Pulling together the mix of experience and youth is often a complex task for managers, but particularly those of reserve teams.
For Jim Clarke, manager of the St Eunan’s reserves, the challenge is perhaps even greater, given the black and amber draw their participants from a town that is bustling with clubs at all codes and levels.
Picture: St Eunan’s celebrate after winning the Senior B final last year.
Eunan’s have managed to get the right blend and won the Senior B title last year; returning now to defend the prize when they meet Naomh Conaill in tomorrow’s curtain raiser at Sean MacCumhaill Park.
The likes of Colin McIntyre, Mick Martin, Kieran Sharkey and David O’Herlihy have all been with the St Eunan’s seniors on quests for Dr Maguire. They’re now toiling with the reserves, bringing on a young batch of players aiming to break into the senior ranks.
“They have come from senior championship and you can see why they’ve won. Their attitude is exemplary,” Clarke says of those veterans.
“We have good footballers who will progress on to senior football and some others have been at senior level.
“The lads have got us there. We’re in an urban area where we have a lot of competition. It’s a credit to all the coaches at St Eunan’s to be competitive.”
Clarke is aided by Christy Callaghan, Gerard McGinley, Eunan McIntyre and Adrian Shields and they’re aiming to get their hands on the prize again.
Clarke says: “It’s a big day for the lads after the amount of effort they put in.
“My main emphasis is to try and get the basic skills right and get some fun and enjoyment. If you don’t have that, the rest won’t come.”
Coming from an urban centre like Letterkenny brings its own challenges, too; a vibrant sporting town with all sorts of clubs and teams.
The 2017 census showed that Letterkenny has a population of 19,274 and is the largest town in Ulster, indeed with a population greater than Sligo, the largest down in Connacht.
But the figures also showed that 13 per cent of people born in Donegal lived outside the county’s boundaries. Letterkenny is, even if the popular myth suggests otherwise, as hard hit as any town or village.
Letterkenny also has thriving clubs in athletics, basketball, boxing, soccer and rugby. All of them recruit the impressionable ages.
Clarke says: “We are competing against a lot of other sports. People think that we have major numbers, but we do struggle at times as well. There were a few times this year where we struggled with numbers when men were doing exams at school or university.
“Some young lads go away to university and when they don’t make the university team – as happens to a lot because you nearly need to be a top inter-county player now to do that – they drift away. We are bringing through a good number of young players. leaders will step up. We’ve had excellent leaders in this club and we will get more, new leaders.
“There is only a certain element who play Gaelic football.
“We’re lucky in that we have good structures in the club and we’re getting as many as we can. We’re in the schools doing heavy work there and we’re trying our best there in the Letterkenny area. But even there, there are kids from maybe seven different clubs who are in there.”
Almost a quarter – 22.1 per cent to be exact – of Letterkenny’s population was born abroad and the cultural diversity is evident throughout the town.
The changing of the times is showing in local schools too with Scoil Colmcille and Scoil Mhuire Gan Smal both considering co-education from 2018.
St Eunan’s have had to react to the changes. Clarke has been heavily immersed in the St Eunan’s academy over the years and O’Donnell Park is a regular hive of activity on Sunday mornings.
“Letterkenny is very multicultural now,” Clarke says.
“You have kids from all over Europe and beyond. It’s a new departure and we have to take that into account too.
“Slowly, but surely there is an influx. It’s a slow burner, because those kids aren’t coming in from Gaelic football backgrounds. It’s completely new to the game.
“We’re targeting them and we have got a few. The numbers are growing and the work in the schools will help that. Letterkenny is a major population centre so we can’t ignore that.”
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