St Gabriels Home Of Champions

St Gabriels Home Of Champions

By Paul McCann

Ardoyne had many champions in different sports . There were a few tin huts and clubs that had been established in the district over the years that have made the grade and done us proud . I would like to write a little about St Gabes youth club that started in the early sixties .

Once a week night my school friends and I would make our way up the Crumlin road to our secondary school for soccer training with our coach Micky Brennan who always had a way of letting us play and not telling us what to do . He was a great coach . One ounce of talk on skill and technique and two pounds of actual letting us learn ourselves with just playing ball . We started with a warm up , stretching , squats , and sit ups before  we started to play . In the gym we played five a side . Usually there were about 5 or 6 teams  . The teams who weren’t playing climbed up the eall bars and sat to watch the two teams who played . It was like a knock out competition with the winner staying on until there was an overall winner .

Apart from the soccer at St Gabes there were many other sports you could do such as  judo , boxing , badminton , table tennis and even chess . The youth club was like a second home for us all .Sometimes before and after our soccer training we would have a game try at table tennis . My cousin Johnny McCann started to train us . Before Johnny started to train us he was a fitness fanatic with dumb bells, chest expanders and weights at home . Johnny used to take us on cross country runs to build up our stamina . We all did our best to set a good pace and make a break from the rest of the pack . There were always the same two lads who were first home each time we ran . Some of us wondered how they ever got their first because they were not all that fit and never liked training much . Then Johnny discovered their secret .One evening Johnny decided to take the bus instead of running with us and got back to St Gabes much faster that all of us . He stood outside the front gate waiting for the first of the runners to present on the Crumli9n Road and that’s when he discovered what the lads had been doing .

When the large group of runners left St Gabes on the run the two boyos would disappear into a path of a house and wait there until the first of the runners would be returning back and that’s when they would emerge out from the path with a pair of fresh legs and run back to the finish at St Gabes front gate as  the first home .

Needless to say after that they never came home first again as Johnny ran with them and made sure they did the circuit . The first time they ran the distance they had to stop half way to catch their breath and were last to finish . We all gave them a lot of stick when they returned and the slegging went on for months until we never saw them back at training . I thinking they took up table tennis 

One of the boxing coaches mentioned to Johnny one evening ,

“You know I think you might have what it takes to be a good boxer Johnny .“

So Johnny had a go at boxing one night . He stepped into the ring for 3 one minute rounds . He thought he was pretty fit but after just thirty seconds in the ring taking punches and trying to throw a few he told me his arms felt as if they had turned into  lead . He couldn’t do a second round which just goes to show there are different strokes for different folks . Whenever we try to use muscles that we don’t usually do our body will soon let us know  that its not as easy as it looks .

 So some lads adapted and adjusted well to boxing , rolling with the punches and getting up if they were knocked down and ever getting again and again .

I used to watch my old friend Jacky Meehan when he fought . Most of Jacky’s fights were over in the first round . He was like a stick of dynamite when the bell rang and round one began .

Their were always lots of lads in the assembly doing judo and they were all getting thrown around on judo mats on the ground . It was great just to watch . There was a small area allocated for the judo and at the same time badminton was being played  there in the assembly hall . Some young lads tried different sports . I remember one night somebody made the comment ,

‘You could be the best boxer in the world or the best tennis player but unless you give it a go , how  would you ever know. “

Theres an old saying that my Mammy told me one day . She said always remember son , the truth always comes out in the end . So whatever your true calling would be its bound to find you .Some of the most talented sports people at St Gabes  never needed training , they were naturals at what they did and had the edge on most of the other lads  They could cut it ,and if got harder they could cut it even thinner .

Some are born to win while others have to struggle and train hard to get the success that came to them .

Micky Brennan our soccer coach had great eye to spot naturally talented players and never pushed them hard with training . He would prefer that they just perform on a Saturday on the pitch and they never let him down .

When the troubles came St Gabriels youth club had to close its doors but in the time it was running there were several Down and Connor Cups won by the soccer teams and countless other trophies in other sports.

The End