KATIE Dowds had a brilliant debut season at senior intercounty level, picking up an Ulster medal along with her achievements at minor level, winning both an Ulster and an All-Ireland title.
The Sean MacCumhaill’s star was brought into the senior panel by Maxi Curran and at just 16 years of age, it was a bold move from the boss.
But Dowds impressed and along with club mate and fellow Donegal minor Abigail Temple-Asokuh, she was a shining light in what was a disappointing league campaign, and she nailed down a starting spot in the team.
“I was nervous at the start playing against all those bigger players,” Dowds said.
“I was only sixteen at the time and I was playing against teams I would have watched on TV, but the older girls on the team were so encouraging and they were there if you got into bother on the ball.
“Coming into the team and meeting them for the first time, they were so welcoming and if you ever needed anything they were straight onto it.
“It was good to have a club mate coming in with you and Abigail’s very bubbly and we got on well with everyone.”
Dowds made her debut with the senior team against Galway in the first round of the Lidl Ladies National Football League Division 1, and it wasn’t all medals and trophies this season.
For Donegal went through the league campaign without a win as they were relegated to Division 2, but she admitted that it was a great learning curve for a young team.
“It was a tough start, we didn’t get on well but we learned a lot. You learn a lot more when you lose games than when you win and we used all the stuff we could have done better and brought that into the championship and we did so much better from that.”
Being an important player in both the senior and minor squads, Dowds had to balance her workload but it worked out well as she got to lift provincial silverware at both levels within eight days of each other in May, earning her the Donegal News Sports Star of the Month Award for May, in conjunction with Brian McCormick Sports & Leisure.
She scored an impressive 3-3 in the Ulster Minor final in a 5-11 to 1-5 win over Down before what was seen as a shock win for Donegal in the Ulster Senior final in a 1-10 to 0-9 win over Armagh.
“It was tough to do it all but Maxi (Curran) and Declan (McDermott) discussed what nights I’d be training and who with so I wasn’t overdoing it and my club MacCumhaill’s were very understanding too.
“We were training hard up until the Ulster (Minor) final and we’ve been playing with them girls since Under-14 so we know each other well and it was great to get a good year.
“I was playing half-forward so it was good to get a bit of scoring in.
“A lot of them girls are now too old for minors and underage football so we wanted to get the most out of this year and we trained hard and we got over the line.
“We all got on very well and you make your best friends from football because you’re with them three/four times a week and we’ve made good memories.
“No one expected such a performance (vs Armagh) out of us but the main thing was clarity, we knew if we did what we were supposed to do we would get over the line and we believed in ourselves.”
While the All-Ireland Senior Championship run ended at the quarter-final stage against eventual winners Dublin, there was no time to feel sorry for herself for Dowds as three days later the minors had their All-Ireland semi-final against Leitrim, which they won convincingly.
And earlier this month they would go on to win the All-Ireland ‘C’ Championship with a five point win over Waterford in which Dowds scored two points.
And she is hopeful for a similar season next year as she is still eligible at minor level for another year.
“It was a great ending for the girls moving on now. That was the main goal from the start of the year, that was the one thing, it wasn’t Ulster, it was the All-Ireland.
“Last year at Under 16 we got to the All-Ireland semi-final and we wanted to do better which we did.
“I have minor football again next year and hopefully I’ll be playing with the seniors again.
“Hopefully we’ll be aiming for the same thing for minors again because there’s a lot of good girls coming up from the Under-16 panel, we had five girls come up from it when their season finished so it shows there are strong girls coming up from the 2007s and hopefully we’ll have a good run out at minors again next year.”
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