Lots of activity on second and third level education scene in the New Year.

Draws for teams involved in second and third level G.A.A. Competitions from the Waterford area were made over the past few days, all of which will take place early in the New Year.

The final of the Fitzgibbon Cup in 2013 will be hosted by the GMIT in early March.

13 teams will take place in this year’s competition split into four groups. One group of four teams and the other three groups contain three teams with two teams from each group advancing to the knockout stages of the competition.

This years hosts for the finals weekend along with University College Cork, NUIG and Mary Immaculate College have all been drawn in group one. Waterford Institute of Technology are drawn in group two along with Institute of Technology Carlow and Cork Institute of Technology.

UCD, Limerick Institute of Technology and DCU are all drawn in group three while UL, St. Pats/Mater Dei and Dublin Institute of Technology are in group four.

First round games will take place on January 31 with the games in the second round taking place the following Wednesday and the third round of games on the Tuesday which follows.

The winners of WIT’s group will play the runners up of group three at the WIT while the runners up of WIT’s group will play the winners of group one away in the quarter finals. The semi finals of the competition will take place on March 1 with the finals taking place twenty four hours later.

It has also been confirmed recently that the Waterford Institute of Technology will host the 2013 O’Connor, Giles and Lynch Cup semi finals and finals on March 15 and 16, with the final of the main competition been shown live on TV for the first time in its history.

WIT will be participating in the Giles Cup competition and will be hoping to record a second win in the competition since 2011 and to reach its third final since 2010.

This will be the first time that the Waterford College will host the finals of this competition. However, hosting the finals of major competitions is not something new to the college having staged the Fitzgibbon Cup successfully in 1993, 2000 and 2011 and also have hosted the Ashbourne Cup in 2005 and 2012.

Twelve teams will play nine games over the weekend with over 500 players expected to take part in the three competitions. In addition upwards of between two and three thousand supporters are expected to visit the Carriganore venue over the weekend.

On Thursday evening last the draws for the quarter finals of this years Dr Harty Cup took place.

Waterford had two teams in the draw hat, and the big news from a Waterford perspective is that the county are assured of having one team in the semi finals after the holders Dungarvan Colleges were paired with Blackwater Community School from Lismore.

The winners of this game will play either Thurles CBS or Castletroy who knocked De La Salle out of the competition recently in the semi finals, while the second semi final is going to see the winners of the Our Lady’s from Templemore and Midleton CBS game take on the all Limerick quarter final clash between Ard Scoil Ris and Doon CBS.

The draws for the quarter finals of the Munster Senior ‘B’ Colleges competition for the Corn Pádraig was also made on Thursday last.

There is the possibility with there could be lots of West Waterford interest in the final as Dungarvan CBS and Pobal Scoil na Tríonóide from Youghal who often include a number of players from the Clashmore, Grange and Ardmore areas of the county were kept apart in the quarter finals and in the semi finals.

Dungarvan CBS were drawn against Coláiste an Rísigh from Ennis in the last eight of the competition and the winner of this game will play the winners of the Kilmallock and Rochestown College quarter final game in the semi finals.

The remaining quarter finals see Saint Josephs from Tulla take on Borrisoleigh in one of the last eight games and there is an all Cork quarter final when Pobal Scoil na Tríonóide take on the Patrician Academy with the winners of these two last eight clashes taking on each other in the semi finals.

Meanwhile there was some good news for Waterford in the Ladies Football on the Colleges scene when Blackwater Community School from Lismore beat Ard Scoil na nDeise from Dungarvan on a 2-8 to 1-10 scoreline to qualify for this years Munster Senior Football final at a date and venue to be confirmed.