February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
On Friday, June 19, at 8:30 p.m., there will be a farewell party for the 1998 N.Y. Under-14 All Stars. The venue is the Lansdowne Bar and Restaurant in the Bronx. This team is traveling to Ireland to participate in the Feile Peil tournament of 1998. The tournament is for the All Ireland Club Championship at the Under 14 age level.
In preparation for this competition, the team will be traveling to Birmingham, England, to play two friendly matches against a Warwickshire select panel on Sunday, June 28, and Tuesday, June 30. The following day, the team will fly into Dublin and travel to Manorhamilton, Co. Leitrim, and play the local team in a friendly match on Wednesday July 1. On Thursday, July 2, the panel will travel to Glenswilly, Co. Donegal. After meeting the host club, the New York boys will have a final workout before the tournament commences. On Friday, July 3, there will be a parade of all the competing teams through the town of Ballybofey and first round games will begin. The tournament will be played with second round, quarterfinal and semi-final action on Saturday, July 4, and the finals will be on Sunday, July 5.
The players representing New York are: from St. Barnabas, Doug Brady, Matt Brady, Andrew Donoghue, Eamon Duffy and David Hannon; from Celtic, Sean Farrelly, Anthony Goodwin, John McArdle and Ed Sheeran; from Rockland, James Donahue, Shaun Dunne, Luke Fitzpatrick, Shane Hogan, Greg Loftus, Chris Mangan, Brian Meaney and Declan Neville, and from St. Raymond’s, Mark Capezuti, Craig Gambardella, James Huvane, David Ryan and Michael Sullivan.
The officials traveling with the team are Mike Keane, Minor Board chairman; Noel O’Connell, team manager; Dave Ryan, trainer, and Dave Hannon, assistant trainer.
On Sunday, June 21, at 11 a.m. in Gaelic Park, you can see many of these players in action, as Rockland take on St. Barnabas in what promises to be a very exciting 1998 Under-14 Championship Final.
Meanwhile, on Sunday at Gaelic Park, the Celtic’s defeated St. Barnabas by a score of 7-6 to 3-0 to capture the 1998 Under-12 title. The Celtic’s halfback line of Pat Duffy, Ciara McArdle and Ronan O’Brien was like a granite wall. At midfield, Brian Slattery and Peter Reph showed plenty of flair distributing the ball to their teammates in the forward line. The attackers were led by Conor McKeon, who again scored some fine goals for his team. He was assisted by Doug Sheeran, Mike Dormer and Michael McVann.
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St. Barnabas were best served by defenders Joe Halligan and Brendan Mulroy, midfielders Kevin Hannon and Jim Nellis, and forwards Joey Graziosa and their best player on the day, Barry O’Sullivan.
The most valuable player award for 1998 Under-12 division was shared between Celtic teammates Pat Duffy and Conor McKeon.
Celtic scorers were Conor McKeon 4-1, Mike Dormer 2-0, Michael McVann 1-2, Brian Slattery 0-2, and Doug Sheeran 0-1. St. Barnabas scorers were Barry Sullivan 2-0, ,and Joey Graziosa 1-0. The match was ably refereed by Kevin Lennon.
The Under-16 semi-finals will be played Wednesday, June 17, at Fairlawn, N.J., between St. Joseph’s and Rockland; and Thursday, June 18, at Paddy’s Field with the Rangers taking on St. Barnabas. Both games will start at 6:30 p.m.