IN sawing past Aaron Branagan, dodging the brother Niall too, the world saw the first significant glimpse of Sean McEvoy’s potential with an O’Neills size five.
Finding the back of Niall Kane’s net on the half-volley as the ball skidded away from him was the warning shot that we might not see much more of it.
McEvoy’s family are steeped in the GAA. His father, Padhraig, played for Ramor and he and wife Laura now sponsor the club through their SuperValu store in the town.
Sean played county minor and U20 for Cavan, and was given a senior Allianz League debut by Mickey Graham last year.
But there wrestling for his affections since he started out with Ballyjamesduff AFC at the age of seven has been a blossoming soccer career that will take him to America in July.
There he will tuck into a four-year scholarship at Loyola University in Baltimore. His degree will be something in the line of business, he just hasn’t nailed it down yet.
Football will vie for his affections again, this time with his studies. It’s the idea of leaving himself a security for life that acted as one of the big carrots when making the decision to leave.
“I definitely think this is the right option at this moment in time,” he said.
“I’m able to have the best of both worlds, studying and playing soccer full-time as well. My ambition would be to try and make a living out of it as best I can.”
The GAA community in Ramor and Cavan will feel his loss, but so too will Ballinamallard United.
McEvoy’s talent as a soccer player was arguably more pronounced at a younger age. From 14 he was playing youth football with the prestigious St Kevin’s club in Dublin, his father running him down the road and back four times a week.
He was put on the Republic of Ireland’s ‘emerging talent’ programme that led to 16 youth international appearances across different grades between 2017 and March 2020.
McEvoy had just turned 16 when he made his Irish League debut for Ballinamallard, and went on to play 35 games that season, helping them to a rare Irish Cup final appearance.
That he ended up watching just half of the final in a hotel room was down to the first big scheduling clash of a fledgling career.
Republic of Ireland U17s were hosting the European Championships and had played Greece in their first group game the previous evening, with a tie against Czech Republic to come on the Monday.
Crusaders crushed the Mallards’ dream and while he would have loved to have played, McEvoy is firmly at peace with the decision.
“It was a really hard decision, especially after playing in all the games to help Ballinamallard get to the final as well.
“Me, Mam and Dad stayed up and had a lot of sleepless nights trying to make a decision over it, but I think we made the right decision in the end.
“Nobody can take it off me that I played in an U17 European Championship match. As much as I would have loved to have played in the cup final, it was the right decision.
“It was kinda sad watching it like that but what can you do?”
Having spent last season with Bray Wanderers in the League of Ireland, he’s rejoined Ballinamallard now, back with them until the end of this season having signed in August but not featured until his club championship campaign with Ramor was done.
That they went all the way to a first title since 2016, beating Gowna in a replay, pushed him into Ulster Club territory and meant his GAA season wasn’t over until the first weekend of December.
The black and yellow has seen the last of him for a while.
“Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love Gaelic to pieces. I was born and bred with it, firstly. But I do love soccer as well. I’ve been torn between the both of them. I just think going with soccer at this moment in time is the right decision.
“As my Dad says, Gaelic will always be there when you come back, if I’m coming home at 24, 25, 26, it’ll always be there. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, I can’t turn around at 25 and say ‘I want to go to America’.
“I don’t want to be 25 or 26 saying I should have done this or done that.”
He and his mother travelled to America last month to see what Baltimore was about before making a final call on taking up the offer of a full scholarship, worth €250,000.
“Some of the soccer facilities over there are unbelievable, the college itself is very, very nice.
“I think I was already kinda decided, I just needed a wee push. I just wanted to see what the facilities were like and if I liked the look of the place, and I did, so I committed to them.
“I’m all for getting different experiences in life, and a different lifestyle as well. The more experiences you have in life, the better you’re gonna become.
“Challenging yourself over there with players your own age who are at the top level, that will make you become a better player as well.”
Working in his parents’ shop on a year out after finishing his Leaving Cert, he’ll see out the season with Ballinamallard, hoping to help them achieve promotion back to the top flight.
McEvoy will be 24 by the time his scholarship end, which would be late for any run at playing across the water in England, but he harbours hopes that it will become his career in some shape or form.
Equally, he’s not ruling out being seen in Breffni Blue again.
“I played one senior league game last year against Longford. I was in at the start of the year and then I wanted to get a bit of game time and went back down to the 20s and played that until we were out of the championship, and then went back to Ramor.
“I just said to Mickey [Graham] before this year that I’d probably be going to America on a scholarship, and he was very understanding about it to be fair to him. He said it was a very good opportunity, to go and take it.
“I didn’t really know at the end of the club season that I was going but I had a fair idea. I knew I was going back to Ballinamallard when Ramor was finished, so I didn’t bother going in at all.
“I’d love to play for Cavan at some stage. Hopefully at some stage in the future I’ll be able to stick on the Cavan jersey in a championship game. That would be a dream of mine to be honest.
“It might be a while but you never know what can happen in the future.”
