FIVE Donegal secondary schools will come together to compete in the MacRory Cup as Donegal have two representatives in the pinnacle of Ulster schools football.
Colaiste Na Carraige, St Catherine’s VS, Killybegs, St Columba’s Comprehensive, Glenties, Pobalscoil Na Rosann, and Pobalscoil Ghaoth Dobhair will all compete as one team under the banner of Southwest Donegal.
Teachers Shay Murrin (St Columba’s Comprehensive, Glenties), Gary Boyle (Pobalscoil Na Rosann) and Niall Friel (Pobalscoil Ghaoth Dobhair) will take charge of the team.
Trial games take place today (Thursday) to select the squad with the first round of the competition not until the third week of October.
The amalgamation has been something talked about in the county for a while, Donegal Coaching Officer Damian Diver confirmed.
“We’ve fallen behind and we haven’t had the football at the right standard school wise so we thought we’d enter a MacRory Cup team to get them playing at that level.
“It’s about talent ID, creating a pathway for players and try to reach the level they want to reach in football. We feel we want to put these kids in a position for scholarships and this competition puts them in the shop window.
It’s something that has been tried before in Donegal, and it proved successful as Cólaisti Inis Eoghain were competitive in both the MacLarnon and MacRory competitions.
“They got big success out of it, they got 12 or 13 county minors out of it and they never had county minors before so the precedent is there, it’ll take a bit of organisation but we should be ok.
“It would be lovely just to see four amalgamations in Donegal competing in the MacRory Cup, it would be nice to see it rolled out to other parts of the county.
“You look at Ulster schools and there are kids driving past schools to get to these big schools to play football so we have to have our own method on it.
“It’s exciting, we’ll have to sink or swim but hopefully we can swim. There are about five or six county minors still at school and there are a lot of good players but we have to put them together in a team and work for each other, hopefully they see the merit in it that we potentially see, sports wise, academically and financially.”
