Ballerin the latest to join Derry hurling’s growing circle

SECTION B: Castledawson, Ballerin, Drum, O’Cahan’s. Not your standard line-up for an underage hurling blitz in Derry. But on Saturday morning at Drum, those four clubs competed against each other at under-8 and under-10 level. For Ballerin, it was a first ever. They’d only had two training sessions prior to their trip up to Gortnaghey at the weekend, with the first of them taking place just shy of a fortnight ago. The idea had been in the head of Sean Cassidy for a while. A Sarsfields man who hurled all his days with Swatragh, he long held the notion. Back in his day, there was a tradition of Ballerin men playing for the Davitts. He recalls playing alongside Kieran O’Connell and Brian Mullan for their neighbours. It had bugged him that the current generation weren’t being given the opportunity to play. All he needed was the bit of support that Tipperary native Joe Wade has provided. “I had toyed with the idea for a while and then I spoke to Joe one night at a football blitz in Limavady and said I was thinking of going with the hurling. He said he’d go with me, and that was the ball in motion then,” said Cassidy. “We only had our first training session last Wednesday there. We’re taking from p1 to p7 and we’ve said to whatever lads are interested at any age to come out. “As far as the primary school [aged children] goes, we had over 30 weans out there on the first Wednesday night, so hopefully we’ll keep getting the same. “Kevin [Hinphey] was on and when he rang me [about Saturday’s blitz], I was in two minds whether to go for it or not. I didn’t want to dishearten the cubs. “But when it was only under-8s and under-10s, it’ll all be ground hurling anyway and the rest of the teams will be at the same stage as us.” There’s been interest from Glenullin as well, and Cassidy is hoping that the idea of a hurling club in Ballerin is a long-term one. “I’m very passionate about and I’d want to keep it going as long as I can look after them, I’m willing to put the time in long term. “I love the game myself. I’ve five weans now myself and wouldn’t have the time to play it, but I’d have time to coach the weans.” THEY would be hopeful of taking a leaf from Castledawson’s book. The St. Malachy’s club began down this road five years ago and have gone from strength to strength since. It began with the very young kids and now the aim is to take a first under-16 team into competitive action next year. Beneath that, the numbers grow rapidly. While they didn’t win a game in the recent Féile na nGael, they competed and had a squad of 23 players. The current under-12 side has enough for a 15-a-side team. The success of the project has had many hands to thank. Derry hurler Paddy Henry has put in a lot of spadework. His brothers Peter and Christopher, and Mickey O’Kane, have been the backbone of it around the club. But he is keen to emphasise the work that local hurling coaches Kevin Hinphey, Ruairi Convery and Colm Dillon – the latter particularly, as it is his area – have done. The key to it all has been their infiltration of the schools system. Three years ago, they managed to get hurling into New Row Primary School in the town. A fortnight ago, they won the ‘B’ version of the Castle Cup at St. Patrick’s Maghera, just weeks after winning a similar tournament organised by Derry county board. Last September saw the club take another huge leap forward with the introduction of the game into Anahorish Primary School, which caters largely for children from Newbridge and Bellaghy. Prior to that move, there were two talented young lads from Newbridge plying their trade at the Broagh. Now there are another 10 on top of that, all inside one year. “They’re all in around the same age, they’re in the same class, and it’s easy for them to come along because they’re not starting at stage 0, they have some idea what they’re doing,” says Paddy Henry. “With New Row going from strength to strength in hurling, that’s purely down to Colm Dillon and Ruairi [Convery] and Kevin [Hinphey] going down there. “They’re the boys that gave those weans an idea of what it’s all about. By the time they come to me, they’re already half hooked on it.” Castledawson hope to break into the untapped goldmine that is Magherafelt over the coming year. If they could achieve that then the whole thing would open up in front of them. The problem has moved past being one of interest or numbers among the kids. It has become the help in terms of coaching. As the number of teams has grown, the four predominant coaches have found themselves pulled in too many different directions to be sustained. It has affected the ability to train the youngsters in the way that Paddy Henry would like to. He doesn’t require expert help; he just requires enthusiasm. “The biggest thing at the minute that would help us most is getting a better structure, in terms of having someone looking specifically after the under-8s, someone over the under-10s, etc. “But because there’s so few of us [coaches] at the minute, it generally operates that the under-8s and smaller under-10s train together, and the stronger under-10s up to under-14s train together, so really they’re trained in two groups. “That makes it difficult in terms of even going to blitzes and stuff because you take half your boys out to a blitz, the other boys don’t get training. “That’s not down to a lack of support, it’s probably people not having the confidence, thinking ‘what do I know about hurling, I never played it’. That’s largely irrelevant in my opinion. “If I have someone who’s enthusiastic and can keep the weans in check, the hurling’s easy, because there’ll be someone else there with them to do it. That’s the biggest issue, getting a few more bodies out.” IN Drum, it’s a revival. There has always been a tradition of hurling there. The club reached a Derry senior final in 1990 and have had various stints in both the senior and intermediate grades down the years. They won an intermediate championship back at the start of the 2000s but it was only a couple of years later that the hurling folded. Even in times of its absence though, there have been individuals carrying the torch. The Kevin Lynch’s team that dominated so strongly for a decade was never without a sprinkling of Drum men. The game wasn’t played by the club for almost a decade but with hard-working clubmen Shane McCartney, Barry O’Hara, Barney Hasson, Cormac and Peter McCloskey behind the revolution, the game is enjoying a renaissance among the area’s children. Numbers are growing from under-14 down in hurling, football and camogie and, all importantly, St. Mary’s Gortnaghey Primary School has adopted the offer of help from Kevin Hinphey. O’Cahans in Limavady also have the basis for a structure, with four primary schools in three key areas taking the game to heart. Gaelscoil Leim an Mhadaidh and Roe Valley Integrated Primary School in Limavady have both been receptive, as have St. Aidan’s Magilligan and St. Finlough’s Primary School in Glack. The one area they haven’t been able to crack yet which they are keen to cater for is Faughanvale. But on the whole, Derry hurling is growing. It’s spreading into areas that it has never been before. Other potential start-up clubs remain tentative, some of them because of the cost. However, as Hurling Development Officer Kevin Hinphey explains, it is minimal, and there is funding available to help anyone setting out. “For any club who wishes to introduce hurling, there is a lot of support available. Coaching support will be available for club sessions, local schools will be offered hurling coaching to support the clubs efforts and the County will offer clubs deals on equipment to get things going. ‘To participate at Go Games level clubs only have to commit to having hurling coaching at the club for primary school children, 1 hour per week and to attend a handful of blitzes during the playing season. “The hurling and football go games are arranged to avoid any clashes. At the games, the under 8s play 5-a-side and under 10s play 7-a-side so lack of numbers shouldn’t hold clubs back at this level. “It would be great to see more clubs getting involved in the hurling Go Games programme, after that each club can decide if there is an appetite for or resources to take things a step further.” Anyone who would like more information can e-mail, kevin.hinphey.ulster@gaa.ie.