All may be quiet on the pitches of Lusk United Football Club, but behind the scenes the club is very much active. The club’s Youth Council, newly formed before Covid, are unable to interact with members as first planned…but they’ve not let a pandemic stop them. Rather, they have formed their very own ‘Skillz School’, broadcasting through the club’s social media platforms, urging younger members to get involved and get active. Indeed, The Youth Council took a front seat organising the St. Patrick’s Day Virtual Parade, which was a huge success. We are so proud of these young people getting involved in their club and community in a positive way. Follow their hashtag, #luskutdYC, to keep an eye on what they’re up to. On International Women’s Day, we celebrated our 30% female members aged 18 or under, female mentors and managers, ladies kick fit team and our female volunteers. Our girls team members reflected upon what sport and being part of Lusk United means to them. It was truly heart-warming to hear the girl’s thoughts and reflections. We were delighted to be joined by Jamie Finn, Irish International player. Jamie sent a contribution to the club’s International Women’s Day video, encouraging all girls to believe with determination and hard work anything is possible. Jamie has also been working via zoom with the U-11 girls team during lockdown…ready for the much awaited return to football.One of our academy coaches, left in October to go on tour with The Irish Army. A few months later a message was sent by Coach Paul asking if any jerseys or football boots could be collected and sent to Mali. An SOS call was sent out. We were overwhelmed by the response from the Lusk community, St. Michael’s House and from Paul Keogh of the FAI. A huge shipment was sent to Mali. We are delighted to hear it has arrived safely this week and Coach Paul is back doing what he does best…coaching soccer. All in all a busy month for us, but one which embraces our ethos #workhard #havefun.

The recent Lusk 4 mile Virtual race was a tremendous success with over 700 registrations including over 200 Juvenile entries of the Thomas Ashe Dash. This was the highest number of juvenile entries in a Virtual race since lockdown began. We really appreciate the support of local athletes, other club runners and sponsors in making the event so successful. Thanks also to Annette Foy and Nicole Hodson for organising the event. There were some fantastic times recorded with Darren Ryan and Alex Bell retaining their titles as fastest male and female Lusk AC athletes.We would like to congratulate members for continuing their own training during this extended lockdown. Some of the times recorded over the last few months have been phenomenal and show the hard work being put in is really paying dividends. We are very excited to resume group training once allowed.The 40 day Sunrise Challenge is almost at an end. Well done to everyone who took part.

There is an old saying – the secret to getting ahead is getting started and that’s what we at Junsa have done, instead of waiting for lockdown to finish, and an end to restrictions so we can train together safely , we have gone training , online, and separately but together.Even though our students are safely training at home they are training together where they can still see and chat ( but not too much !) to each other over our Zoom training sessions.While it’s still not the same the students are still keeping their fitness and Taekwondo skills up to date.The club made their kick pads available to the students for home training, which means they need someone to hold the pads,and in steps the mams and dadsw to help out.It’s great to see the parents and guardians getting involved in the students sport.Well done to everyone , and huge thank you to all for the support. Here are some of our students training at home via Zoom.A huge thank you to everyone who has kept up their training online and we hope to see everyone back for training face to face as soon as it’s safe to do so.