Report from Mr. Spellacy in San Francisco, 3rd February 2026:
St Marnock’s N.S represented Ireland in the Flag Football World Finals which took place from 01.02.26 - 03.02.26 playing against 4 other different countries! They were drawn into an extremely difficult group against Japan and Canada, who both contested the finals of this tournament in 2024.
Japan proceeded into the NFL Flag Final on 3rd February in the Moscone Centre. Our NFL Team Ireland were unbelievable in both games especially defensively! With ten minutes to go in the Japan game it was only 2 touch downs to our one touch down! We had achieved one of our goals of getting a touch down in the World Finals. We moved onto Day 2 where the children played against Germany and Great Britain. We set the record by being the first team from Ireland to win a game in the NFL Flag World Championships, beating Germany by one point! We had an amazing touchdown vs Germany disallowed because they deemed our play to be illegal!
Following on from that, the children have become great friends with the New Zealand team. We exchanged hurl signed by the team with New Zealand after watching their Haka. We played a mixed friendly match with New Zealand where the boys and girls swapped jerseys and played for each others countries! After this the girls played an all girls mixed game with several countries involved! A huge honour for our three girls! Other activities so far included: - a bus tour to the Golden Gate Bridge and a view of Alcatraz! - a trip to the Moscone centre to see the pro bowl practice and meet some of the NFL stars! - a trip around fisherman’s wharf with the team - a trip to the bowling alley and arcade in Oakland! - And finally today we went to Target so the team could do a bit of shopping before heading off to the Moscone centre again to watch the U13 Flag Finals and go to the SuperBowl Experience!
Message from Ms. Trimble to our NFL team, 3rd February 2026:
Congratulations to our school's NFL team representing Ireland in the U13 World Championships in San Francisco! Well done to each and every one of you......Matthew Carr, Evelyn Carter, Max Clarke, Rhys Foran, Max Gayler, Emmet Guyot, Robyn Harrell, Oscar Lawrence, Dylan Leavy and Beth Spicer. Thanks also to our great coaches....Mr Barnes, Mr. Spellacy, Mr. Cooper and Ms. Dillon who are supporting the team on their exciting, once in a lifetime adventure! We are immensely proud of you all! You've been fantastic ambassadors for Ireland, you've done our school and country proud!
Comhghairdeas daoibh go léir! We look forward to welcoming you all back to the school on your return!
