School’s out – forever?

When Cork Harlequins and UCC face off in a winner-takes-all Munster title playoff clash on Sunday, it will be as good a time as any for Mount Mercy College to reflect on some extra-curricular work well done. Fourteen players – 11 alumni and three current students – who have some association with the Model Farm Road nursery are likely to be in action on both sides of the divide, as a title race that has captured the imagination comes to a nail-biting conclusion at Harlequin Park. Darren Collins has worked with most of those players at one level or another, having overseen six Munster Schoolgirls Cup wins and a Kate Russell All-Ireland title during his 10-year tenure as head of sport at the school.

He continues to work directly with four of the alumni – College’s Julia O’Halloran, Audrey O’Flynn and Miriam Crowley, plus Quins’ Cliodhna Sargent – in his role as a strength and conditioning coach for the Irish senior women’s team, and few onlookers will be as proud on Sunday. “The big thing for us is that the girls get a love of the game when they’re in the school,” explains Collins. “They carry that on, whether they go on to play for Ireland or for the fifths in UCC. “Winning cups and all that is fine, but for the girls to keep playing and enjoying themselves – and to experience that sort of team spirit and atmosphere that they create amongst themselves – is great. “The school would be very proud of them – from Karen Bateman to Emily O’Leary, they’re following along a good line there. The fact that there’s so many girls from UCC playing so well, having qualified for the IHL, just proves that we haven’t done too badly by them.” But while parents, teachers and pupils alike can afford to be all smiles on Sunday no matter what the outcome, Collins warns that such heady days might become a rarity if sport continues to be squeezed off the agenda in schools nationwide. The Government’s decision to withdraw funding for substitute teachers, amid a series of cuts in the education sector, had many casting prophesies of doom. Along with field trips and overseas visits, fears grew that school sport would be one of the first things to suffer – indeed, teaching union ASTI recently warned that schools are being forced to curtail extra-curricular activities. Straitened economic times have made things harder, putting the likes of Collins under pressure to keep juggling the day job and ensure sport thrives within their institution. “School sport is being edged out into the corners of school life a lot more,” he claims.

“The goodwill aspect required for it to work is a hugely underrated part of school life, and that’s gone due to the way the Department of Education are behaving. I think that’s unfortunate because the people that lose out are the kids. That’s not the intention of anyone, but unfortunately they’re the ones that are caught in the middle. “If all your school days are just about the nine classes or ten classes you go to, and the four or five grinds on top of that, school is going to be a poorer place for it. “There’s very much an ‘us and them’ scenario being built up. We’re pitted as public against private and pitted against each other. That only gets parents’, teachers’ and kids’ backs up. If sport doesn’t happen in school anymore we’ll be the worse for it.” On the other side of the coin, former Quins coach Collins – who also has a season spent working with Australian rugby league side Brisbane Broncos under his belt – adds that ever-increasing pressure on students to produce the goods academically is marginalising participation school sport. “There’s so much pressure, competition and expectation now on students to get their college course,” he says. “Things like sport gets squeezed, it’s seen as irrelevant, not part of school life. “But I would argue that it’s a huge part of school life. If you ask any of the girls playing on Sunday how sport contributed to their school life, I think they’d tell you it was a very positive aspect. “You learn how to work as a group – which doesn’t happen in the Leaving Cert where you’re working for yourself only, and it’s a bit of a rat race. In a team you have to rely on people of more or less ability, empathise with others and take in their abilities. Teamwork, friendship and school spirit are very important as well.” In developmental terms, Collins naturally believes schools have a vital role to play. He believes more work needs to be done by schools to fulfill this role – citing that just five schools in all of Munster compete at A standard at under-14 level, “compared to maybe 30 or 40 schools in Ulster”.

He adds that there is a burden on the Irish Hockey Association to  innovate and augment its support given to schools: “It’s getting a bit worrying; if you look at it now we’re (Munster) probably fourth or fifth in terms of the interprovincial scene. We’re behind Connacht now and that’s due to their hard work up there. “They (the IHA) can do so many blitzes and have all the Talent ID stuff but hockey, like rugby, is a school sport – it’s not like the GAA which is club-based, and the school is sort of a bonus. There’s very little support out there to try and develop these players. The pool of good players is getting smaller and smaller.” While the debate regarding the ideal manner in which to go about unearthing and developing young players – addressed previously on Southern Fried by Mick McKinnon and Phil Oakley – is one that’s unlikely to go away anytime soon, Collins is nonetheless looking forward to a proud day for Mount Mercy on Sunday. “We’re delighted that there’s so many girls doing so well, obviously the school is very proud of their achievements,” he says. “Whether they play for Ireland like Cliodhna (Sargent) or Julia (O’Halloran), or they’re the treasurer or the secretary in UCC, they’re making their contribution. “I’ll be an interested bystander and I’m looking forward to the game. The girls leave a lot of memories in the school for me as their coach, and it’s fantastic to see them do so well outside.”