largely the same as last year's league winning team but were strengthened by Abbey Hart who was called up from S1. She went on and played consistently well at Wing Defence for the team throughout the year despite this being a new position for her. After the group wins the girls went on to the Gold Cup which involves all the league winners from the various areas across Scotland, a massive achievement in itself for the smallest school in the competition. The girls went through to the 3rd round against Berwickshire unfortunately missing Alison Blain GA through injury. That meant a late call up for Millie Soutar from S1. Millie had only played 2 games as Goal Shooter for S1 but had shown good progress in this position but hadn't played with this team before. She was asked to come in and she excelled here for the Scottish Cup game against Berwickshire, this resulted in her starting at this position for the remainder of the fixtures allowing Seona Macleod to play at her preferred choice of Goal Attack. In the game against Berwickshire the girls put in a solid performance with captain Annabel MacDonald at Centre and Seona Macleod at Goal Attack on fire for the team.  After beating Berwickshire in the 3rd round the team progressed to the quarter finals.

In the quarter finals against Strathallan the team did not play well and were very fortunate to win. It was thanks largely due to Annabel coming off her sick bed to play at Centre for the team having not been well or in school the days before the game and clearly suffering during the match. Iona Cochrane playing her best game ever at GK that kept the girls in the game with lots of blocks and interceptions during the game. When GS Millie Soutar eventually received the ball she scored the majority of her shots and this kept the girls narrowly ahead for the majority of the game and this continued to the final whistle where they won by a single point. This was a lesson for the girls, passing wasn't finding it's marker, movement wasn't effective as it has been but they did show great character to keep fighting for the win and progress to the semi finals.

Despite losing in the semi finals the girls played their best netball in this game. They were up a much more experienced team with the majority of their squad in clubs and a number of their starting team playing for Edinburgh District Select but the girls played their absolute best to match their opponents as best they could throughout this fast paced encounter. Eilidh Michie was brilliant in this game at GD, she never gave up although up against probably the best shooter in the whole competition. Annabel MacDonald again put in an exceptional performance at Centre coming up against a very good opponent. Seona Macleod and Millie Soutar played excellent at GA and GS respectively. Iona GK, Abbey WD, Anna WA/WD and Sileas WA all had their best performances of the year, raising their games for the occasion. The girls and Mr MacCorquodale learnt a lot from this game and were very pleased with the performance. A big congratulations to Craigmount for winning the game and this years competition.

Many, many positives to take away from this year, most notably the team performance together, the way the girls got the best out of themselves and played as a unit has been impressive throughout the year. With only one club player in the team, I'm hoping some of the girls will be motivated to go on and join their nearest club. The girls have put the school on the map, most schools hadn't even heard of our school before playing us and were impressed when we said we only had 50 girls from S1/2 to select from and no full sized court at home to train on. I'm looking forward to seeing how the team develops over the next few years.  The girls should be very, very proud to get into the final 4 of the Scottish Cup. This is the best team performance the school has ever had in any team sport! Absolutely sensational from our girls,

Scottish Schools' Cross Country Championships

This year the Glasgow Gaelic School entered the Scottish Schools Cross Country Championships for only the second ever time. This year the event took place in Livingston on Saturday March 3rd, which unfortunately meant that some of our teams fell apart with pupils having to take part in other commitments at the weekend. However we did manage to bring along a squad of enthusiastic pupils to the race.

First up as always was the S1 girls or D girls event which would have had a handful of younger S2s in the race too. Peggy-Nan finished in 41st position, the highest ever finish from a girl at SGG. The course was hilly and muddy but Peggy-Nan, Abbey Hart 98th, Ameilia 99th and Kerry 116th all managed to put in great performances. This resulted in the school finishing a respectable 13th position in the team event.

In the C Girls race Shona started very quickly which caught up with her towards the end of the race. She still maintained her full effort and this resulted in her finishing higher up than last years performance. Shona was 66th and will go again next year in the same race.

Robaidh Whyte fresh from his 3rd place finish at the Glasgow Schools Championships put in an even better performance at the Scottish. Robaidh finished 40th which is our highest ever boys finish. His performance was very strong throughout the race on a tough course, on his second lap he was able to pick up the pace when other people were struggling which is not an easy thing to do. Patrick Connor put in a much improved performance from the Glasgow Schools to finish in 73rd in the same race.

Amy Craig improved on last year's performance to finish 63rd. She should be pleased at this result having put together a busy race schedule over the weeks leading up to the race it was pleasing to see her finish the cross country season with her best performance of the winter.

Andrew Carey, Findlay Dickson and Ruairidh Harris all lined up for the B boys and all finished inside the top 100. Andrew was suffering badly during the race but kept going regardless, he at least kept his spikes on for this event. He finished in 74th position with Findlay having a brilliant race to finish just two places behind in 76th. Ruairidh Harris was experiencing cross country for only the second time at this event and put in a good shift to finish 99th which was inside his target of top 100.

Well done to all our competitors.

Glasgow Schools' Cross Country Championships

Our pupils had been training hard yet again for this years Glasgow Schools' Cross Country Championships. So impressive was the effort from the pupils that we took our biggest ever squad to Pollok Park for the event, 51!!! That's impressive considering that the size of the school roll is 280. 

S1 Girls

The S1 girls race kicked off the day's competition. Peggy-Nan who had been showing the boys who's boss in training was all fired up for the event having put in some good racing and training over the winter months. She ran a very good race, producing two even paced laps to finish in 8th position which is the highest placing we've ever had in S1, boys or girls. She was backed up strongly from Sophie Pettifor in 29th position, Ameilia 50th and Abbey 57th which meant the girls finished in 6th team position overall, 1st Glasgow School. 

S1 Boys

The S1 boys race was insanely fast to begin with, SGG's runners found it difficult to begin with but quickly settled down after the first few minutes. Connor Walker was again top placed boy in 30th, Fionn finished 45th, Robert ran well to finish 60th and Seumas 64th. The boys finished 11th Team, 5th Glasgow School. 

S2 Girls

Going into the race the S2 Girls team was a lot stronger on paper than last year. The team put in the best girls team performance the school has ever seen. We had a record 3 girls inside the top 20 with Shona running exceptionally well to finish 6th, Beth improved from 21st last year to finish 15th in this year's event. Annabel in her first Glasgow Schools XC finished 18th and they were backed up with Mirren in 50th. The girls finished 5th Team overall and 1st Glasgow School. 

S2 Boys 

The S2 Boys put in an outstanding performance to finish 3rd Team overall. Robaidh Whyte ran the race of his life to finish with the Bronze medal. Duncan MacKenzie in his first ever Glasgow Schools athletics event finished 8th! Patrick did well to hang on to 22nd having suffered from a stitch for the last part of the race. Sean was 41st, again he was also competing in his first ever Glasgow Schools athletics event as was Luke 51st and Sorley 76th. 3rd Team overall, 1st Glasgow School. 

S3 Girls 

The S3 Girls was strengthened this year not only by the Sprinters Eilidh and Erin but also people who have improved dramatically this year such as Caitlin Watt and Sophie Beck. Johanna Peters but in her best ever performance to finish in the top 25 having just missed out on top 30 last year. Eilidh finished 39th, Erin 46th and Sophie 54th. 7th team overall, 1st Glasgow School. 

S4 Girls

Catriona Macleod who has improved leaps and bounds this year put in a very impressive performance  along with Anna Murray despite having just returned from injury. Catriona finished 7th and Anna 10th. The girls will hopefully have back up next year for some team medals. 

S4 Boys

Daniel Moran who won the S3 boys last year came out and showed maturity beyond his years to not only win the S4 Boys race and retain his title but he also beat all the S5 and 6 runners who were running at the same time. Daniel is a very dedicated athlete and it was pleasing to see him get his just rewards for what was an exceptional piece of running. Andrew Carey who was running in  his 2nd Glasgow Schools cross country managed to loose both his spikes at the end of lap 1. He some how managed to continue to race and finished with the bronze medal! Andrew showed real determination and focus to carry on despite his feet hurting from running over stones on part of the course. Calum Brown finished inside the top 10 for the first year coming home in 7th. David Comerford who was a late call up to the team was running in his first ever cross country event put in one of the performances of the day to finish 10th. Ruairidh finished 16th, Josh 22nd and Callum 24th which ensured that the boys went one better than last year's silver medals to take home the winning team trophy. 

S5/6 Girls

Amy Craig put in her best performance of the year to finish 11th, this is encouraging as she has another year at this event and she'll be backed up with some of our S4 runners who will be moving up next year. 

Again the pupils at our School out performed the previous years cross country performance. Three individual medalists, two sets of team medals (and not forgetting our first ever team trophy) and lots of improved performances from last years results and some encouraging first time performances too. The S3 boys were given a harsh life lesson but they'll be back next year, fuel for the fire. The pupils in our school keep going from strength to strength in athletics and cross country, keep up the good work!