O'NEILL'S FOYLE CUP 2024 - 'Making memories is the real goal'

For some, it will be tears of joy come the end of the week, others regret at missed opportunities, but every single player in this year’s Foyle Cup will share one thing together - the memories made over a six-day feast of football in the city.

For Ballymoor coach Seamas McCallion, Foyle Cup week is about togetherness, fun and sharing experiences with your team which will last a life time.

Ballymoor FC have seven teams involved in the competition this week – three boys’ teams and four girls’ teams but for the whole club it’s about much more than six days in July.

“It's a long week, and fair play to the volunteers, they put a lot of work in,” Seamus said. “It's not even over this week, it's been for the last six or seven weeks, ordering kits, getting everything prepped, making sure they all know what they're doing, getting them trained up, playing matches. It's been a long couple of six or seven weeks, but at the end it's worth it when you see the smiles on the faces.”

“The parents have also been brilliant with us, they've worked with us as much as we could possibly get them to, and the wains are having a ball, and the weather, hopefully it'll stay good. I know we had a wee bit of rain yesterday, but so far so good.”

Speaking ahead of a game for the boys’ U9s team at Templemore Sports Complex, Seamus explained that while not everyone can win a trophy, each person can take something much more valuable away.

“The kids want to win, everybody wants to win, that's part of the nature of the game,” he continued. “But I think in the long term, you're just creating memories. I remember having teams here, and some of them are 23, 24, still talking about the Foyle Cup and tournaments they went to. So as much as they want to win, and as much as we want them to win, I think creating memories, bonds, friendships, probably for a lifetime, is the most important thing for me.”

Opportunity

The Foyle Cup also offers local players the chance to play teams they have never faced before and may never face again – which, Seamus believes, can only add to their development.

“It's great for their own development, that they experience different styles, and different teams, different nations,” he agreed. “It's a great tournament for them, and at the end of it, even if they don't do great, we always have a wee party at the end, and usually that's what they remember the most, the fun times.”

Losing games is as much a part of the competition as anything else, and sometimes an opponent can be just too strong.

“The way the competition's laid out, you can't really put anything in place to stop that from happening,” Seamus explained. “It's just the way it is, unless they categorise things in the development stages, but I think it'd be difficult to do that with 740 teams. But it's part of the game. They all want to be footballers, and at some point they're going to get beat, and they're going to get beat heavily, so they have to learn that part of the game as well. It's not nice, but I think if you're playing a team, and they have a wee bit of respect, and they're winning quite comfortably, usually they would change things up a wee bit.”

Whether a trophy comes to Ballymoor at the end of this week remains to be seen, but they are going all out for it, and making memories on the way.

“This wee team got the final of the Plate last year and got beat, and they still talk about it this year,” Seamus concluded. “They're looking to put things right and they have gotten off to a good start.”