30 September 2004 Sligo boosted by Coola's Success Story Share this Article 0 0 0 Shares! 0 Shares! County team boosted by Coola’s fine feats By Liam î Maoldhomhnaigh Click on above image to go to web site When Coola Post Primary School marvellously won the Ladies Gaelic football Post Primary Schools Senior ‘C’ Championship back in April, a crop had been sown. Now a rich harvest could be reaped. Sligo’s panel for Sunday’s TG4-sponsored Ladies Gaelic football All-Ireland Junior Championship final boasts six players who contributed to Coola’s famous feat in Cusack Park, Ennis. Of these, Stephanie O’Reilly, Coola’s inspirational captain, has also become her county’s talisman; the Leaving Certificate student has struck a phenomenal 7-19 (40 points) in the four victories that have brought Sligo to the verge of glory. The Sligo team that started the All-Ireland semi-final against Cork included three Coola players midfielder Bernice Byrne, half-forward Sinead McTiernan and Stephanie O’Reilly, the team’s chief score-getter, at full-forward. Two more Coola players, Joanne O’Connell and Caroline Benson, were later introduced as the Munster champions were obliterated; Michelle Mostyn, the sixth link to Coola’s All-Ireland title, was one of 10 unused substitutes. Coola celebrating their historic win Carol Doherty, who master-minded Coola Post Primary School’s Senior ‘C’ success, as well as their All-Ireland Junior ‘C’ triumph in 2003, believes that her squad’s groundbreaking achievement has enhanced title prospects at county level. “Hopefully what we [Coola] achieved has added something extra to the county team this year. I would say that it helped our players to get selected on the county panel. When they were playing so well for their school, it was probably difficult for [Sligo manager] Kathleen Kane to ignore them,” Doherty, who regularly attends Sligo’s games, said. “Of course you cannot compare what we did to what the players will experience next Sunday, which is playing in Croke Park. But I think the players from that Coola team would have an idea of what the build-up to a big game is like.” “It is just great for the school to have so many representatives on the Sligo squad. A lot of them have got key roles in the team and have been major influences this year. It [the All-Ireland final] is the main topic of conversation in the school at the moment. We are buying material to make flags for the game.” “Because of the success we have had there is a huge interest in sport in the school. All the girls that started this month in First Year want to play [Ladies Gaelic] football.” A bus carrying Coola Post Primary School students, accompanied by Doherty and another teacher, Lorna Davey, will make the trip to Dublin. The Ladies Gaelic football All-Ireland finals, Junior and Senior have become an annual pilgrimage for Coola’s pupils and staff. Stephanie O’Reilly, for example, would have been among the Coola contingent that watched last year’s games when Donegal and Mayo emerged with the Junior and Senior titles respectively. Doherty revealed that after Mayo’s victory, O’Reilly and her class-mates got to walk on Croke Park’s revered turf. Twelve months later O’Reilly whose down-to-earth attitude is greatly admired by Doherty will again tread Croker’s hallowed sod, but as a player. The Coola manager has, like most followers of Ladies Gaelic football in the county, run short of adjectives to describe O’Reilly’s overwhelming acumen. “There is no doubt that if you haven’t got players to put over points or put the ball in the net then you are not going to win games, and Stephanie’s ability to do that is exceptional,” she remarked on a Friday afternoon last April, in the jubilant aftermath of her side’s defeat of St Brigid’s Post Primary School, Killarney. O’Reilly scored 3-7 in that fixture. Ehausted but victorious Although accepting that she can empathise with certain aspects of Kathleen Kane’s managerial role, Doherty knows that Kane is working in a different environment. “Kathleen’s job is much more difficult than mine! There is a lot more pressure involved. She has been hugely supportive of not just Coola, but of every Sligo Secondary School that is trying to promote Ladies [Gaelic] football.” “We want to repay her in some way by supporting the team. The [Sligo] players’ commitment has been absolutely 100 per cent. They have worked so hard. I would like to think that this could be their year and I’m thrilled to bits that they have got this far.” “While you can never predict what will happen in an All-Ireland final until the last whistle sounds, I have huge belief in this team even though they haven’t been at this stage before,” Doherty added. If this particular Sligo crop does prove worthy, its Coola roots will have made a substantial difference. This article was kindly given to us by The Sligo Weekender Newspaper Share this Article 0 0