Interview with Trinity's Ciara Corrigan

1. Hi Ciara, Worlds is just around the corner. You must be getting excited?

Hey hey, yup tis hard to believe really, so excited about it now amid the chaos of packing for it!:) Watching the Olympics has definitley helped add to that excitement, especially Katie Taylor winning the gold, no doubt the same sized crowd that turned out to support her will be out to support us in DCU next week :p

2. As a Kilkenny woman its almost a given that you have grown up playing sport with a stick in your hand. What convinced you to trade your hurley and hockey stick for a frisbee? 

Yeah I think every Kilkenny girl has a stab at camogie at some point and I suppose I always like to try new sports, at this rate I've gone through phases of being mad into swimming, horse riding, yoga, even gymnastics so when my sister started coming home from college going on about this frisbee lark I was tempted to give it a go and haven't looked back since really. Its crazy to think really that after only a year of playing we are getting this amazing opportunity to play at an International level which is something I never could have dreamed about doing with other sports.


3. Playing with Trinity you're part of a bit a dynasty of women's varsity ultimate. You must have learned loads from your team mates during your first year? 

Yeah most definitely, I owe them all so much especially Jen Kwan for investing so much time and effort as captain into us beginners. They are such an amazing group of girls that have serious determination and they have this crazy ability that once they put their minds to something they can put the work in and get the results and thats really something I think us Juniors would hope to achieve. 

 4. Having a close up view of players with such a wealth of international experience training every week, must have been inspiring. As a beginner was it ever intimidating?

I think in the beginning we found it hard to believe they were ever once as clueless at the sport, it was hard to imagine that they were ever once as bad at cutting or throwing as I was. It was definitely very inspiring to know though that it's possible for players to come on so much in a year, Anne being a great example of that as last years captain. They were definitely anything but intimidating though as people, its that kind of sport where everyone is so encouraging and positive and if anything playing against a high standard always helps spur others on to play your best so lets hope that's the case for us at worlds. 

5. Have you any embarrassing stories from your first year as an ultimate player?

Ha, well strictly speaking on the pitch of course,  nothing majorly embarrassing really springs to mind just silly things like my ability to  trip over my own feet often or running in the wrong direction which happened lots in the beginning, also running into people...off the pitch is perhaps a different matter


6. Presumably you didn't know any other players when you made the Irish team. How have you settled into the group?

Yeah true, I knew of some of the other girls from dublin and of course I had heard great things from Anne and Gemma about the cork crowd from last year so I wasn't surprised to find that everyone was as happy and friendly as ultimate people tend to be. We have really gelled well over the past few months but going from all the girls have said about their time in Poland last year there's no doubt we'll be closer than ever after Worlds :)

7. Now that we know who we'll be playing in our first 5 games the excitement is really building. What were your thoughts when you saw who was in our group?

Seeing the schedule made things really hit home about how intense the week is going to be especially coming up against two strong teams Colombia and Germany on the first day alone. Naturally I felt a bit nervous but I know we have it in us as a team to put up a serious fight against all the teams we are facing and so I know myself and the girls are raring to go and show everyone what we're made of.

8. A question from Leanne O'Neill. Ah good old Trinnitah. How does it feel to be the sole representative from Trinity and did you enjoy your time down here in the real capital for all those training weekends?

Well I suppose since the nickname has stuck (thanks to you Leanne) its hard to forget I'm the only 'Trinnitah' girl.  Of course I was always really looking forward to heading to langerland all those weekends as anyone who has been lucky enough to have the amazing Carey household hospitality would understand and sure nothing beats those banterful bonding sessions. 

9. Time to dish the dirt on your team mates.. Who's the biggest chatter box in the group? 

 Trying to get me in trouble with the girls here I see!:) Well obviously all the Cork girls combined share the biggest chatter box title seeing as they seem to all have taken one too many trips to kiss to the blarney stone. There's never a quiet moment when we're all together which is great 

10. Who spends more time worrying about their make up than their throws? 

Ha, to be honest I've heard more of the girls worrying about their piercings than their make up and sure don't ya know we are all far to focused on our throws to be worrying about stuff like that. :) In saying that though, I think there will be serious in depth make up, hair and clothes talk in the run up to the end of tournament celebrations. You have been warned 

11. We're interviewing someone from Christ King next. Do you have a question for Kate O'Regan, Jess Mac, Mags, Niamh or Caroline?  

Well I suppose seeing as how they all just finished 6th year this question is relevant to any of them really.
We all know they were busy juggling frisbee training with the all important leaving cert study during the year and now worlds is the week that the results come out, are they glad to have the tournament to distract them or will they be a bit sad that they'll miss out on recieving their results at home and celebrating with their non-frisbee friends? Also are they more nervous about it seeing as how these results will determine which college they'll be playing ultimate with next year :P