St Mary's Newport Girls Soccer team aiming for unique first time success
SOCCER: FAI Schools Munster Senior 'A' Girls Final Preview
By Thomas Conway
St. Mary’s SS Newport
v
Presentation SS Thurles
Canon Hayes Centre, Tipperary Town
Thursday 23rd January
Kick-off at 11.30am
Women’s soccer is on the rise across the country, as teams, clubs and schools begin to embrace the beautiful game at both adult and underage level, and the sport is no longer confined to some kind of secondary status against its male equivalent.
Ironically, it is a proliferation of the second-level game which is driving soccer’s growing popularity amongst girls – second-level schools that is. The enthusiasm should be easily observable next Thursday in Tipperary Town, where St. Mary’s Secondary School Newport will make their Senior 'A' Munster Final debut against Presentation Secondary School Thurles, a school which regularly features at this stage of the competition.
From a St. Mary’s perspective, this might be uncharted territory but it’s an occasion which won’t intimidate the players, many of whom have already gathered considerable experience with school, club, and elite sides.
Manager Stephen Goggin, who teaches Maths, Business and LCVP in the school, is at the helm of the operation, though he’s keen to downplay his own influence on the development of the current squad.
Modesty is often the best policy for a manager and you can be sure that Goggin has brought his own streak of innovation to the team but there’s no doubt that the thriving girls’ set-up in St. Mary’s has evolved from the local club scene, which was actively promoting the game long before any 20x20 initiative or Women’s National League. Goggin feels that St. Mary’s are fortunate to be situated right in the middle of a pocket of energetic clubs which have helped to shape many players within his present squad.
“There’s a good women’s soccer culture in the area,” he began.
“We’re lucky in the sense that a lot of the hard work has actually been done by the local clubs – the likes of Birdhill, Newport Town, Rearcross and Murroe. All those clubs have put a lot into their girls’ underage structures over the past few years, and so we’re kind of lucky that we have a catchment area taking in the four of them.”
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