Kings of the 'castle
February 17, 2010It was Buzz Bissinger, the American sports writer, who came up with the pithy title Friday Night Lights when describing the successes or otherwise of a school football team in deepest Texas. For Ballycastle college Cross and Passion, a Friday night under lights last October proved a red-letter occasion for the school as its teams underlined their claim to be known as the top hurling college in Ulster.
The Mageean Cup decider was a floodlit showpiece for the first time, and to make the occasion even more special for all those involved with the Ballycastle outfit, the school's second years were taking part in the MacNamee Cup decider on the same night.
Circumstances don't come much more auspicious, and Cross and Passion delivered on both ends of the bargain, with the youngsters capping a campaign of enormous promise with another wide margin victory and their elders following up with a second successive final win over St Mary's of Belfast.
Cross and Passion's journey to the top of Ulster hurling's tree has been steady and assured. The college lifted the Mageean Cup in 2006 by eclipsing St Patrick's Maghera before going down to old rivals Mary's of Belfast a year later, but they have now risen indisputably to the top of the pile with back-to-back wins. The cherry on top was their triumph in the All-Ireland 'B' final last April, which copperfastened their position as the new stronghold of Ulster colleges hurling.
Joe Cassidy, the former Derry footballer, and Linfield soccer player Oran Kearney have been the team trainers for the senior side's glory days over the past couple of years. Speaking to Hogan Stand, Cassidy admits that the team went into this year's Mageean Cup as firm favourites following that All-Ireland success. "I think nine of the starting team from the All-Ireland final were underage again, and pretty much everyone else was on the panel that day, so we have a strong team this year. It's probably the strongest squad we've had to date in the school. It was always going to be a tough game. St Mary's were on top for the first 15 minutes or so and we were really struggling to win ball. But we sorted out that problem, we got a couple of goals before half-time and another early in the second half and it was one-way traffic after that."
On the back of a 3-15 to 0-10 win there, Cross and Passion will be fancied by many to repeat their All-Ireland success in the spring, but with a lengthy hiatus before that competition commences, the management team has a job on its hands. "The Mageean Cup final took place in October and we play the Connacht 'B' champions in the second week of March. A lot of the schools around the country are only kicking off their campaigns around Christmas so there are two ways it can go: they'll either have all the momentum by the time the semi-final comes around, or we'll be well rested and have four or five months focusing on one match.
"We'll start preparations for that early in the New Year by playing a few challenges. It's a struggle to get matches but to be fair to the local clubs they've been very good to us over the last few years. We have a great relationship with the clubs. The lads come from Cushendun, Glenarriff, Cushendall, Glenshesk, McQuillans Ballycastle, Loughgiel Shamrocks and also St Brigid's Cloughmills, who've been very good to us. We couldn't have had the success were it not for the clubs. We do winter with the young lads, and they do summer."
The current Cross and Passion side's ascent to the top of the Ulster senior colleges' scene began last year, when they upset the odds to lower the colours of old rivals St Mary's in the final before lifting the All-Ireland crown in April.
Says Cassidy: "Going into the Mageean Cup final against St Mary's last year, we weren't really fancied. They had something like eight lads on the Antrim minor team and we had no-one, so they were hot favourites. We managed to win by three points, and went on to win the All-Ireland against [Dublin college] Colaiste Eoin in April, but in a way I think we were probably winning the Mageean a year ahead of ourselves."
If that was the case, then nothing less than another win would suffice this time around, and that objective was met when they faced off against Mary's once more at Casement Park. "This time, the tables had turned slightly. We had seven lads on the Antrim minors and they had three or four, so we were going into the game as favourites. We had to see if our lads were hungry enough to go back and do it again, and they did just that. They're an outstanding group of young lads."
Cassidy exudes humility when he lists the key reasons for Cross and Passion's successes in recent years, pointing to the school's growing status as a sports college which in recent years has seen a surge in the number of pupils. "There's no real secret to the success," he says. "The bottom line is you need the talent there or you won't be able to compete for Ulster or All-Ireland titles. Over the last seven or eight years, we've had a lot more pupils coming in. Traditionally the pupils of the school were predominantly from Ballycastle and surrounding parishes, and there might have been three or four clubs represented on the school team. Nowadays you have pupils from Glenarriff and Dunloy, both 25 minutes or half an hour away, choosing to come here, and we had players from nine different clubs on the Mageean Cup team this year."
Cross and Passion was nominated as a designated sports college three years ago, an accolade which brought additional government funding. "The principal here, Barbara Ward, has done great things over the last ten or 11 years," says Cassidy. "We used to have around 560 pupils and now that number is up to 770. This year we had our biggest ever intake of first years."
Given those figures, and the growing aura surrounding the school's achievements on the hurling fields, then it would be no surprise if Cross and Passion maintained its hard-won position as one of the pre-eminent sports colleges in the province. "We hope we can do that, but we'll be taking nothing for granted," he says. "The school has always prided itself on its links with hurling and camogie, and over the last few years we've become known as the top school in north Antrim for that. A lot of people have put a lot of effort in. Michael Dallat has been at the school for 35 years and he's a hurling fanatic so he's played a huge role. Ciaran Herron, who's on the Antrim team, and Alex Campbell were over the under-13-and-a-halfs this year and their young lads are a phenomenal team. They beat everyone easily and the score in their final at Casement was something like 11-9 to 2-3. There is plenty of academic success as well, and all that helps to raise the school's profile."
One of the catalysts for the recent upturn in Cross and Passion's fortunes on the GAA fields came from the school's camógs in early 2008, when the under-16s tasted All-Ireland junior glory with victory over St Brigid's Loughrea in a game played at the St Peregrine's club in Dublin. "There wasn't a boy-girl rivalry or anything like that," says Cassidy, "but certainly a lot of the lads were saying that we have to win an All-Ireland now to catch up. The school caretaker Paul 'Humpy' McKillen, who won an All-Star with Antrim in '93, Elaine Dowds and Una Kelly are doing great work with them and camógie has been very strong for the last few years. They won everything there was to win a couple of years ago."
With the girls bowing out to St Pats Maghera this time around, the spotlight will focus on the boys once again in the early months of 2010, and few would bet against them making it a two-in-a-row of All-Ireland titles come April. Tweet
