Coláiste Mhuire, Mullingar hurlers doing Westmeath proud

By John Harrington

The standard of post-primary schools hurling in a county is a very reliable indicator of the health of the game there and is also often a predictor of future inter-county success.

That’s why Coláiste Mhuire Mullingar’s progression to the Leinster Colleges Senior Hurling ‘A’ Championship (Corn Uí Dhuill) semi-finals is such a good news story for Westmeath hurling.

This is the first year that a Westmeath school has ever competed in the Senior ‘A’ grade, and Coláiste Mhuire have quickly proven they belong there.

They’ve beaten two teams of real pedigree – Coláiste Eoin, Stillorgan and Offaly Combined Schools – to make it to the last four, and the results don’t come as a complete bolt from the blue.

Last year the school opted to play in the ‘A’ grade for first year, second year, and junior hurling competitions and performed very creditably.

Teachers like school Deputy-Principal Micheál Lawler, Kieran Kelly, and Evan Tully are all very committed to nurturing the talent of young hurlers in Coláiste Mhuire and this is complemented by the coaching of Feichín Brennan, Amy Kenny and Eoin Weir with other age-grade teams.

The school is also very appreciative of the support of club coaches who have also offered their services to various school teams and who are invaluable to the relationship between school, club and county.

“A couple of years ago the hurling coaches in the school sat down to get a pathway from first to sixth year,” says Coláiste Mhuire Deputy-Principal, Micheál Lawler.

“The word 'win' isn't actually mentioned in the pathway. That's a big thing. I wouldn't say we saw this coming, but what we've tried to be is competitive.

“It's just trying to get lads in Westmeath playing at a higher standard. We knew we could compete, but you can't really judge after that, every game is different and you can't predict winning.

“You can't coach winning. You can coach skills, game awareness and so on, but winning is an outcome and to me it's not something that can be focused on.

“We aim to coach the essential skills and hope then that lads are skilled enough to compete and if they're good enough on a given day then they'll hopefully get over the line and you need that bit of luck as well.

“I also don't think you can emphasise enough that it's the clubs who deserve the bulk of the credit. The time we have with them, yes, we're trying to maximise it, and a lot of it is about game awareness and skill work but the clubs are the core in all of this.

“Then you're trying to marry that with club matches, development squads and county minors and U20s.

“There's a lot of good work going on and we get them for a set period and you're just trying to instil a bit of camaraderie around it and get them working as a team. That's probably the big part of it.”

Last year Coláiste Mhuire won the Leinster Post Primary Schools Senior ‘A’ Football Championship (Br. Bosco Cup) and on Friday will contest the semi-final of this year’s competition.

It’s a great achievement to be contesting ‘A’ semi-finals in both codes in the one year with the hope of even bigger days to come, and it’s largely the same group of players who are campaigning on both fronts.

“From first to sixth year it's all dual,” says Lawler. “I think there were 10 starters from the hurling team last week who will hopefully be involved in some way shape or form on Friday, so there is a big crossover.

“I think that needs to be embraced as well. That dual aspect is very important in Westmeath and very important to us as well and very important to the lads, they love it.

“There's nobody forced to play hurling or football. Hurling and football are our national sports and if a young lad wants to play both of them I think it’s very important that they’re encouraged and supported to do so.”

With two Leinster Senior A semi-finals on the horizon there’s huge excitement in the school.

Coláiste Mhuire always brings a big and colourful support to their matches and school spirit has been given a great boost by the exploits of their young hurlers and footballers.

“There's a huge buzz in the school, lads are very excited,” says Lawler. “What you're hoping is that these lads are inspiring the first years and the second years and maybe lads who might want to come to school here in the future. They'll know what it means to represent Coláiste Mhuire.

“You're trying to get that culture of positivity around the sport and the importance of it but balanced as well with the academics. That's the big thing we promote in the school, having that balance between the academic and the extra-curricular.

“The younger lads can see that as well. There's great role-models in the senior teams and lads look up to them and want to try to achieve as well.

“The buzz is good around the wider school community as well. There are a lot of good wishes coming our way from Westmeath people in general and the support is always very much appreciated.”

Coláiste Mhuire play Naas CBS in the football semi-final on Friday and then it’s Kilkenny CBS in the hurling the following Wednesday.

A clash against the second most successful school in the history of the Corn Uí Dhuill might look like a daunting task, but Coláiste Mhuire will take a good deal of belief from how well they competed with Kilkenny CBS when the teams met in last year’s Leinster Junior semi-final.

It was a game that Coláiste Mhuire came very close to winning, and a lot of the same players from both sides will be in opposition again next Wednesday.

“That game went down to the wire in injury-time and they tagged on two points to beat us,” says Lawler.

“It was a hugely competitive match. There was huge devastation in that dressing-room afterwards.

“It was our first time going up to 'A'. We decided we'd make the move up to 'A' at first year, second year, and junior level and the lads really grasped the opportunity and were very unlucky.

“It gave lads hope though. It allowed them to realise that the ability is there, it's about them getting it out of themselves. That's the key focus, seeing how far they're actually able to max themselves out to.”

Coláiste Mhuire will be underdogs against Kilkenny CBS but they are entitled to be quietly confident of springing an upset such is the quality they have in their ranks.

16-year-old Conor Williams is a brother of Westmeath county senior hurling star David Williams and looks like he has the ability to follow in his footsteps.

He’s a very accurate finisher from both open play and frees and is ably supported in the Coláiste Mhuire attack by other talented forwards like Kian Loughlin, Finn Higgins, and Pádraig Monaghan.

Will Scahill is already widely known as a young footballer of very rich potential but he’s clearly an outstanding hurler too and anchors a mean defence with great authority at centre-back.

Darragh Kenny was Coláiste Mhuire’s man of the match in the quarter-final win over the Offaly Combined Schools and is another defender of serious ability.

Between defence and attack the midfield partnership of Conor Cleary and Seán Hayes provides their team with huge energy and quality in the middle third, so this is a really well-balanced Coláiste Mhuire team from front to back.

If they could become the first ever Westmeath team to reach the Leinster Senior ‘A’ Schools Hurling final it would be a massive fillip for the whole county, but Lawler isn’t the type to look that far ahead.

“That's not something we're thinking about really,” he says. “We're just focused on competing and can't get ahead of ourselves.

“We know where we're at and where we're coming from and it's a great story at the minute but we're just focused on competing, that's first and foremost.

“Sometimes you might get a shot in the arm from one result but what's more important is to build something consistent and getting things to a stage where you're building on solid foundations.

“I think that's more important than one result here or there and we're trying to build resources to allow that consistency to happen.

“Yes, there's a great buzz to be playing Kilkenny CBS, a top team in hurling, but at the end of the day it's a Leinster semi-final, that's all we're really focused on.

“If you're competitive enough and you're in the game then there's always a chance. That's all you can look at. The lads know they can compete and it's about focusing on that really.

“To be at this stage is of huge credit to the players what they have put in. The way they have gone about their business since the start of the year has been very impressive.

“We're really looking forward to it, you don't know what will happen, but the lads are focused and looking forward to the challenge."