The Beginning
Myself and Michael Flannery knew from day 1 that we had a tough job on our hands. There had been been no u-12 team last year which meant that the older players born in 1993 had never played a competitive game in the Sligo-Leitrim Youth&Schoolboys league. At u-12 it's hard to mention the word experience, but we truly had an inexperienced team. We had only one player that had actually signed for Ballymote before and made a few subsitute appearances two years ago under Michael Flannery snr. 

Experience also came into account with the coaches. Myself and Michael had no qualifications or experience. I had asissted Mark Irwin in the community games campaign earlier on in the year but played a limited role. I later went on to complete an F.A.I Introductory Coaching course and hope to do more but when we started I had never been involved in coaching before. I knew, however that everyone needs to start somewhere and it was the right team for me as there was no-one else interested in coaching the boys. As part of my college course I do work placement every year and in 2005 I worked as a Special Needs Assistant in Schoil Mhuire Gan Smal in Ballymote. Through this I got to know the lads and they asked me to become involved in the Community games. When we finished this campaign in mid-July they were begging myself and Mark Irwin to continue training as they really enjoyed it. We took a week off and I got numerous phone calls about the training. I rang around Mark Irwin and Daniel Clarke wondering if they could take the training but they weren't available so I took the session. Michael Flannery began coming down and together the two of us formed a deadly coaching duo!

It took us a while to get going but when we did, I think the children really enjoyed themselves. I remember telling the lads at one training session that at the next I would have cones and bibs, but funnily I didn't attend that session and they were using shoes for cones! Gradually training became more organised and structured. I remember the first training session that actually went well and the feeling of satisfaction. After a few months every training session was like this.

Objectives/Goals
To be honest, I didn't really know what to expect from the lads at the start of the year. I didn't know the standard of the league although I imagined it to be relatively high. My problem was that I had no way of guaging how good or bad my team were. We soon found out in our first friendly v Ballisodare. We lost 5-3, but being honest we only got two goals towards the end as our fitness showed, having been training since mid-June. I knew from here it was to be a long season.

With regards to the lads, I asked them what they were expecting for the season. The answers were different per person, but varied from scoring ten goals in the season to winning the league. By the end of the season I think nearly every person could look at their objectives and say we failed to achieve them but I will look at this later on.

Training
As mentioned earlier, after the weeks went by, training became better structured, more organised, more enjoyable and better attended. After I completed the Introductory Coaching course I came away with a lot more ideas, and the confidence to implement these ideas. I had a great energy for training and really enjoyed it. I tried to keep the running to an absolute minimum and informed the lads that I did athletics for about 6 years and knew how to make them run if they were messing. We did a lot of fun games but I tried to introduce more complex concepts towards the end of the season like the third man running. Some stuff worked, others didn't but I learned from every session. I never once had to call off training because of the weather or lack of numbers. The lowest we ever had was 7 but training attendance was remarkable all year. We generally got about 14 at each training and once even had 21 down, which wasn't bad for a team with a panel of 18! About 5 or 6 of the lads had excellent training attendances, the top being approximatley 44 out of 50. Another great thing about this group of lads was that the majority of them always used to let me know when they wouldn't be attending and why.

Match Day
There was never any messing on match day. I let captain Stephen Healy take the team for the warm up and he excelled with this responsibility. Myself and Michael Flannery often had disputes over the team selection and many times had tough decisions to make, deciding between our best team and one that consisted of the players who constantly attended training. I asked lads to come down 45 minutes before a game and they usually complied. One thing that needs improvement is their ability to tie/untie laces, remembering to bring shin guards and taking less time togging out. There were plenty occasions when a player could be seen togging out for ten minutes.

CRITICAL REVIEW OF SEASON GAME-BY-GAME

We had a good early season friendly victory over Coolaney. It was a dramatic match but a good win. Next we played Merville and were given a good lesson in how to play football. I rested some key players as I wanted to try out some others and we lost 6-2 despite being 2-2 at one stage. I took full blame for this loss but I wasn't particularly bothered about it as it was an excellent performance. 2 of their goals came at the very end and as I was referee I was guilty of not keeping the time and I think I went over the 30 minutes.

When the season began I was actually absent for the first game, being away on holidays. The lads lost 6-1 to Merville in what was a dreadful game according to Michael Flannery. Our next game was against Strand Celtic and here we were hammered 7-0. We had 3 players unavailable due to rugby and had Conor Meehan taken off injured early on. We were absolutley destroyed and only for goalkeeper Sean Kilcoyne it could have been more. Humiliated, we left for home. Things didn't get any better as next we played Arrow Harps and lost 6-1. A terrible performance again here, and it could have been worse had Sean Kilcoyne not saved a penalty and the referee finished early because of the bad weather. The next game was the most upsetting yet. We took on Melvin in Kinlough. We went down early 1-0 and I thought here we go again. However, the lads fought back hard and we just couldn't score. Soon they scored a second and as heads went down they finished us off 4-0. I was very distressed after this game and told the lads that a poor side had struggled to beat us but in the paper it would look like we were hammered.

We had a bit of a break then and took on Gurteen in a mid-season friendly. We got a two-all draw here and it was good to get a bit of confidence back into ourselves. Our first league game back after Christmas was against Merville. I thought we had learned valuable lessons from the early part of the season and would have matured enough to give Merville a good game. Playing in Kevinsfort, I looked as if I was right when we took the lead through Colm McCann. We were playing good football and stunned Merville. However they fought back and ended up beating us 6-1. This was probably the lowest moment of the year for me as I thought we had turned a corner. Me and Michael unfairly took our anger out on the lads and told them that if any parent wanted to take over coaching they were welcome to. The last team we needed to play after this was Strand Celtic who hammered us earlier on. They came to Ballymote with a lot of parents and support and looked to repeat their earlier result when being 2-0 up at half time. However we worked harder than ever before and held them to this result. The Strand manager agreed with me that we had improved a lot and although our attacking was very poor it was a better performance.

We went one better in our next match v Carrick Town. In a very gritty and dogged game in Ballymote we held them to a 0-0 draw. Goalkeeper James Mullen informed me it was our first clean sheet of the year and in reality we were slightly lucky but nevertheless deserved our point. I remember seeing the disappointment in some of the Carrick players, I knew they expected to come down and hammer us. I however felt, that on reflection, I should have made some tactical changes to attempt to attack more. Maybe, had I, we could have snook an undeserved goal but we could also have left ourselves exposed so I am in two minds about it.

Buoyed with confidence after this result I felt we could build from this and the right match came our way. Melvin at home. I built this up as the match we could win and was absolutley devastated when they thrashed us 6-1. Conor Wards absence meant Colm McCann one of a few left footers and a natural striker had to fill in left back. Their danger man was playing right midfield and although he played the previous game up front Michael Flannery and I should have been quick to see this situation and change it but lacked the options. After a brief good period in the season it was getting worse. Boyle didn't do us any favour again beating us well 6-1. This game really annoyed me as only 10 players turned up and we had to ring Gary Dwyer and beg him to come down. On the other team sheet I saw Boyle had 17 players and a 'b' team. 

Another one of the low points was against Arrow Harps when only 8 men showed up. I spent two hours pretty much on my own lining out the pitch and putting up the nets in the rain and had nothing to show for it. We conceded the reverse fixture with Boyle and the season had ended on a very very sour note.

But I was surprised to see in two weeks time we were down for a cup game v Innisfree. We just managed to get 11 players for the match and by god, myself and Michael had words with them before the game! I told them I was disgusted with their lack of dedication, respect and that they didn't deserve a coach. But this seemed to spur them on and we won the match 4-3, despite being 3-2 down. Conor Meehan got 2 great goals and won us the match. He was our saviour again up in Enniscrone in the next round of the cup. We arrived ten minutes before kick off, no warm up and no subs so everything was against us. It was also lashing rain and the home side had a great support in the far stand. We eventually won on penalties, Meehan scoring the winner after saving a penalty as well. It was probably my highlight of the year and something I'll never forget as after winning the match we exited through the stand to the applause of about 20 parents. An unbelievable victory and experience.

Next in the quarter finals was Melvin Celtic, our old adversaries. I never in my life saw a team fight as hard, with as much effort and commitment as us that day. They were a team that hammered us twice and we took them to extra time. I was completely gutted when they scored their third, the killer blow. It was the end of a fine cup run and the Melvin manager complimented us on how far we had come. I knew we had come a long way and we would be twice the team in two years time. It was a season that they probably learned more from than any other and hopefully will become better players because of the experience.

Critical Analysis
I am aware of the length of this piece, so I will try to keep this short! When looking at our objectives, the season would be a failure. However, that depends on whether success is based on winning. We had players that had improved ten fold throughout the year and who had something extra in their life they really enjoyed, that they never had before.

Me and Michael Flannery weren't perfect coaches and I can't count the amount of times I lost the head and shouted at them. For this team to really improve, they need to take things seriously, stop the messing and perhaps a more experienced and mature coach could help them here. However, I do genuinely think Michael and I did a top notch job. We hadn't much resources or the experience but had transformed a weak team lacking in confidence to a high quality team that fought hard and believed in themselves. We always did our best to keep them playing football, when the pitch was out of action we went to the gym or to the Showgrounds astro-turf. We did everything possible to facilitate the lads playing football even missing matches ourselves.

But, despite the coaches influence, the majority of the credit must go to the players. Their character all year was amazing. To get hammered 6, 7 nil and still come home singing on the bus and nagging to go to the shop was ridiculous. I think if I was part of a side that was well beat every single game I would have given up half way through the season. But they stuck at it, always wanting training and saved their best football for the last few games of the season. A talented bunch of footballers, I will look to two years time with optimism.

Afterword
I would say to any parent or anybody thinking of volunteering coaching, it is an extremely rewarding and enjoyable experience. It requires a lot of time and dedication but is essentially worthwhile. In conclusion I would like to thank all the boys who played for Ballymote Celtic, the other coaches from the club that supported me, advised and who I learned from, Paul Hynes for his hard work in a difficult job and everybody from all the various clubs. 

Anybody who would like to comment on any aspect of this review can leave me an email s00049473@itsligo.ie 

Alan Farry Coach Ballymote Celtic u-12s 05/06