BY SEÁN HOLLAND
‘IT was a dream come true.’ Daniel O’Regan took a leap of faith to help set up Skibbereen Celtic last year and now the team is going from strength to strength. Celtic are sitting in second place in the WCL Championship, one place ahead of their parent club Skibbereen AFC with the two set to clash this week, Friday at 7.30pm.
O’Regan spoke to The Southern Star and explained how the idea of setting up Skibbereen Celtic came about. ‘Last year, I was away living in Spain and I came back knowing the club (Skibereen AFC) were in the Premier Division. Just from talking to a few of my buddies, I thought it might be an opportunity to get a second team going. We were late in the year putting it all together. It wasn't something we thought about for months. It was a last-minute thing. But I did the rounds. I
contacted a few lads, to see what their thoughts were. I got positive feedback and we just went from there. I approached the club and we got the ball rolling’, said O’Regan.
Starting a team from scratch brings about it’s own challenges but O’Regan was very thankful to local business’ who got behind them with sponsorship. ‘With Annie Mays I get on very well with the owner, Paudie Hurley, and he's just been fantastic in terms of contributing to jerseys. We normally go into Annie Mays after games on Sundays, and they give us soup and bread, and we go in for a few pints. So its our meeting spot, really'.
'Then Niall McCarthy in the Brew Box also came on board because he's actually playing with us. When you're setting up a new team, it can be very difficult because you don't have many resources. You want to make it as easy as possible for the club to say yes to things. The fact that we got our own jerseys helped the cause massively’, he noted.
O’Regan was asked what it was like seeing his plan come to fruition and seeing Skibbereen Celtic take to the field in the West Cork League. Safe to say he was overjoyed. ‘It was a dream come true in one sense’ he admitted. ‘It was one of those ones where I chanced on to see how it goes, and I just kept going with it. Things just kept falling our way. To be honest, I'm incredibly proud because I'm one of the more experienced lads in the team and I'm incredibly inexperienced. I’d say I’ve played less than 20 junior soccer games because last season was my proper first season. We have a lot of young fellas, a lot of under-18s. Unfortunately, in the West Cork League at the moment, there's no under-18 or 19 league. So these lads would be short on options when they wanted to keep playing soccer. So it's been fantastic to see. And in fairness, we've had great support from the other West Cork clubs which is great too.'
As O’Regan explained, the majority of his squad are new to the league. But the talent is there. Not only as a club, but Skibbereen Celtic are one of the youngest teams in terms of age as he highlights. ‘Well, I'm 26 and I'm the third oldest. Most of our panel are between 16 and 22, I'd say and to be honest with you, all our star players are all 18 or younger. We’ve some really good players like Luke O'Sullivan, Adam O'Donovan, Shane McArthur, Danny O’Donovan and our goalie, Oran Herlihy. It has been fantastic this season. We registered about 30 players. We have great numbers and a great atmosphere. We've had so many lads join because they've heard how nice the environment is. We train on Thursday nights. It's fantastic. We had 20 continuously last year and this season is the same if not more so far. To be honest, that's what makes it because we're an inexperienced team. So the fact we train every week, and we have great facilities
makes it so much easier. We've got floodlights that are outstanding and that allows us to train
every week.’
This Friday, will bring about the derby clash of AFC v Celtic. It’s second versus third in a game that promises fireworks. The sides met last year in the Beamish Cup with AFC coming out on top 3-1. For O’Regan, a victory over their nearest rivals would be another cherished chapter in their West Cork League adventure.
‘It'll be a tasty encounter. We played them last year and we drew a big crowd. I think if you ask many spectators there, we should have won the game. We'll have everyone available that day. Please God, we’ll draw another big crowd. You know yourself, you want to beat your local rivals. We all have friends on the other team, but for me personally, there’d be nothing sweeter if we could get a victory against them.’
