Football

Nine Ulster players on Allstars trip to San Diego

Caroline O’Hanlon shows off her American football skills with the help of Armagh team-mate Sinead Kernan at Mar Vista High School, Imperial Beach
Caroline O’Hanlon shows off her American football skills with the help of Armagh team-mate Sinead Kernan at Mar Vista High School, Imperial Beach Caroline O’Hanlon shows off her American football skills with the help of Armagh team-mate Sinead Kernan at Mar Vista High School, Imperial Beach

SAN Diego will be treated to an exhibition of ladies football today when the 2014 Allstars team take on their 2015 winning counterparts at the University of San Diego’s Torero Stadium (10pm Irish time).

Nine Ulster players are part of the 41-strong contingent that departed Dublin earlier in the week. 

They include Armagh quartet Caroline O’Hanlon and Mairead Tennyson, who picked up gongs in 2014, last year’s winner Aimee Mackin and Sinead Kernan, who was nominated last year and although missed out on an award. Kernan travels as a number of players picked up Allstars both years.

Donegal’s duo Geraldine McLaughlin and Ciara Hegarty will travel as well for the same reason, while Monaghan’s 2015 Allstar goalkeeper Linda Martin and half-forward Cora Courtney and 2014 recipient, Down’s Aileen Pyers, are also part of the party.

Cavan’s Maggie Farrelly will be the referee for the tour with the 2014 team managed by former Armagh manager James Daly, who admits he was shocked when he got the call asking him to oversee one of the two travelling teams.

“It was a big shock,” said Daly who stepped down from the helm at Armagh at the end of last season. 

“It is an absolute honour and it is the sort of thing that really is the crown and glory of your management career.”

Daly will know many players from his time as Orchard county boss and he says it is particularly special to be able to share it with four Armagh players.

“The All in for Ann match, [a fundraising event in memory of his late wife Ann] back in October gave me the opportunity to meet a lot of the best players in the country who came to support it and it will be good to get to see them all again and have a bit of fun and craic for seven or eight days. 

“I am especially delighted to see the four Armagh players coming along too. As a manager it is not about individual awards but when you have a player like Caroline O’Hanlon in your team, who is one of the best, you know they are going to be there or thereabouts for nominations and awards. 

“But the likes of Mairead Tennyson, who started out as a corner-forward and who I moved to corner-back to pick up an Allstar for that position, you take a little extra satisfaction out of that. 

“Aimee [Mackin] is just a prodigy and there is a lot more to come from her and to have Sinead McCleary also going on the tour is great as I feel she is one of the most underrated footballers in the country and she deserves this.”

It is a first Allstar trip for both Armagh’s Mackin and Donegal’s McLaughlin and they are relishing the opportunity to play alongside the best footballers in the country. 

“I’m delighted to be going its a great honour to be asked to go and I’ve being looking forward to it since I got the call,” said Termon’s McLaughlin. 

Mackin added: “I’m absolutely delighted, it’s a great experience for myself going on this trip and I’m really excited about it. It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity and to be going with such great people is amazing; I’d never thought I’d be doing this in my lifetime.

“I will learn a lot out there too from watching and playing along side the best players in the country. The experience I will get from them will be invaluable.”

The tour also sees each of the players visiting local schools to introduce the sport to American students and they will take part in a series of coaching sessions to leave a lasting legacy of the tour in San Diego.