Eagles take flight and soar

Cavanman's Diary

The winding, sporting road. Where it leads, where it converges.

A love of football got Fr Patsy Carolan into some bother, 62 years ago. His performances for Killinkere saw him drafted into the county team and he came off the bench for Cavan against Down in the Ulster final in Clones, taking the field alongside some of the county’s all-time greats including Gabriel Kelly, Tom Maguire, Jim McDonnell and Charlie Gallagher.

“I wasn’t really supposed to be playing at that level. I got into a bit of difficulty over it,” he recalled in an interview a couple of years ago.

“There was a priest called Fr Paddy Mee who was an Oblate at the time who said ‘you are in trouble but tell them I told you to play’ and I did that.”

Thus, Fr Carolan had to pack in county football. He was ordained in 1963 and spent over 30 years in London, Bristol and Essex, devoting himself to helping the many Irishmen who had fallen on hard times over there, who were homeless and often in the horrors of alcohol addiction. They constructed accommodation for these men, gave them back their dignity. This was what they call a “bricks and mortar” clergyman.

In the 1990s, Fr Patsy moved back to Dublin and, in 1997, he helped spearhead the redevelopment of the Oblate Hall in Inchicore, home of the Oblate Dynamos basketball team. He became a driving force of the club there.

Last Saturday, the Oblate Dynamos came to Virginia to take on the McEvoy’s Cavan Eagles in Division 1 of the Women’s National Basketball League. In the match programme, the Eagles’ chairman, Graham Tolan, welcomed the visitors and their supporters.

“Our relationship with Oblates goes back many years,” he wrote, “with one of Cavan’s finest, Fr Carolan, heavily involved in your club.”

As I flicked through the booklet while waiting for the match to tip off, I got a brief rundown on some of the finer points of the sport from Laura McEvoy, whose family business sponsor the team.

It would be an under-statement to say that my basketball knowledge is not good (not unlike your football knowledge, some of you are surely saying) but certain qualities are instantly recognisable in a sportsperson and will reel in the observer. Soon, I was on my feet with the rest of the crowd cheering on this gritty, talented Cavan side.

It helped that the Show Centre in Virginia was rocking. The music was blaring during the warm-up; the place was jammed, with approximately 400 supporters. I find myself comparing this match to handball games I have attended, where spectators file in almost apologetically and sit quietly, like churchgoers. The difference was, this was an event.

Soon enough, I found myself enraptured as the Eagles tore into their opponents. Oblates came north with a pretty good reputation; they had narrowly lost to Swords Thunder in their opening match before putting 25 points on Limerick Huskies in round two.

But by the end of the first quarter, the Eagles – who play in the Cavan colours – were leading 22-8.

The back story to the team is enthralling. Tolan’s three daughters, Ciara (the team captain), Niamh and Emma are all internationals at underage level. Their pedigree can be traced all the way back to the Polo Grounds; their late grandmother Veronica Sharkey was one of the Gunner clan from Mullahoran.

Ciara Brady, captain of the Lurgan ladies team who recently won the county Senior Championship, is also on board, a leader and a lynchpin. So, too, is Casey Mulvey, a quite brilliant athlete who spent the last year on a shot putt scholarship in Chicago.

A Spaniard, Eli Lopez Sangrera, superb under the basket, was also on the starting line-up, as was Jane Larkin, a native of Dunshaughlin. Coming off the bench was local woman Aoife Maguire, the talented former Irish underage captain who is back from a sabbatical and finding her feet again. Chloe McElhinney, Aislinn Grealy, Amy Dowd and Caitlin Brady complete the roster, with American Carnethia Brown soon to join up when Visa issues are hopefully soon resolved.

The one I didn’t mention was the lady whom announcer Martin Flynn – whose skills on the mic added greatly to the occasion - left till last to introduce, too – Alarie Mayze. A native of Arlington, Texas, home of the Dallas Cowboys, she is a former stand-out Division 1 college player with the University of Southern Mississippi, known simply as Southern Miss.

From the earliest stages, it was obvious that here was a supremely talented player. Defensively, she was like a tiger; in attack, her pace and stamina and handling ability off left and right were truly amazing. She may be one of the most talented sportspeople to ever play for a team in Cavan.

I interviewed Mayze a couple of weeks ago before a training session. How did a girl from the 50th biggest city in the United States end up here, in Cavan?

She had played in DCU last year while studying for a Masters in Business, she explained. A chance trip north to coach some kids piqued her interest; the Eagles were on the look-out for a couple of top players to boost their fledgling National League side and one thing led to another. Now, here she was.

“I was asked to come up to Cavan and coach at a rip and run camp. That’s how I met Graham Tolan and I ended up getting a contract here. I love it so far, everybody is very welcoming, it’s a very community-oriented place. We are the first team to play in the National League.”

It’s all novel. The basketball razzmatazz and the whole culture around it contrasts wildly with Gaelic football, which tends to confuse fun with a lack of seriousness. In basketball, they look at it differently.

“I am a city girl but I love being out in the country, it’s peaceful and very relaxing. I love that,” she said.

“People, when they hear my voice have asked me, ‘oh, are you American?’ It’s awesome.”

In the end, the fledgling Eagles won going away to make it three from three and now sit top of the national table.

Basketball is booming in the area; three different courts in two towns are needed to house all of the Eagles’ teams. At a time when there is a belated drive to promote female sport, what is going on with the National League side is extraordinary and one of the best feel-good sporting stories to emerge from this county in living memory.

That the crowds have turned out in force and the team has responded only adds to it – and they are getting better, with the aforementioned Brown still to arrive and other players shaking off the early-season rust.

How did it happen? Passion and planning. Endless effort over a decade and more. One can only imagine the time and expense it has taken to reach a point where a Cavan basketball team can compete on the national stage; the floor in the Show Centre alone is Olympic spec and cost in excess of €100,000.

That floor, emblazoned with the club logo, is a story in itself. Each board is numbered, each part unique.

It was taken up during the summer, in preparation for the agricultural show, and later re-fitted, painstakingly. Piece by piece, hour by hour, until the picture was complete.

As Fr Carolan found, and in a tradition the Eagles are carrying on, that’s the only way it can be done.

Day by day, block by block. Build it and they will come.