New York's home grown talent make big impression

By Paul Fitzpatrick

In the aftermath of the Corn na Mac Léinn final last Saturday, as the winning South West College team celebrated on the pitch at Bekan, their Fermanagh and Tyrone accents lilting on the breeze, the New Yorkers began to pick up the pieces.

Denis Sheahan, a native of Glenbeigh, Co Kerry who has been domiciled in the Big Apple for 30 years, was one of New York’s mentors and could be seen consoling his players, all of them home-grown Americans. It was clear to observers that New York, champions in this division in the last two years, weren’t there for a holiday.

“Oh absolutely,” Sheahan agreed, “100pc, I’m gutted. We put a lot of effort into this, this team has been starting to get together since in November.”

The New York team was made up of players from several third-level institutions and getting them together to prepare was challenging. That they did it, though, and made it to another final shows that, regardless of what it took to get ready, they got it done.

“It's very difficult for us, I mean, the weather alone in the winter time over in New York is difficult with snow and whatnot, and then trying to get all these players to come back on weekends and stuff like that into the train, because they're not together at one campus,” Sheahan explained.

“They're all in different campuses so it's really, really difficult, and we have to put a lot of effort in order to get them to New York. And they do come and they give it their all, they work, and they stick to a routine and stuff like that, and you have to do that to get to the very top of where we want to get to.”

New York’s development at underage level is one of the great success stories in Gaelic games in the last decade. The team has competed strongly at Féile level and the collegiate involvement acts as another staging post on the road to adult level.

“I think it's over 10 years they have been coming over, but the last two years we've been celebrating at the end of the day,” said New York Celtics clubman Sheahan, whose son Daniel was a member of the New York squad.

“Today, unfortunately, didn't go our way, but it’s a great experience and all the players love it, and it's been building on from Féile teams that have come on through the years. They get to that age of 14 and look forward to this college experience, when they go to college not only in New York but in Pennsylvania and Connecticut or wherever.”

James Breen, who plays senior hurling for New York and whose mother is American and whose father comes from Kilkenny, was team trainer and echoed Sheahan’s sentiments.

“It's huge, it helps bridge that gap from the Minor Board into the Senior Board,” said the Rangers clubman.

“As guys start getting to U21 level, to get them training, especially at a time of year when they might not be playing too much, from November to February.

“And then just to play against good teams, the level of competition over here is high and it's huge for development.

“Logistically, both player-wise and travel-wise, it's a challenge. We're fortunate that we have generous sponsors and then we have our own fundraising as a team but yeah, that presents an issue every year. But thankfully we've figured it out.”

Like Sheahan, he was disappointed to lose the final after a superb win the day before.

“We were here to win it. The quality this team has had the last number of years, winning it the ast two years and then unfortunately just coming up shy today. Before Covid, we lost the final in 2020 so winning has always been the objective in recent years.”

For Sheahan, the collegiate team is an important part of the entire development pathway.

“There's quite a few colleges that all of these players are going to. They've come up through the underage system in New York, the minor board system, which is fantastic in New York, they've done a lot of work on it, and they're still doing a lot of work.

“They've opened a new facility up in Yonkers called Redmond Field, which is fantastic. And as I say, the development of the underage players is what we're aiming to achieve, to get them better and better, and they've done very well in Féile down through the years. They've been doing very well in the colleges and Corn na Mac Léinn, and it's great to see it.

“We just have to work together and support and help out this team, that's what we're doing. That's what the management team is all about. No different to any other team here, any manager or trainer or selector on any team, we're the same in New York. We’re just doing what we can. We do it for nothing, and it's great just to support the game. We want to keep Gaelic games alive and it’s all about the kids.

“I say kids but these are adults and they love coming back in this trip. They focus, as I say, from November on, they've been focusing down and training and in routine, getting ready for this event. They want to come back here and represent New York well, and that's what we're proud of.

“As I say, they gave 120% because they really wanted to do the three-peat as we call it. We’re very proud of them and all their parents are proud of them.”

One of those “kids” is 22-year-old Emmett Loughran, whose mother and father both hail from Kildress, Co Tyrone. The wing-back or wing-forward is a student at Scranton University and for him, the trip to the third-level finals is one of the highlights of the football season.

“It’s great, a good opportunity to come out and test yourselves against the guys over here, play high level football against people from different counties in Ireland. It’s a great experience,” he said.

“It can be really tough, there are times of the year when we might only have a handful of guys at training, there are little pockets when we’re on breaks from school and stuff when we get together and train a lot but overall it can be pretty challenging, yeah.

“Look, we had a terrible day today (in the final) but it goes both ways. We’re more than capable of competing, you can tell that yesterday. We got lucky last year in the final, we barely got over the line.

“The year before that, South West took us down to the wire and today, they gave us a hammering so it’s good competition. It’s been my favourite sport since I was a kid,” said Loughran, who described himself as “a big, big Tyrone supporter”.

On their return, the season will heat up for the New Yorkers.

“Some of the guys will be training with the New York senior panel,” said Loughran, who lines out with Rangers and Donegal NY, “so they’ll go straight into that and some of us will be gearing up for the club championships in New York in the Spring time.”

For Sheahan and his fellow members of the management, which also includes Paudie Mulvihill, Niall McMahon and tour manager Sean O’Neill, the hard work continues.

“They played a fantastic game yesterday against University of Ulster Magee, they played unreal football, and I think they just probably gave so much yesterday, they weren't really up to par today, to be honest. It’s just a really, really hard, hard loss. We move on. We'll build again, and we'll come back next year,” he said.

“This competition is the next step after the Féile, which we didn't have for years because once these kids go off to college, they start different sports - basketball, American football, rugby - and we want to keep the Gaelic football going.

“So by having this college team after Féile is done, they can go on and can play this for four years, and then progress - a lot of these players progress to the New York senior team. And obviously, last year, New York won the junior all Ireland, some of these players were involved in that squad. Some of these players today will be involved in the squad this year again, please God.”