A DAY TO REMEMBER
SCOIL MHUIRE GAN SMAL AND DRIMINA EMERGE CHAMPIONS IN COMPETITION 28,000 CHILDREN ENTERED
A remarkable afternoon for two Sligo national schools ended with glory on the double at the Aviva Stadium last Wednesday afternoon, as Drimina NS of Tubbercurry and Scoil Mhuire gan Smál of Ballymote defied the odds to complete a remarkable double, collecting the honours in the girls “A” ( small schools) and boys “B” ( medium schools) categories at the Spar FAI Primary Schools 5- a- side finals.
Despite Sligo’s reputation as one of the few soccer strongholds outside of Dublin in this country, this competition, which was first run in 1999, has yielded very little success for local students. Scoil Mhuire gan Smál already made history by becoming the first Sligo school to win out in their province when they qualified for the Girls “B” finals in 2011, while Carn National School in Gurteen became only the second school from the county to represent Sligo in the National arena when they flew the flag in the Boys “A” division last year. Both of those teams fell just short, but despite the fact that it is now a bigger event than ever before, with 1,495 schools and 28,576 children taking part in 2017, that was no barrier to the girls of Drimina and the boys of Ballymote, who each won all three games last Wednesday to decisively go into the record books as National Champions.
In total there were just over 3,000 people in attendance at the Aviva Stadium to witness what was a terrific festival of football, and while Dublin schools took both the “C” grade ( large school) prizes, it was otherwise a great day for Connacht, with Carnmore of Galway collecting the girls “B” trophy and Scoil Chiarán Naofa losing out by a single goal to Granagh NS of Kilmallock in the boys “A” section.
Since the FAI Cup Final was moved here in 2010, Sligo Rovers have been the most successful team in the country in that fixture, with three victories in 2010, 2011 and 2013. However when I put it to Ballymote’s scoring hero Michael Lavin that he might have a similar future ahead of him, he set his sights on something bigger. “No, I want to be back here with Ireland!,” he replied. With a Player of the Tournament award under his belt, it’s not hard to believe that he could swap the green jersey that all the Connacht schools wore last Wednesday for a slightly different green jersey in a decade’s time. In the meantime, he’ll have his memories – and what would they be? “I’ll remember winning, and scoring goals,” he declared. Robbie Keane’s national scoring record is under pressure already. Mark Tighe and Finlay Hutchinson confirmed that they were “nervous, but we still hoped to win” in advance of the fixture, while goalkeeper Shane Rafferty had a bit more time to focus on the raucous atmosphere in the arena as he observed the action from between the sticks. “It could make you a bit nervous, it gives you a real drive, keeps you on your toes so you’re ready for when the shot comes in.” Holly Gannon was similarly composed in her role as goalkeeper for Drimina, and she was even able to think of the bigger picture as she spoke after lifting the trophy with her team. “We did have hopes coming up here, but we knew we wouldn’t be coming home empty handed, we had our Connacht title won so it was never going to be a bad day. The biggest achievement was to just get through that and to play here today, but now that we did that, I’m glad we were able to go on and win! Something like this brings you closer as a team, we’re all great friends anyway, but to have done this together is just fantastic”. As the celebrations continued behind the triumphant custodian, she too made it clear she wanted to come back to the national stadium in the future. “I’d take my eye out to come back here and do it again!” With all this talent and drive, it’s hardly any wonder these kids are going around South Sligo with national medals in their pockets this morning.