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History of Boys Hockey-Wesley College 1988-2006
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The Principal’s Kitchen Table
All school sports need passion, dreams and plans for their future development. Friday afternoons spent around the kitchen table in the Principal’s house were the dedicated coaches, building plans based on hard work and the long hard road of training to build up boy’s hockey throughout the school. Kenneth and Joan Blackmore, Ruth Henderson, Joy Mawhinney and Irene Jonhson had many things in common and one of these was a love of hockey. They added to this a determination to see the game grow in the school in order to give the boys an alternative to rugby. Mr Blackmore had just won 2 All Ireland titles with the girl’s teams and after a long and distinguished career as a full international he and his wife turned their attention to developing the game in the boys. He had a fantastic life partner in his wife Joan who coached many of the underage teams in the school. She spent countless hours coaching minor hockey teams before and after school. She had a bundle of energy and enthusiasm for hard work and most of it not seen by parents or recognised by others. From her garage door she would dish out the hockey cones and bibs to all her willing accomplices. At the end of practise on Tuesdays and Fridays she would bring all in for tea and coffee and a biscuit to discuss the progress of the teams. Mr Blackmore would arrive in after a long days work and spend hours recounting episodes of his own sporting days in YMCA and Ireland. He told of the times his father trained him on the sand dunes to build his stamina for the forthcoming running season as he was a keen rival of Ronnie Delaney. After spending too many seasons trailing him on the track he realised that his future did not lay in athletics. He devoted his full time to his hockey career. He was a great raconteur and his devotion to the game was obvious. He inspired all around him with his will to work hard and to see the possibilities of the game. From this kitchen table grew the sport in the school. In 1986 the senior team had entered the Leinster School’s 2nd division and held its own. 18 years later they were All Ireland Champions. So too, the under 13s, 14s and Juniors had become regular Leinster Cup winners.
Ruth Henderson was given the role of organising the boy’s hockey in the 1980s, a position she still holds today. She has been a great servant to the school and it is a great tribute to her that the teams have grown so successful. She is responsible for organising all the coaches, equipment and fixtures for all teams.
The Lean Years
And so the long road began. Where else to begin chasing a dream than at the top? To win the Tasmanian Shield as All Ireland Champions is the ultimate accolade for a school. It was decided to go out and bring teams on trips to play against the top schools in Ireland, which usually meant travelling to Belfast to play RBAI, Bangor and Methody College. These were undertaken with a view of learning from the best. Regular cricket scores were the order of the day but the players and coaches were learning how far we would have to progress to compete against these teams. They entered their first All Ireland Schools Competition in 1989, as a late replacement for Newtown Comprehensive. They were badly beaten in their pool games and watched in awe at the final between Bangor Grammar and RBAI. During these early years there was little success but some excellent young players were been developed at lower age groups. Most notable of these were Stephen Stewart, Mark Cox, Quentin Heaney, David Henderson and a fine young goal keeper in Roddy Van der Flier. These players won the minor cup in the late 1980s and in 1991 produced the school’s first fine senior team and they partook in the annual tournament in Cookstown. Despite winning only 1 game on the tournament they were beaten in the final after some penalty shoot out victories. This game marked the school’s first tangible improvement in performance levels.
The Leinster cup competitions at all levels were being dominated in the 1980s by The Kings Hospital, Newpark Comprehensive, St Columbas and Sandford College. Wesley enjoyed little success in breaking down the dominance of these schools until 1992 when they played our first cup final against The Kings Hospital. They lost 1-0 after dominating large portions of the game. In 1994-5 season a team led by Johnny Sleeman won the first senior cup for the school. A single goal scored by Ian Cox, decided the affair against the other new and upcoming school, St Andrews College. After 10 years of little achievement the school had finally arrived.
The Tasmanian Shield had become the focus of all schools south of the boarder. As the competition had begun in 1981 and only 2 southern teams had ever made it to the semi final stages. The competition is held in early November of each year and it is regarded as the centre piece of the season. Year in year out good teams from the south entered this tournament with great hopes only to see their dreams shattered in the very early stages. The coaches would go home scratching their heads on how to break the Northern dominance.
Turning the Tables
In 1996 Wesley and Newpark produced two excellent teams with high hopes of finally winning this competition. Captained by Keith Wilkinson and with many excellent players including the Irish schools player Gary Ringwood, the team had a startling 4-3 victory over Ashton Comprehensive in the pool stage, with Gary Ringwood scoring all 4 goals in the last 12 minutes. He was the first player to score 100 goals for his school. The teams duly met in the final in Cork where Newpark were to be the first southern winners winning the game 3-1. Future Irish star Stephen Butler was their main player. The southern schools had now lost any sense of inferiority and several schools such as Ashton Grammar from Cork, Kilkenny College, Bandon Grammar and St Andrews came to the fore with victories in the competition over the next few years.
Astro turf hockey pitches were now common place and most schools had by the late 1990s put down their own. Wesley had built their own pitch in 1990 under the Blackmores and by the end of the decade most pupils entering schools had been brought up playing on these pitches. A complete new level of skills and a total new outlook on the game had started. The offside rule had been abandoned and attack was the order of the day for all teams. New training methods and greater emphasis on skill and fitness levels were required by all teams to progress. Team tactics of pressing in balls and short corner routines dominated team talks. Such changes brought a whole new breed of player to school teams and in Wesley we began to get more than our fair share of talent. Future stars like Peter McConnell, Andrew Walker, Phelie Maguire, Jamie McConnell, Andrew Macken, David Roche, John Blakeney, Rowan Pearson and Craig Wilson were exceptionally talented. Cups were won on a regular basis by the under 13s and 14. It only had to be a matter of time before this would bare fruit at senior level.
The Final Years.
And so things did indeed turn in the school’s favour. Perhaps the advent of a League system in rugby was also part of the change in the power houses of schools hockey as now many traditional hockey schools forced players to make a choice between hockey and rugby, and schools such as Kings Hospital and Kilkenny College did not devote as many resources to the smaller sport of hockey. Only Wesley College and St Andrews College devoted equal resources if not time to both.
Andrew Macken led the school to its first Leinster league and cup double in 1999-2000. After that League victories were a regular occurrence but the Tasmanian Trophy still eluded the school. In 2002 Andrew Walker captained a very talented team to the final, only to be denied once more in the last minute of extra time by St Andrews College, losing 1-0. The following year Neil Lyons captained another fine team which played RBAI in the final in Cork. Finally the trophy was to be the school’s after an inspiring performance by Peter Blakeney. The team went on to represent Ireland in the Tournament of champions in the Hague at Easter 2003. After some brilliant performances the team lost the final in a penalty shoot out. This team was the finest ever team to represent to school, with ability all over the park. The school had finally achieved its goal of producing the finest team in the country. They then completed the treble in winning the league and cup in Leinster.
That year the school was to have four schoolboy internationals in Peter Blakeney, Neil Lyons, Andrew McConnell and Michael Maguire and they represented Ireland in the European Championships in Barcelona in June. They finished runners up to Holland.
Two years later, in the season of 2004-05, that great achievement was to be repeated by a team led by the outstanding captain Stephen Roche. Ian walker gave a brilliant performance in goal in the final against Bandon Grammar and was rightly selected to play for Ireland Under 18 team. This team were also invited to play in the Hague Tournament and had a fine result in drawing with the full Belgium Under 18 team. The team again won the league and cup double in Leinster.
Later in the season Mitch Darling, Chris Pelow and Timothy Hill were also selected for Ireland Under 18 team.
Most of these players were back in school the following season, 2005-06, to attempt to emulate their feats of the previous year. They came unstuck in the semi final of the All Ireland trophy but went on to retain the league and cup trophies.
At the end of the season the school had the rare honour of having two of its pupil play full internationals for Ireland. Both Ian Walker and Mitch Darling were selected while in the middle of their Leaving Certificate. Both have very bright futures ahead of them. In addition to these two Phelie Maguire, Peter Blakeney and Andrew McConnell have had the distinction of receiving their full international honours.
Many coaches passed through Wesley College in their time and tribute must be paid to the all. Keith Lemon and Brian Delany are two teachers in the school that have spent many happy years making their contributions to various teams. Dan Kennedy as Head of Sport did years of great work behind the scenes to improve the quality of the teams. He was a selfless individual who gave great encouragement to individuals and focused teams to enable them to win matches. He retired in 2007 and is a massive loss to the school.
Not all boys that played hockey in the school could play on the First XI and there were many fantastic groups of players to tog out for our teams. One such bunch was the Irregulars, a group of musicians and bohemians that lived by the motto “No matter what the score, the Irregulars always win”, who played 2nd team hockey in the early 1990s. They were led out onto the pitch by their bugler William Newburn and entertained their vast array of supporters with their good humour and unusual style of play.
And so as the coaches cast a fond eye over the past twenty years of boy’s hockey in Wesley College, it is the memory of fine young men bonded in the love of a school sport. The thought is, of the Blackmores, the coaches and all of the boys, hoping that as players they may have their stories to tell future generations. For in the end it was not the winning of trophies that was important but the building of dreams and the shared passion for the School that will be lasting memory of these years. Players got to understand the value of sport and teamwork and the staff saw players grow in character. Roll on the next twenty years, for as the Irregulars said “No matter what the score, Wesley College always win”.
Brian Delaney 2008