The Institute has a very busy sports programme run throughout the academic year in association with Student Sport Ireland, the GAA and the FAI. Badminton, through the assistance of Student Sport Ireland, has developed in the Institute.
The sports programme at ATU Donegal is run by the Sports Officer who manages the competitive fixtures and teams. The Sports Officer is happy to assist students by providing the required information on how to get involved in competitive sports at ATU Donegal.
Some of our recent sporting successes include:
GAA Football.
The Men’s GAA team went all the way to the Sigerson Cup semi-final last year where they were narrowly defeated by IT Carlow. The team defeated both Athlone IT and IT Sligo on the way to the semi-final. Michael Murphy, Donegal Senior team captain, is the team manager and he has a dedicated staff assisting him who will be looking forward to gaining honours this year.
The Ladies GAA team play in Division 4 of the LGFA league and have had a successful season maintaining their status in the division.
The team narrowly missed out in winning the league final this year where they were defeated by 3 points.
The panel continues to grow with the welcome addition of players from Sligo, Monaghan and Mayo along with home grown talent from Donegal.
Hurling.
The sport has re-emerged in recent years at ATU Donegal. The past years have brought some success to ATU Donegal in Hurling with a victory in the Corn MacDiarmada,
a 7-a-side competition in 2019-20. Training and selection of players continues with the assistance of the Sports Scholarship programme as a reward for dedication in the club.
Soccer Football.
The institute has a special association with soccer down through the years. The Men’s team compete in Division 1 of the Colleges and Universities Football League and were defeated in the League semi-final last year to NUIG. The panel has been strengthened in the past year with players from the locality and also counties Monaghan, Mayo and Galway which will prove to be a welcome development in the coming season.
The Ladies Soccer team are playing in the Premier Division of the Women’s league where they finished 3rd and also reached the semi-final stage of the O’Regan Cup. The team have established a reputation for playing a good style of football and they have added players to key areas of the team. Two of our players were part of the last World Student Games team that travelled to Russia in 2019.
Basketball.
The Men’s Basketball team compete in Division 1 of the Colleges league and have maintained their position there thanks to the help of our US Victory Scholars and all of the panel. The team are coached by a member of Basketball Ireland who is available on campus to develop basketball in the institute.
The Ladies Basketball team are also Division 1 players and are also aided by the 2 US Victory Scholars with a wealth of local talent in the team also. The Ladies train on campus twice weekly in An Danlann, the Sports Hall and compete in the North West Basketball league also, like the Men’s team.
Boxing.
ATU Donegal have been successful in the national third level colleges championships last year gaining 2 national titles in the 75kg and in the 69kg categories. The Boxing community in Donegal is a very dedicated group and is happy to welcome athletes from outside of the county when they attend ATU Donegal to commence studies.
Athletics.
In Athletics the institute has been successful in the Shot Putt event, gaining a gold medal in the event for the past 2 years at the Irish Universities Athletics Association championships.
Among our sports scholars we have also got middle distance runners who are progressing with the assistance with local club coaching.