Over the Halloween break we completed our Cross-Country exchange trip with our American partners, John Burroughs High School, from Los Angeles. 8 of us took part in this trip, Ronán Bergin, Brian McGuire, Jordan Logue, Graham Mahon, Mark McKenzie, Mr.O’Neill and Mr. McCafferty. It was a long flight but entertaining, going a slightly round-about but educational way, flying over Iceland, Greenland and across Canada. We received a million welcomes from our host families and the entire 2,700 pupils in the entire school.The next day we ran in the biggest school’s race in the world, the Mt. Sac Invitational, with over 30,000 competitors fighting for the prestigious cow-bell which they give to the winners.

We weren’t quite good enough to snatch this fantastic prize on the day but did ourselves justice finishing 38 out of 2,652 schools in a gruelling race we had never ran before. While we were there we attended school and

cross-country training, which was a once in a life time experience which we thoroughly enjoyed. After a typical school day (which finished at 2pm) we attended such sites as the San Andreas fault line,The Hollywood Hills and the beaches of Santa Barbara and Malibu and of course, you cant visit Cali without going to DisneyLand where we spent most of Sunday. I think it’s fair to say that everyone thoroughly enjoyed the trip and got a good insight into another culture. A big thank you to all who made this trip possible especially Mr.O’Neill and Mr.McCafferty who even rented a car for us when we needed lifts. ( a full report is available in the sports section of the school website.

A special word of thanks to our past pupil Gerard Deegan.Without his energy and enthusiasm this trip would not have happened.

David Murphy
(Senior Captain)