Soccer still battling for recognition in schools across the country

The academic year was 1981/82 and Blackrock College was making its first forays into the world of schools soccer in Ireland. This was a huge step. The south Dublin school is more than synonymous with Leinster Schools Rugby having won the trophy 68 times – 58 times more than their nearest competitor. Past pupils include Brian O'Driscoll, Leo Cullen, Shane Byrne and Luke Fitzgerald to name a few. Simply put, when people think of Blackrock College they think of rugby. Other sports are very much put on the back-burner.

So then, the world of schools soccer was somewhat uncharted territory for the team of 1981 to say the least. That all serves to highlight the surprise of their achievement when they beat Greenhills College in the league final to claim a first soccer title for the school.

But this was a success that didn’t go down quite as well as the previous 54 rugby titles – especially as the school also won the senior cup yet again that year. With the school authorities reluctant to put on any celebrations for the winning soccer team it came down to the father of the captain to pay for a function room at the Tara Towers hotel to give the team the party they deserved. During the evening a priest from the school arrived to give a speech congratulating the boys on their achievements. But it didn’t end there. The organisers of the function were told to remove the Blackrock College banners adorning the walls as the school wasn’t comfortable being represented by a soccer team.

Thankfully attitudes have changed over the years and Blackrock enjoyed more soccer success in 2003 when, captained by Steve Dillon, they won the prestigious Dr Tony O’Neill Cup – the national schools soccer title.

However, even today it is still a battle for soccer to gain any sort of prominence in a lot of schools and, in some cases, to be played at all. Just this year students in Clontarf’s Mount Temple CS were told that there would be no soccer team as it was diminishing the numbers available for the hockey squad.

It is the case in a number of schools that students have no soccer team to play for until fifth year while in Ardscoil Rís on Griffith Avenue – a school with a strong GAA heritage – soccer is not offered at any age for students. Given the fact that former students of the school include 35-timed capped former Ireland midfielder Keith Andrews, former Crystal Palace midfielder Owen Garvan and current St Patrick's Athletic winger Conan Byrne, it seems like quite a questionable policy. This is further backed up by the latest Sport Sentiment Index, released at the end of 2015 by PSG Sponsorship, which shows that soccer is still the most popular sport in Ireland – 21 per cent of those surveyed regard it as their favourite sport – while rugby and GAA come in joint second on 16 per cent.

Attitudes towards soccer in certain schools must change if the game is to grow at grassroots level and, given the survey results mentioned, it would be a welcome change. However it is slowly coming about and there have definitely been advances since some of the extremes of yesteryear. The infamous tale of Liam Brady’s expulsion from St Aidan’s CBS immediately springs to mind. Recounting the episode last year, the former Arsenal player said: “I was a pretty good Gaelic player and we had a good Gaelic school, St Aidan’s CBS in Whitehall and we had this challenge match against a Galway team, was it St. Jarlath’s? Nothing on it, it was just a challenge match. But, I had been picked to play for Ireland as an U15 and captain the team in Wales. And the head brother told me that if I missed the match against St. Jarlath’s, don’t come back to the school.”

It is, of course, worth remembering that junior soccer culture simply isn’t as embedded in schools sports as GAA or rugby. Whereas schools act almost as academies for up-and-coming stars in those two disciplines, soccer is much more club-based with the St Kevin’s, Cherry Orchards and Home Farms of this world operating as the soccer equivalent of St Brendan’s in Killarney or Blackrock College. Indeed there are countless examples of young Irish soccer players making the move to clubs in England without completing their Leaving Cert.

The most high-profile current Ireland international who played at schools level is Seamus Coleman. The Everton full-back competed in the John Murphy Cup for St Catherine's VS before moving across the water. Looking past the Killybegs man you're scraping the barrel for notable current players. Indeed, during his time as a student at De la Salle, Churchtown there was no soccer team for Damien Duff to play with.

However, there are a number of schools around the country with proud soccer heritages and none more so than Nagle Community College in Mahon, Co. Cork. The school lifted the Dr Tony O’Neill Cup on consecutive occasions in 2001 and 2002 and narrowly missed out on the John Murphy Cup this year when they were beaten in the national semi-finals by Our Lady’s SS, Belmullet.

Summerhill College in Sligo also won consecutive Tony O’Neill titles in 2013 and 2014 before Rathfarnham’s Coláiste Éanna were crowned champions after a dramatic final last year.

There is no doubt that attitudes to soccer in schools around the country are changing for the better and it is something that can only be good for the grassroots game in Ireland. It seems some schools have further to go than others but perhaps they should take a leaf from the book of the 1982 Blackrock College team and battle against the odds.

Fixtures

Bank of Ireland FAI Schools Dr. Tony O'Neill National Senior Cup Semi Final: Carndonagh Community School vs Arklow CBS – Monaghan, Tuesday, February 23rd, KO 1pm.

Bank of Ireland FAI Schools Dr. Tony O'Neill National Senior Cup Semi Final: Presentation Brothers College vs St. Mary's College, Galway/Presentation College, Athenry – Limerick, Thursday, February 25th, KO 1pm.