Surprisingly, for two clubs who had so much success at all levels across the spectrum, it was not until 1975 that the Ratheniska Juvenile GAA Club was set up. It’s intentions were straightforward, provide entertainment for the children of the area, give them an outlet, and to nurture them for the future and progress into the senior ranks of the Park/Ratheniska GAA Club. In the past Park/Ratheniska players had played underage with the local Portlaoise GAA Club where the likes of the Ramsbottom brothers Har, Joe, John and Paddy, Jimmy Leonard, George Rankins and Harry Ramsbottom all won honours. Joe Ramsbottom has the distinction of winning four minor hurling titles with the ‘Town between 1958-1961, while Jim Leonard also collected three in this period. 

​However in 1975 it was decided that a growing Club needed it’s own juvenile section and under the leadership of Har Ramsbottom, Liam Wall, Paddy Casey, Sean Conroy, Aidan Downey, Tom Bowe and Har Fingleton the wheels were set into motion. 

In 1981 a relationship was forged with The Heath Football Club under which Ratheniska footballers would play football with The Heath football Club while all Hurlers would turn out for the Ratheniska club. Under this arrangement Ratheniska footballers handsomely contributed to titles ranging from U12’s to U21 level being delivered regularly. 

In the first year of its inception the Juvenile Club successfully returned the founder’s faith when delivering the U14 hurling championship to the area. A minor hurling title was to follow in 1988 when in a pulsating contest in O Moore Park, Abbeyleix were defeated 1-13 to 1-6. A football title was added the following week to complete a memorable week for the Club. 

In 1989 Park/Ratheniska captured its first ever U/21 title when in a fine showing of power and skilful hurling Clonaslee were swept aside on a score line of 3-4 to 0-4. 

1994 was to be a landmark year for the Ratheniska Juvenile Club however. Nineteen years on since it’s conception the first ever juvenile hurling title was delivered to the area. It was an U/17 hurling title to boot, and no smaller forces than Balinakill, Borris in Ossory, among others were beaten before Camross waited in the final. A remarkable game that swung in every direction before in a dramatic five minutes on injury time where each side goaled, and a last gasp clearance, Ratheniska emerged victorious 2-3 to 1-5. With the U17 football title already in the bag, it was yet another memorable week for the Ratheniska Club. 

In the late 90's and early 2000's it was decided to devolve our Football amalgamation with The Heath. While it had been a tremendously successful one for the club over the decades it was in place, with titles won at every single age grade and mostly all in the A Championships, it was felt by Park/Ratheniska that with numbers growing, that the Club would be best served by fielding our own sides. And what a great decision it has proven to be, with the first streams of players starting to make their way into the adult ranks in recent years. Titles have been won at U12, U14 and U16 grades with some near misses at Minor level on a number of occasions. There have also been U21 Finals contested under our own banner, all of which has contributed greatly to the number of players our Juvenile Club is bringing through to the Adult sides.

On the Hurling front underage amalgamations proved successful during the noughties also, again with titles being won at U12, U14 and U16 grades. In 2017 the Club announced the development of a new hurling Club entirely to cater for both Park/Ratheniska and Timahoe, and so the Park/Ratheniska-Timahoe Hurling Club was formed, catering for hurlers from nursery up to adult. This has proved very successful at underage level, where we compete at A level in almost all grades. 

2022 was another landmark year for the Club, when we struck out on our own entirely at underage football for the first time in a number of years. The importance of providing games to as many of our underage players as possible is tantamount to what we do in Park/Ratheniska and with our numbers strong across the grades, we can now hope to do so into the future. This didn't come about by accident and won't continue to happen on its own. It is down to the hard work of our coaches and administation, and the dedication and loyalty of our community, players and parents. Long may it continue. 

Our Nursery coaching has grown from strength to strength over the past decade, thanks to the dediation of our large number of fully trained and vetted coaches and in 2015 we had the largest number of new registrations of any Club in Laois. Our links with the local Ratheniska National School are being built upon every year, with success going hand in hand with the hard work being down on both sides of our country road.