1. Introduction
My Uaneen portfolio will mainly consist of my volunteering efforts over the past 4 years and the skills I’ve
picked up along the way. During my time in DCU I volunteered for the following activities:
Basketball Coaching
Gaelic Football Coaching
St. Vincent de Paul (SVP)
Raise and Give society (RAG)
Tutoring in Ballymun Comprehensive
Calcutta program with Suas Educational Development
2. MY STORY
BACKGROUND
I attended school in Belvedere College SJ from 2003-2009. While I was there I was involved in the
Basketball team and the St. Vincent De Paul society (SVP). I also played basketball and Gaelic football
for clubs at home. I used to referee basketball games at home to earn pocket money and to qualify as a
referee I took a week long course during the summer holidays before transition year. It wasn't until
transition year in school that I really got heavily involved in the SVP and that's when I really started to
enjoy my time in the college.
I threw myself into every activity I could find and at the end of the year I got an award for the participation
in the spirit of transition year. To this day I put that down as my greatest achievement, not only because
of all the hard work I put in to achieve it but also because of the change it represented for me as a
person.
In 5
th
year I spent two weeks in Calcutta teaching in schools set up for the children in the struggling
communities. I also took part in the “Sleepouts” and “Block Pulls” to help raise money for charity. These
experiences really opened my eyes as to how much needs to be done and just how much I can actually
do to help others.
So before starting college in DCU in September 2009, this is what I got up to...
Basketball: 2003-2009 (School and Club)
Gaelic Football: 2003-2009 (Club)
Refereeing: 2006-2009 (Basketball Club)
SVP: 2006-2009 (School)
3. MY LIFE AS A COLLEGE STUDENT
I started my Actuarial Maths (ACM) course in DCU in September 2009. I chose this course because I
really liked maths and wanted to do a course that was local to me, had good job prospects, and also gave
me the option to become a maths teacher at the end of it.
During my 4 years in college I’ve been involved in coaching basketball and Gaelic football, the St. Vincent
de Paul society (SVP), the Raise and Give society (RAG), playing both football and basketball, 3
rd
Year
Class Rep, working with Suas Educational Development and tutoring maths and all secondary school
levels.
4. Activity Log
Hours
per
week Title
1st Year
Basketball Playing 9 Player
Basketball Coaching 4.5
Assistant
Coach
Football Playing 5 Player
Football Coaching 4.5
Assistant
Coach
Maths Grinds 2 Tutor
Total 25
2nd Year
Basketball Playing 9 Player
Basketball Coaching 9 Head Coach
Football Playing 5 Player
Football Coaching 4.5 Head Coach
Maths Grinds 4 Tutor
Total 31.5
3rd Year
Basketball Playing 4.5 Player
Basketball Coaching 15 Head Coach
Football Playing 5 Player
Football Coaching 4.5 Head Coach
Maths Grinds 8 Tutor
Class Rep 4
Total 41
4th Year
Basketball Playing 4.5 Player
Basketball Coaching 7.5 Head Coach
Maths Grinds 5 Tutor
St. Vincent de Paul 5 Volunteer
Raise and Give 2 Volunteer
Total 24
5. Basketball Coaching
As soon as I started college I started coaching basketball with the u14 boys in my club. It was something I
had always intended on doing but was putting it off until I finished my Leaving Cert exams so I'd have a
bit more time on my hands. For my 1
st
year I was an assistant coach because I was still learning the
ropes. For my second season, I stayed as assistant coach for that team but also started coaching a B
team as head coach. I really enjoyed the extra responsibility and it was a relatively low pressured affair as
the team was quite weak. It was a great experience for me because I got the chance to make a lot of
mistakes and learn from them without the burden of having to get everything spot on as there weren't any
heavy expectations that had to be met. The goal for the team for the year was just to get everyone
playing and enjoying basketball and I feel I achieved that. It was good to get used to organizing the team
and their matches and sending out weekly texts to the players and their parents, scheduling referees for
the various games and other little bits and pieces. I also had the freedom to plan my own training
sessions and use the tactics that I liked best for matches.
In my third year of coaching I felt I had gained enough experience to start coaching a first team by myself
and have an assistant under me as well. I ended up head coaching the u13 boys that year, the A team
and the B team. I was also asked to coach the u16's and u19's basketball teams in my old school. The
combination of coaching these 4 teams, along with 1 Gaelic football team was quite stressful at times and
I feel my exam results took a hit that year because of it.
I had tons of organizing to do, between trying to schedule the matches, referees and training sessions
and also trying to help my assistant coach get valuable learning experience. I feel I learned a huge
amount that year about pushing myself to my limits but more importantly, learning how much I'm
physically able to take on without over-stretching myself and committing to too many things. The u13's A
team ended up coming second in the Dublin Cup and the school team I coached won the u19's B Dublin
league and continued on to get to the All-Ireland semi-final which we lost by a last second score (I'm still
sore about that one a year down the line!).
This year (my fourth year of coaching), I coached the u16's and u19's in the school and took the u14 boys
team which had been condensed down to just one big squad.
The u19's were in the A league this year and we started very strongly, beating last year's All Ireland A
league champions by 3 points in a very exciting game that went into overtime. We won the next few
games but were unlucky to lose our last game in the group which left us not qualifying, losing out on
point’s difference in a three-way tie. They were also knocked out of the All Ireland Cup quarter final after
getting through the first two rounds. The u14's managed to finish mid table in the league and the u16's
boys in the school had a mediocre season with about as many wins as losses by the end.
6. Roles I had as a coach
The amount of off-the-court involvement I had varied from team to team but with most of them I was
sending out texts and Facebook messages 2 or 3 times a week for each team, organizing referees for
each game and sorting out fixtures, booking gym times etc. Obviously I was also attending the training
sessions and matches each week which averaged at about 2 sessions and 1 match per week and this
really added up when I was coaching 4 basketball teams and one football team during the same stretch.
What I learned from my 4 years of basketball coaching
I feel I learned a great deal about being the leader of a team, I was well used to being part of a team but
never really got the opportunity to be the first in command when it came to making decisions and
organizing the squad for training sessions and matches. I developed the ability to negotiate and come up
with compromises – this proved to be extremely useful this year when I was able to negotiate with both
Suas and SIG so that I could start my work placement late and finish up my trip to Calcutta a bit early,
either of which I would have been devastated to have to miss. Things like getting the balance right
between winning matches and sharing court time really got me thinking and used to trying to see things
from all perspectives and prioritizing the needs so that I’m not breaking my heart trying to meet the
unreasonable requests at the expense of some of the more important concerns.
By necessity, I also acquired strong time-management skills, I was so busy from week to week that I
learned to fit everything in and keep procrastination to a minimum. I found that I’m a lot more efficient at
getting my college work done when I’m busy with other activities as there are only a few set times that I
can do my study so I’m not messing around when I get a bit of free time. I got much more comfortable
with organizing training sessions and team fixtures – something I didn’t think I was capable of 4 years
ago.
7. Gaelic Football Coaching
Shortly after I started coaching in basketball I was offered a position to assistant coach with the boys
football team in my club at the u14’s level for the B team– the same age group as the basketball so there
was a lot of overlap with the players I was in charge of. This was still during my first year of college.
I knew the importance to getting off to a good start so I came out ready for action at the first training
session and I feel that most of the respect they had from me was due to this. I was able to bring a new
energy to the training sessions, a new coach with new drills seemed to be the boost they were looking for
and that was what the other managers had in mind when they invited me on board.
After my first year, the two other coaches stepped down, leaving me with the job of head coach for the
team. I loved this extra responsibility and as I got more experienced I was left in charge of the B and C
team for training sessions which was often up to 40 people.
Although I benefitted from the large overlap between coaching football and basketball, there were plenty
of new challenges waiting for me on the football field that I hadn’t encountered in the warm confines of a
basketball court. I had to be a lot stricter with the boys when we there were about twice or three times as
many of them running around outside.
Roles I had as a football coach
I was lucky to have quite a lot of backup from the parents when I was coaching the football so I didn’t
have to worry about fixtures or texts or lifts or anything like that. The job was less tactical based and I was
more focused on motivating them and getting all the tactics sorted in the training sessions as there are no
time-outs and a lot less stops in football matches in football. I felt that a lot of the concentration was on
teaching them to coach themselves when on the field whereas in basketball I would always be within
earshot of the players and have plenty of timeouts at my disposal.
New skills I picked up
I learned to coordinate a much larger group of people and also did a lot more work with them teaching
them to cooperate as a team because there’s a lot less that can be done from the sideline in a football
match so the inspiration and initiative has to come from within the squad themselves.
I really learned to motivate my team and get them pumping before going into a match – this skill then
translated back into my basketball coaching and became very useful then too. I also spent more time
getting feedback from the players themselves, as they see a different game on the pitch than I see off the
pitch so it’s useful to hear their opinions and I found this was a nice way to show them respect and in turn
they would tend to have more respect for me too. Again, this is a skill I transferred back over to my
basketball coaching and it had a similar effect. I found it especially useful with the u19’s team I was
coaching as they were very close in age to me so it was very important for me to remain looked up to and
have my opinion valued.
8. St. Vincent de Paul (SVP)
The SVP society was something I’d been meaning to get back involved in for quite some time. I’d been so
busy with my coaching and playing sports that I was never around to take part in their activities. When 4
th
and final year came around I made the decision to give up DCU basketball to take part in the soup runs
and I reckon that’s the best decision I’ve made in my 4 years in DCU. I was finally learning to prioritize
and put my own needs first. I didn’t feel too guilty leaving the squad as they had a lot of players and I was
already playing basketball for my home club so I felt this was something I’d enjoy a lot more.
I was able to attend most of the soup runs after that and really enjoyed being involved in the society.
Later that year we had the “DCU Little Christmas” which was a great success as a fundraiser for the
society. In semester 2 I was given the responsibility of coordinating a lot of the soup runs and I really
enjoyed this and I also felt it was a nice credit to all the work I’d put in that I was being asked to take over
some of them. This was still very much a team exercise so I was able to organize our troops into different
groups, delegating the tasks and planning the route.
Another fundraiser which was a massive success and I thoroughly enjoyed was the SVP sleepout. We all
gathered up and did a 24 hour sleepout in our sleeping bags shaking buckets and encouraging people to
donate. The whole event raised over €2,500 and it really felt great to be a part of it.
While in the SVP I picked up a lot of the skills and knowledge that I already had from the SVP events I did
in school I feel the real skills I learned were in prioritizing and “saying no”. This was an unusual skill to
need to pick up but I suppose my big turnaround when I was transition year was saying yes and getting
involved in everything so it was surprisingly difficult to do at the beginning but once I got used to knowing
when to put my own needs first I got the hang of it and although it seems like a small thing it was probably
one of the most useful skills I picked up in college.
In 3
rd
year I had taken on too much and as a result, my exam results fell to the worst of my 4 years in
DCU. This year though I turned down a lot of opportunities in order to focus on my studies and last
semester I achieved my best exam results of my time in college.
9. Raise and Give Society (RAG)
In semester 2 of final year I joined the RAG society in DCU. I felt I had a bit of extra time on my hands as
my football coaching had finished and the basketball season was winding down. I took part in the social
project “Operation Paint Ballymun (OPB)” which was basically an after school art class set up for the
children in Ballymun. As with most activities, it took a few weeks to find my feet but once I got used to the
lads and they got used to me we started to cooperate, the project became much more fun and productive.
This experience enhanced my teamwork skills and brought up many new challenges that I hadn’t faced
before. This had been one of my incentives before starting the project – I knew that any new skills I
picked up while doing OPB would be very useful to me when volunteering in Calcutta this summer. I
found it quite difficult at times to try and encourage the boys to do art instead of playing pool or going
outside to play football. This was a new kind of negotiation that I hadn’t dealt with before and quite often
this can be more difficult than when dealing with adults. A lot of the weeks I was the only boy there so I
felt it was my responsibility to do most of the work encouraging the boys to take part.
This here was Devin. The first few weeks I saw him, he had no interest in taking part in the art, he used to
just sit there and try to get it over with. This particular day was different though, he saw a picture he liked
and wanted to draw. He even came back from football to finish it off and make sure he did a proper job of
it. It was little wins like this one that kept me coming back to OPB each week.
10. Calcutta Program with Suas Educational Development
In November 2012 (final year) I decided to apply to Suas to take part in their program that involves
travelling to Calcutta for 10 weeks this summer to teach in schools set up for the disadvantaged children.
I was lucky enough to be selected and feel this was to do with my previous experience in coaching, SVP
volunteering and also the maths tutoring I was doing. The program involves fundraising €2995 as well as
taking part in three preparation weekends along with organizing an Indian visa, getting my injections and
looking after my malaria tablets.
For my fundraisers, I organized a table quiz and also a maths revision course. For both events I had to do
a lot of organization, advertise the event, rope in volunteers to help me on the day and for the revision
course I even learned how to set up a website*. I really improved my event management skills through
my fundraising and I feel this kind of experience will stand to me in the future.
12. All of my activities were as part of teams, I had different roles in each of the teams and they were all of
different sizes and had different purposes so I really feel I’ve gained a broad understanding of how to
work well in a team and how to help the team cooperate as best we can. Organising a team and engaging
all of the members is something that now comes very naturally to me – from my coaching and leading of
the soup runs I learned the importance of delegation, the more active the members of the team are, the
more efficient the processes are and more importantly, every member enjoys it more knowing that the
team needs them to be there.
All of my activities involved a lot of planning, organization and time management. With the coaching I was
texting about training sessions and matches, doing up session plans, booking referees and court times
and collaborating with the club committee. With my fundraising I developed my advertising and promoting
skills – designing a website and setting up event pages on Facebook along with posters and text
messages. It was difficult to do but very satisfying when I got them up and running and they turned out to
be a success. Time management skills just came to me with practice and out of pure necessity – I’d never
have been able to get near that amount done if I wasn’t keeping a close eye on the timing of all my
activities.
I feel the combination of my experiences made me a more confident and outgoing person. While on Intra,
I organized a good few social events like paintballing and go-karting for myself and the other students that
I was just getting to know. I also organized a foosball tournament for everyone on my floor in the office
which was quite a scary thing to do, going and asking some of my work colleagues who were basically
strangers to me if they’d like to take part but it turned out to be great fun and I’m still remembered in the
office for it now, a year down the line. This confidence also came through in my decision making skills.
With all of the coaching and being in charge, a lot of the final decisions came down to me and the
consequences were my responsibility. I enjoyed dealing with this kind of pressure and as the years went
by I was a lot surer of myself when it came to making these decisions and sticking to them. I got better at
predicting the outcomes of different decisions and I felt it was very important to look back at the results
and decide what I would have done differently so I could learn from it in the future. Sometimes I made
incorrect decisions that resulted in me getting lucky and it paying off and other times I made the right
decisions and the undesired result was out of my hands. Because of this, I always tried to look back not
at the result, but at the decision – given the information I had at the time.
13. My impact on others
I found that making an impact on the people around you is all about noticing the little things, the small
changes in people that you can hold yourself responsible for.
Here are some of the small things that testified to the fact that I was making small improvements in
people’s lives.
1. Devin and Taylor in Operation Paint Ballymun
Art was never really a big interest for these two boys but after a couple of weeks I felt like I was starting to
get through to them. They used to try and get the art class over and done with as quickly as they could so
they could go outside and play football, and to be honest, I couldn’t really blame them. Then one week we
did paintings of anything we wanted and Devin took part rather than go and play football. A very similar
thing happened with Taylor the next two weeks – we did masks and T-shirts and both weeks he put in a
lot of effort and got a lot out of it. I never much liked art when I was younger either so I was delighted to
be able to inspire a small interest in it with the boys.
2. Collaboration Classes with my class as class rep
I decided to think outside the box as class rep when I was in third year and organized a few study groups
for the class. This involved allocating different tutorial questions to different people in the class who would
then present their solutions to the rest of the class and do their best at explaining them. A lot of people
thanked me for them afterwards but I was never really sure if the result was worth all of my efforts. A year
later, one of the boys in the class thanked me because a solution we did in class came up in the test and
him getting that right was the difference between him passing the exam and having to sit a repeat in
August so even if that was the only positive to come from it then it was worth my while.
3. A training session that felt like nothing at the time
It was just another Saturday evening training session with the u14 boys team that I was coaching, no
different to the one a week before or the one a week after in my mind. One of the parents thanked me for
it weeks later saying that her son was having a rough time with one of his other basketball teams and was
strongly considering throwing in the towel. She said they convinced him to go to that session that I was
taking and he had so much fun he dropped all thoughts of giving up the sport. This was a huge deal for
me and it’s probably my favourite story as the boy was the biggest basketball fan I’ve ever seen in my life.
At 13 he could tell me more about NBA teams than I ever knew, he looked up his own drills on the
internet to do at home, he saved up his pocket money to buy training cones for more practice at home -
the list went on. Since then, whenever I’ve needed to motivate myself to keep going to the training
sessions I’d think that this one could be another one of those without me knowing it.
14. They’re probably my three favourite stories although there are many more I could mention. From time to
time, parents have described me as a role model which was the ultimate compliment because that has
always been my goal as a coach and a volunteer. When it came to fundraising this year, a lot of people
helped me out more than was necessary and I took that as a thank you for all the work I’d put in in
previous years.
