A Hockey Circle - Newry to Newry

Little did I know back in September 1963, when I walked into Newry Grammar School (NGS) in Downshire Road as an apprehensive ‘First Former’, that sports in general and hockey in particular would play such a major role in my future life and career.

Like most kids our age we played football whenever and wherever we could-in the streets, parks and/or any wee bit of grass we could find. We put down jackets as goalposts, picked our own teams and refereed our own games without any interference by adults to “organize” us. If games became too lopsided, we just picked new teams so we could have a better game!

Newry Grammar didn’t offer football, just hockey and rugby. My decision to choose hockey was made long before I stepped into the school. Many Saturday mornings when I was 9 or 10 years old, I walked from my home in Newry out to Carnbane Gardens to visit with my Aunt Ena and Uncle David. After helping him with his racing pigeons, around 2 pm I wandered down to the large grass area (just off the Tandragee Road), which had been leased by the local Newry Olympic Hockey Club as their home venue for matches in the Ulster League. I loved watching the matches, seeing the stickwork, passing and scoring. Players that come to mind at that time were Dennis Preston, Jim Henning, Ivan Toombs, Rodney Mears to name a few.  More often than not, some players had a spare hockey stick and let me borrow it. Off I went, up and down the side of the pitch, dribbling, pushing flicking and hitting the ball until I was exhausted. I often helped put out and take in the corner flags, whitewashed used hockey balls to replace the ones which had lost their whiteness during the game, and became a ball-boy when needed. All part of my introduction to hockey making it a no-brainer as to what sport I was going to play at NGS.

After working my way through the various age group teams at the school, I finally made it to the First XI and an opportunity to play with Noel Mears and Freddie Martin the two most recent NGS players at that time to be selected to the Ireland Schoolboys. In my final year at NGS, I was honored to join this group of Newry athletes to represent Ulster and Ireland Schoolboys, a pipeline that has continued for many years. While playing for Stranmillis College, I also had the honour to be selected to play for Ulster U22 and Ireland U22 National teams.

Fast forward, I was in the right place at the right time after NGS and Ashgrove Intermediate School merged to become Newry High School at the Ashgrove campus and they expanded their need for teachers. My first teaching job out of college, as a Physical Education teacher was back in the school I went to as a student. It was also a natural progression that I would be coaching hockey and started off with the Under 13 and Under 14 teams. Mr. Kay always had the Under 15 Richardson Cup teams and Mr. Rawlings had the First XI at that time. After a few years, I had the opportunity to work with the First XI and was privileged to coach many outstanding players, several of whom went on to play for Ulster and Ireland Schoolboys, Ulster and Ireland U21 and the full Ireland national team. The highlight was winning the All Ireland Schools national tournament for the first 3 years for which it was played, 1983-86. The 1980s were the glory years for all NHS hockey teams. 

This period of success for NHS teams was reflected in my being asked by the Ulster and Irish School’s subcommittees to coach the Ulster and Ireland Schoolboy Teams in the Interprovincial and Home Countries International Tournaments respectively. Over a six year period I had the honour of coaching our National U18 Team in 4 tournaments and our U16 team in 2 tournaments, compiling a 10-4-4 record international competition. I also enjoyed reconnecting with some of these players when I was asked to coach the Ulster U21 team for two Interprovincial series. A venture into Women’s Club Hockey coaching saw success, first with the UCPE, Jordanstown team which won the Ulster Senior League and later with Portadown Ladies HC, winning 3 All-Ireland titles with subsequent European Club Championship campaigns. Portadown’s success was reflected in my being recognized as Great Britain Team Coach of the Year for 1987 by the British Association of National Coaches/Dextrosol with a trip to the Savoy Hotel in London to receive the award.

On the club playing front, after graduating from Stranmillis College, Newry Olympic had dropped out of the Senior League, so I joined Cliftonville HC to continue playing at the highest level of club hockey in Ireland. I was privileged to be part of a team that won 2 All Ireland titles in 1975 and 1976, with a highlight of scoring a hat trick in the 1976 final in a 4-1 victory over Waterford HC. As a result, participation in 2 European Cup campaigns, were a highlight. After several years with Cliftonville, the commitment of travelling to Belfast for training and playing began to take its toll, so I returned to play for Newry in the Intermediate League. I had the honour as captain to lead the team to winning the All Ireland Junior Cup and promotion back to Senior League II.

With all of these various coaching opportunities and experiences, I was determined to try to become the best coach I could be. I attended as many coaching seminars and courses that I could, (several in sports other than hockey) and took any coaching certification courses that were available, trying to learn from other successful coaches. As well as the “Art of Coaching, the Science of Coaching” was becoming increasingly important. Governing Bodies for sports were developing Coach Education curricula, as were colleges and universities. I attended as many as I could, attaining the IHU Senior Coach certification, the highest offered at that time. My Physical Education background was also a good foundation for my coaching aspirations.

During my summers, I was able to take advantage of the break from teaching to travel to the USA, where I coached football and tennis at a summer camp. After making some connections with hockey, I found summer camps specifically for hockey (or field hockey as it is known in N. America) and transitioned to coaching at hockey camps for several weeks each summer. This led to contacts at USA Field Hockey and I was invited to be a guest coach at their summer camp talent identification programme for U18 girls, which I did for several summers.  At that time, the US Olympic Committee ran a program for all 0lympic sports called the National Sports Festival, held in non-Olympic years in an attempt to simulate the experience for potential Olympic athletes. In 1983, I was contacted by the US Men’s 1984 Olympic Team National Coach, Gavin Featherstone, and asked if I would coach one of 4 teams at the National Festival, to be held that year at the US Olympic Training Centre in Colorado Springs. I jumped at the opportunity, as this was basically the final trial for the US Men’s Olympic Team for 1984, which would be selected after this week long tournament. Little did I know that I would be in the same position in 1995, using this same Festival format, this time in Boulder Colorado, as part of the selection process for the US Men’s 1996 Olympic Team.

Back in N. Ireland in the 1980’s, I was teaching full time and coaching was part time. I was continually thinking about what would it be like if I could coach full time. Most opportunities for that were in N. America in the collegiate and university system. In 1988, a player from the UCPE team that I had coached, Irish international, Laura Flood, had married a Canadian and was living in Montreal. She informed me of a coaching opening in Winnipeg, Manitoba and I decided to apply and after some interviews by phone and sending my resume, I was offered a joint position of coach of the University of Manitoba Women’s Team and also coach of the Manitoba Provincial Teams (senior, U21 and U18). It was a big decision to leave NHS (after 15 years), my home and family, but I decided to give myself 5 years. If coaching worked out, great and if not I could go back into teaching. The rest is history!

From July 1988, I spent 4 great years in Winnipeg and Canada, with many wonderful people and athletes, moving the university team from 20^th in the Canadian University system to 5^th in 1991. More coaching certifications in the Canadian Coach Education system, some graduate level courses at the university in such fields as Sport Psychology, all contributed to my own coaching education. When some of my Manitoba young players were selected for the Canadian U21 National Squad, I was invited to be an assistant coach with the Canadian National Team. This led to being invited to an FIH preliminary Coaching Course in Toronto, directed by Mike Hamilton, England and former Ireland Women’s National Coach, Riet Kuyper from The Netherlands. From this course, I was selected to attend the Final FIH Coach Education Course, to be held in conjunction with the 1994 Women’s World Cup, directed by Richard Agiss, former Australian Men’s National Coach. What an honour to be awarded my FIH, Coach Trainer certification, after a grueling few days of examination. Each participant had to make a presentation (prepared in advance of the course) to the group, were given coaching analysis tasks to report on from various games from the World Cup, participate in individual interviews with the course directors and had to take a turn in the “hot seat” when they had to answer on topics drawn blind from a hat.  This was another huge step in my coaching education and one that would allow me to apply for national level coaching positions.

In the summer of 1991, I was asked to direct a weeklong camp for the US Men’s National Squad in Colorado Springs, with Mexico in attendance for competition, as the National coach at that time was travelling. Looking back, I realized it was a “practical” interview for the upcoming coach vacancy for Head Coach of the US Men’s National Team. Later that summer, I was invited for a formal interview in Los Angeles with several other candidates from around the world. Subsequently, I was thrilled and honoured to receive a phone call from the U S Men’s Field Hockey National Coach Search Chairman, Chris Waters, offering me the position. It was with sadness that I informed my Manitoban athletes of my decision to accept, but also with excitement of what was ahead. I reflected on all the hard work, time and effort I had put into my coaching education and practical experience to reach a goal that I had given myself almost 5 years previously.

I started my new position in January 1992, charged with preparing the US Team for the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. Fast forward to June 1995, here I was in Northern Ireland and back in Newry with the USA Men’s National Team. It was a wonderful celebration of hockey for me, my team, for Newry Olympic and for Newry, especially as my father, at that time, was Past Chairperson of the Newry and Mourne District Council who had worked with NOHC to host this event. This was a joyful event as part of preparing for the 4 nations tournament at Lisnagarvey HC against Ireland, Scotland and Spain, which in turn was another step for the young USA team to gain international experience in advance of their participation 12 months later in the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.

For me, it was another page turned in a long journey since that first day of hockey as a new first form student at Newry Grammar School.