Sport
Located in rural West Tyrone, where many students do not live in the immediate vicinity of Dromore and depart the school each day on buses, restricts most sports activity to that within breaks during school hours and during Physical Education lessons.
The main success for the school in sport has been in Gaelic football. The school has won numerous Tyrone Vocational Schools Gaelic football titles at under-14 and under-16 level and has won the Ulster Vocational Schools Arthurs Cup (under-16) in 1967, 1974 and most recently in 1999, along with the Ulster Vocational Schools McDevitt Cup (Under 14) in 1977. Several past students have also represented the Tyrone vocational schools' Gaelic football teams in winning Ulster and All-Ireland titles since the late 1960s.
The school has been an important nursery for local Gaelic football clubs in its catchment area, notably Dromore St. Dympna's, Fintona Pearses, Trillick St. Macartan's, Drumquin Wolfe Tones and Drumragh Sarsfields. A large amount of the Dromore squad that won the Tyrone Senior Football Championship for the first time, including captain Fabian O'Neill, were former students of St. John's.
In 2008, Ryan McMenamin and Colm McCullagh, both past students, were starting players of the Tyrone team that won the 2008 All-Ireland Senior Gaelic Football Championship defeating Kerry in the final at Croke Park while Conor O'Neill and Ronan McNabb were both members of the Tyrone team that won the 2008 All-Ireland Minor Gaelic Football Championship defeating Mayo after a replay in Longford with McNabb as team captain.
The school has also had success in ladies' Gaelic football with the winning of the Ulster Under 15 "B" Schools title in 1999 being its biggest success to date. Its most recent championship victory was winning the Tyrone Schools "C" Championship in 2006. Former students to have represented the Tyrone county team included Orla O'Neill, Sinéad McLaughlin, Mairéad McCann and Sonya Maguire. St. John's is also an active participant in school cross-country running competitions.
Read more about this topic: St. John's Business And Enterprise College
Famous quotes containing the word sport:
“Every American travelling in England gets his own individual sport out of the toy passenger and freight trains and the tiny locomotives, with their faint, indignant, tiny whistle. Especially in western England one wonders how the business of a nation can possibly be carried on by means so insufficient.”
—Willa Cather (1876–1947)
“What sport shall we devise here in this garden
To drive away the heavy thought of care?”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“The sport of digging the bait is nearly equal to that of catching the fish, when one’s appetite is not too keen.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)