By John Harrington

Sporting teams tend to do well when everyone involved with them is emotionally invested in the desired outcome.

There’s a lot of reasons why Summerhill College won this year’s Connacht Senior Schools Championship which earned them the right to play Munster Champions St. Brendan’s in the All-Ireland semi-final on Saturday.

But it surely helps that they’re managed by a teacher like former Sligo star Mark Breheny who is a past pupil himself and cares deeply about fostering a love of Gaelic football and culture of high achievement in the school.

When he talks about how they promote the game and develop their players on and off the pitch, it’s very apparent just how much he cares.

And it’s not just the Summerhill College players and management who are part of the journey that has gotten them to Saturday’s All-Ireland semi-final either.

The school as a whole, both pupils and teachers, have backed them all the way and will be there in great numbers and colours to do their bit from the stand at the weekend.

High achievement on the sporting fields and the collective spirit that it generates is now a big part of the culture of Summerhill College.

“It is, yeah,” says Breheny. “Even this year alone we've gotten more fans to the game. Teachers are being really proactive in terms of bringing buses to the games and bringing drums with them and it's creating that culture within the school that this is now a big occasion.

“Maybe like what you'd see what the big rugby schools do and you would have seen St. Jarlath's do over the years as well.

“They'd always bring busloads of supporters if you were ever playing them and it's certainly worth a point or two to you. It's a great experience for the pupils who come to support the team and a motivating one for the players on the field.

“We're trying to build that all the time and bring along the next generation of footballers in the school, your second and third years, who get to go to the matches and then will aspire to be part of it themselves on the pitch some day.

“You're trying to create a stepping stone for them all the time. It's about trying to keep promoting it and keep pushing from when our players start off in first year.

“They're now looking at the senior lads and seeing the great hype that happened two weeks ago and now really want to be a part of that themselves in the future years.

“It motivates them to win their own first year and junior titles and then that will bring them on to senior opportunities.

“Even the amount of teachers that will come down on the Saturday to watch the game, it's a credit to them, and some ex-teachers come too.

“It just creates a massive community for your school when there's so much interest in it. The local press were brilliant, in fairness, on building up the Connacht Final and there was great coverage afterwards too. It all adds to it.”

Summerhill have proven themselves to be a very talented team to get to this All-Ireland semi-final, because the quality of the field in the Connacht championship was seriously stacked.

“It was, yeah,” says Breheny. “When you consider where Connacht minor football was last year with Mayo and Galway getting to the All-Ireland Final and Galway then winning it in the end after Mayo beating them twice earlier in the Championship. So that was the level of players you were coming across.

“We had a tough group really with St. Gerald's of Castlebar, Rice College of Westport, and Claregalway themselves. So it was never going to be anything easy there.

“As it transpired we beat Rice College in Westport, played out a cracking draw then against St. Gerald's in Markievicz Park and then in our last group game Claregalway had already qualified but we ended up having to beat them as well to get through and we did.

“That brought us to the Ballinrobe game then and we ended up again starting slowing that day but got the better of them in the end.

“That led us to the Final against Claregalway and we were probably going in as underdogs really because Claregalway were missing a few the day we played them earlier in the competition and I'm sure they would have done their homework on us after beating us as well.

“It was a great win in the end, I have to say, and our first Connacht title since 2016. And of the previous eight titles the next most recent was in 1985 so they're few and far between in Summerhill.”

On the same day that Summerhill beat Claregalway to win the Connacht ‘A’ title, another Sligo school, St. Attracta’s, defeated Roscommon CBS in the Connacht ‘B’ Final.

Both Summerhill and St. Attracta’s have been high achievers in Connacht post primary schools competitions in recent years, which is reflective of the great coaching and games development work undertaken in the county.

“It probably all started back with John Clifford who was development officer with Sligo, I'd say he started around 2005/2006," says Brehney. "He looked at schools at that stage and between him and a few other lads he said we need to get external coaches involved who could go in and help out teachers.

“That really kicked off then when a guy called Liam O'Gorman got hired to be a development coach for Sligo and once he went in he was coordinating students from Sligo IT to help out and so on.

“He would have helped out himself a lot in Summerhill coaching and there would have been other Sligo Games Promotion Officers who would come to here and St. Attracta's as well. That really got momentum going again and then, in fairness, new teachers started coming in to both here and St. Attracta's and I started myself here in 2007.

“Momentum started building for both schools and between of us we contested a lot of 'A' Finals in that period from 2007 until now, so you're looking at a 15/16 year period.

“They won a 'B' All-Ireland in that period and lost a few Connacht 'A' Finals and we've won two Connacht 'A' Finals so it's quite a good return in terms of Sligo. The county minors were successful two years ago at U-17 and at U-20 last year so it's beginning to build.

“Again, it comes in spurts, so we just need to keep these players going now in the next five to ten years and hopefully have a pathway that we get out of Division 4 from a county senior perspective.

“This generation of young Sligo players can see now that they can match a Mayo, Galway, or Roscommon guy because they've dealt with them in school's football already.”

Saturday’s All-Ireland semi-final against St. Brendan’s will also be a good test of the self-belief of these young Sligo footballers.

‘The Sem’ are one of the most renowned Gaelic football nurseries in the country and retain a good representation of players who were beaten finalists in last year’s Hogan Cup so they’re a formidable force.

But such was the quality of opposition that Summerhill overcame to win the Connacht championship, Breheny is confident his players are relishing the opportunity to meet this Kerry challenge head on.

“We're coming in as big underdogs into this game on Saturday because St. Brendan's are a well-known College, but I think our lads have grown in confidence and I think they're ready for that challenge,” he says.

“I think it's just been reflected in the way we're playing. I think the lads knew coming up against Mayo and Galway teams that we were playing against that they were going to be good opposition and we were ready for that.

“It's no different now going in to play a Kerry school. You're hoping to play the best teams in Ireland when you're progressing in any competition like this. We feel a challenge like this will be really, really good for us and we hope we can give a good account for ourselves.

“I don't think our lads will have any inhibitions. They're looking forward to a good challenge and you could see they enjoyed matching themselves against All-Ireland winning minors from last year when they played Claregalway in the Connacht Final and then acquitting themselves very well and beating them.

“So, I don't think they'll overthink this, but at the same time they know they have to be at the top of their game to get over the line. I'm sure it'll be typical school's football. It should be a very entertaining game and then hopefully we'll come out the right side of it come Saturday evening."

Saturday, February 25

Masita All-Ireland Post Primary Schools Hogan Cup Semi-Finals

Summerhill College v St Brendan’s Killarney, St. Jarlath's Park, Tuam, 12.30pm (TG4 YouTube)

Omagh CBS v Naas CBS, St. Tiernach's Park, Clones, 2.15pm (TG4 YouTube)