The Scoil Mhuire, Buncrana team that will contest the Masita Post Primary Schools All-Ireland Football 'D' Final.
By John Harrington
Scoil Mhuire, Buncrana are no strangers to All-Ireland soccer finals, but the Donegal school will break new ground on Saturday when they contest the Masita GAA All-Ireland Post Primary Schools Gaelic Football ‘D’ Final.
This first is the product of significant effort on a few different fronts. The three clubs in the school’s catchment area – Buncrana, Muff, and Burt – have worked hard at underage level in recent years to produce some talented young Gaelic footballers.
Team manager Kevin Campbell is about as passionate a Gael as you could meet and has been ably assisted in his preparation of the team by Donegal footballer Ciaran Thompson who is also a member of the teaching staff.
But the bulk of the credit must go to the players themselves who decided this year they’d give Gaelic football a serious crack and have more than delivered on their promise.
“Their attitude has been excellent,” says Scoil Mhuire manager, Kevin Campbell. “We're better known as a soccer school and historically Gaelic football in this school would have been, ‘oh, there's a match on Wednesday, lets just gather up a team for it’.
“But this year we were beaten in a 'B' County Final and we kicked 1-21 that day so we said to the boys you need to have a look at ourselves here. Do you want to keep being a gather up team or do you want to go somewhere?
“I said if any of you want to win an Ulster title this year be in the gym tomorrow morning at 7am and there was 28 of them there the next morning.
“So, I think the key for us this year has been that change in the attitude among the boys. They realised that you need to suffer a bit in order to get anything in life and you have to put in hard work if you want to achieve anything. For me, that's been the big thing.
“A bit of maturity has come in to them. There's a bit more leadership there and a sense of direction in terms of them knowing where they want to get to. That's what's pleased me most about the whole thing.”
In attendance at the Masita All-Ireland Post Primary Schools Captains Call at Croke Park in Dublin is Sean McLoughlin of Scoil Mhuire Buncrana, Donegal, left, and Conor Grennan of Gallen Cs Ferbane, Offaly. Photo by David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile.
They displayed that maturity in the All-Ireland semi-final against St. Cuan’s College of Galway when they overcome a very jittery start to eventually win by three points.
“We had a very difficult semi-final,” says Campbell. “We didn't know a lot about them and then we conceded two early goals and they came with a massive support and made it very hostile for our boys.
“It was probably something our boys hadn't really been exposed to before. We got them in at half-time and we said what kind of men you are will define the next 30 minutes.
“Are you going to embrace it and keep going forward and driving things on when times are tough or are you going to curl away?
“Fair play to the boys, they stepped up to the plate and drove the thing on. I said to them afterwards, 'Win or lose the Final, I don't really care. You don't need to have a medal in your back pocket to be a man. You've proved it today.'
“Look, win or lose I'm very, very proud of these boys. They've achieved everything I've wanted them to achieve, but, look, nobody wants to lose a final.
“It'll be massive for these boys if they could get over the line and be able to look back in 10 or 15 years wherever they are and meet up as friends again.
“It builds that connection with school for kids and lets them look back on these days with fond memories."
Campbell admits that Saturday’s Final against Gallen Community School from Offaly is a journey into the unknown, and all he’s asking for from his players is that they do themselves justice on the day.
“You always try to figure out what you can about your opponents but we know very little about them,” says Campbell of Gallen CS
“They're an attacking team and won the semi-final after extra-time so we're expecting a massive shift out of them.
“All we're going to ask from our boys is to give us a performance. And if that performance gets us over the line then great. But, if it doesn't, get us over the line we can ask for no more from the boys.”
Saturday, March 9
Masita GAA All-Ireland Post Primary Schools Br. Edmund Ignatius Rice Cup Final
Scoil Mhuire Buncrana v Gallen Community School, Markievicz Park, 2pm
