PAFC 50th Anniversary Interview Series – Sylvia Gee

• How did you first become involved with Portlaoise AFC?
I became involved first I think with the FAI Summer Camps (Ger Dunne was RDO at the time, so I think he is responsible!) as a coach in Portlaoise and then as a player with the women’s team around 2002/03. A good friend of mine from college, Richelle O’Neill was playing and she asked me to join! I was playing a summer season with UCD in Dublin at the time but the season for the Portlaoise team at the time was winter, so they dovetailed nicely!

• Do you recall your first game for the club?
I recall very few matches!!

• What age level did you play your first match?
Senior women. I grew up near Ballacolla and there was no soccer that I knew of around there so I didn’t play till I went to college. I was always playing football in school with the lads or in any game that I could find! My secondary school was a hockey school so played that until I got to college and then made up for lost time!

• What was Portlaoise AFC like when you first joined?
All I really knew about was the team I was playing for and the summer camps with the FAI. I am fairly certain I would have met Richard McSweeney pretty early on too!

•Can you remember who the manager was in the first game you played?
Not sure about this either, I remember Kevin Burke and Paul McCormack were in charge at one stage and I know Marie Christie was around but I think she was looking after the younger teams.

• Can you tell us about some of your first team-mates?
I remember a lot of them were GAA players!! Richelle O’Neill, Liz Cahill, Shona Phelan, Anna Connolly, Jesse Curley and I think somehow I persuaded a teammate of mine from UCD Sile Loughrey to come down and play for us too!

• How long did your playing career last?
Hopefully it will never end!!! I am still playing. I currently play for UCD Waves in the FAI Women’s National League. I have played in the National League for a few different clubs since it started 6 years ago – Cork, DLR Waves (based in Stepaside, Dublin) Peamount United and Kilkenny United. And I have a very long list of clubs before and after Portlaoise!! My aim has always been to play at the highest level I can for as long as I can. I love the challenge and I love playing still! I think I played 2 or 3 seasons with Portlaoise although my memory is not the best! I love to play, even now!! I reckon that I have played well over 30 seasons for various clubs here, in England and in USA between summer and winter seasons!

• Can you describe some of your best memories playing for Portlaoise AFC?
I can really only recall one moment clearly! We were playing the League Final against Mountmellick in 2002 or 2003 (our very local rivals, with whom there was definitely no love lost!!) which was to decide the League title and I can’t remember the score at the time but I remember something happened in the game to make me mad, a bad tackle or bad decision and the ball rolled in front of me, I think just around the centre circle, although the newspaper says it was from half way. I normally wouldn’t have taken a chance on a shot from that distance but I decided it was sitting so nicely it was worth a go! I hit it so sweetly that it absolutely flew in from about 40yds! I can still remember the feeling of just catching it perfectly and watching it fly in! That was quite special because of the day, the opposition and the quality of the strike and I think my brother Derek, was on the sideline too actually. He was a good supporter of my soccer playing back in the day! The goal helped us get the win too, so that was all the better.

• Your favourite memory of your playing career?
I have loads of favourite memories from playing all over the place, but I will limit it to a few! Other than the one above, my favourite playing moments were all away from Portlaoise! Winning the BUSA (British Universities Sports Association) Home Nations tournament in Liverpool in 1997 which we were invited to participate in with the Irish Combined Colleges. That was my first experience of representing Ireland and it was a fantastic one. A great bunch of players who had mighty craic and produced some decent football. Presumably England didn’t expect us to be quite so competitive! Technically speaking, we were not a part of the BUSA organisation so we shouldn’t have been playing! We were never invited again! The cheek of us to be invited and then to go and win it by beating Scotland, Wales and then England 3-0 in the last game! Somehow on that trip our manager managed to get 20 tickets for us to go to Goodison to watch the Merseyside derby too! A 1-1 draw. Okay with me, a Manchester United supporter!

My first senior cap for Ireland in June 1998 against Belarus up in United Park, Drogheda. A 0-0 draw. I think I just came on and ran around a lot!! I was walking on air for weeks afterwards!
Playing (starting and staying on for around 65 mins!) for Ireland against the newly crowned World Champions USA (of the Brandi Chastain, Mia Hamm era in 1999) in Foxboro stadium, Boston in front of 32,000 people was probably one of the best experiences.

Marking a 3 time Nigerian World Cup star (and keeping her quiet!) in the W2 National League Final in USA and winning that tournament with Springfield Sirens alongside 4 Irish team-mates in 2000.

My one and only goal for Ireland in a friendly v Scotland with an assist from a good friend of mine! I love scoring goals! Especially as a midfielder, it’s always a bonus!

Scoring 2 goals as captain in the FAI Senior Cup Final 2004 in Lansdowne Road (That’s how old I am, I pre-date the Aviva!!) for UCD which qualified us to play in the UEFA Women’s Cup

Captaining UCD in the UEFA Women’s Cup Qualifiers in Croatia 2005 – a fantastic trip all-round!

Playing a DWSL (Dublin Women’s Soccer League) League match for UCD with 8 players up in Oriel Park, Dundalk and winning 1-0. They were not happy! But that was one of my favourite moments. Good players, good coach, good plan, good performance = great result!

Playing in Iceland and the Faroe Islands with Ireland – it is unlikely I will ever get to travel there again!

Playing a friendly against the US U20 National team with my club team Arizona Rush at the Home Depot stadium in LA in 2010, the pitch was just immaculate!

Beating Peamount United 2-0 (FAI WNL Champions the previous season) with newly formed DLR Waves in January 2013 – they had a fair amount of international players including Stephanie Roche and Louise Quinn, we had none! Again, a good plan, willing players and a good coach! I love those challenges!

•After you finished playing did you remain involved with the club?
When I moved on from playing with Portlaoise (I think that team only stopped because we couldn’t get enough players to commit) I started coaching with a U10 boys team and brought them up to U17. I started coaching with Portlaoise I think because they paid for me to do the Introductory Coaching course with FAI and I felt a little obliged! I started in 2006 and worked my way up along with the team – I definitely learned a huge amount on all fronts! I coached with Portlaoise AFC Eircom League U21 team in 2007/08 season and I coached with the Senior men’s team 2013/14 season. I started Portlaoise AFC Academy with Darren Rogers in 2011 and have progressed with it each season to where it currently is today.

•How has Portlaoise AFC changed since you were first involved?
The club is the people. It seems there are more people involved now and we are a bit more connected. When I was coaching, I took my sessions early so I could get more time on the pitches, so I was first on and only encountered the coach that came on with the team after me. I rarely set foot in the clubhouse except on match days and the only person I went to with my countless questions was Richard McSweeney! It is amazing that we are still talking after all this time. Richard was the go-to person in the club as he had most of the answers and was the one I saw the most regularly. I’m sure I must have been very annoying! And still am, but I share the questions around a bit more fairly now!

Physically the club hasn’t changed massively, but I have changed a lot! In the beginning I wasn’t really too concerned with the history and the past of the people that were involved over the years. However, as I have gotten to know more people, especially the likes of Richard McSweeney, Noel Scully, Michael Coleman, Paddy Carroll, Chris Nestor, Kevin O’Brien a little bit better, you start to understand a little more about why they are still involved. Alongside everyone else they all put in great efforts over the years. That makes me more inclined to ask questions and find out more. People looking after the club have always faced challenges, and always will! If we can build on their efforts and experiences we will have a strong club. So the short answer is that I think people change and grow with their experiences in the club and that is what changes the club. Maybe changes isn’t the right word, improves would be better.

•You’ve seen significant changes in the club down through the years, can you tell us more?
Its great to have the women back playing and also the girls U14s. Marie Christie did great work for a long time with the girls and it is great to see that (thanks to Bernie Bowe and Jenny Conroy with the women and Dave McCall with the girls) we have that started back up again and going well.

Obviously the Academy is a massive part of my involvement now and I work extremely hard at trying to make that the best experience possible for the players and coaches involved.

I am particularly delighted with the FUN Soccer and Footie Fives groups which are for players who didn’t make teams at U10-U16 age groups. We have had quite a good number of players spending a year in the Academy in those groups and then because of their own efforts and continued development, they have made it back into teams the next season. That is undoubtedly one of my favourite things to see happening. Players develop at different rates, but if they are interested enough and commit enough of their own time to practice at home or in school and come to our sessions, they can still have chances to play with our schoolboy/girl teams in the future. There were a few players in the U17B team last season who stuck with us in the Footie Fives group two seasons ago and because of their commitment really put the pressure on us as a club to ensure there was a team for them to play on!
In the very recent past I have seen first-hand the commitment our coaches are putting in to try and develop their skills by attending coach education workshops and courses. This is a great thing to see and undoubtedly will impact Portlaoise AFC players positively in the future

The new Astro pitches are another good development and needed the upgrade! I remember the old ones going in and being excited to train on those. They surely owe us nothing! We have spent countless hours playing and coaching on them!

I also feel a greater sense of community around the club particularly in the last couple of years – we have had a couple of volunteer days over the last 2 years which saw a lot of work done by parents, coaches and club members rolling their sleeves up and getting things done together. That may be partly because I spend more time in Rossleighan and have got to know more people but I really believe we are growing in strength with the quality of people that are involved also. I would attribute a lot of this to our Chairman Michael Coleman. He rolls his sleeves up and sets a great example for the rest of us. I have huge respect and regard for him and the seen/unseen work he does for all of us.

•How important is Portlaoise AFC to you?
It undoubtedly fills up a lot of my week both when I am in Rossleighan and elsewhere! I spend a lot of time trying to think of ways to improve the Academy and the club and probably far too much time annoying people on the phone when I have an idea!

I love being involved with the younger players particularly and seeing them enjoying playing football is the real target for me. I love playing football still and hope that at least some of the players coming through our hands at the Academy will get to experience even half the fun and friendships I have had playing football, so far!

I love working with the coaches and seeing them learn from mistakes and get stronger and more confident and improve their levels of ability

I also love getting feedback from coaches and parents with regard to new ideas and mistakes they might feel we are making. That is undoubtedly what makes us be better for the players.

I love the fact that we are starting to see more women get involved in the past year or two – and that’s not something I would have considered at all a few years back!! We had 7 female coaches out of 22 in total attending a coaching workshop in Rossleighan a few months back! That is fantastic!!

•How has the club impacted your life?
I have met a large amount of really lovely people through my involvement with the club. All of whom come from different backgrounds and have different experiences and with whom you can have a bit of fun and a laugh!! Good people. I think I learn and grow as a person through my connections with everyone. It has brought me to the realisation that the most important thing in having a successful club is the quality of the people involved and the relationships we foster with those people.

•Where do you see Portlaoise AFC in ten years’ time?
Facility wise I would like to see a full size Astroturf pitch and a revamped/new clubhouse. The one we have has served us well but we could definitely do with an upgrade!
More importantly than facilities, I would like to see several UEFA Licensed coaches with the senior men’s and women’s teams and our older schoolboy/girl teams and all our coaches at the level recommended by the FAI for their age group.

I would like to see all senior teams connected and working together to provide the right challenge for the players.

I would like to see at least half of the players currently at U6 still playing at U16 and I would like to see the Academy improve every year and the players experience become better because our coaching is constantly improving
I would like to see U12, U14 and U16 girls teams leading up to the senior women’s team.

More important than any of that I would like to see all our Portlaoise AFC players, coaches and volunteers show their respect for the game and everyone involved, at every level, by their actions every single game and training session.

Hopefully it will look like a vibrant club which has members that want to work together to improve everything!

•What is your favourite memory of a Portlaoise AFC game where you were a spectator and not playing?
That’s the easiest question of all! The final whistle at the Polikoff Cup Final 2015 in Belfield Bowl, UCD when all the Academy players ran on and gave their coach (and senior team player) Shane Brophy a big group hug!!! A lovely moment which highlights a lot of good things about our club! Thankfully a professional photographer captured the moment and we are able to see the photo every day in the clubhouse!
It was quite nice to see two players from our schoolboy team that I coached, be involved with the senior team that day too! James Mullaney and Mark Dunne, well done lads.

•Describe the other roles you have performed in Portlaoise AFC and how have they evolved over the years?
I really appreciate the opportunities I was given to coach at schoolboy level especially. It really is a big responsibility and I must say I really enjoyed my role in trying to help develop those players and develop myself as a coach. There are a good few of those players still around so hopefully that is a good reflection of their experience!

I coached that schoolboy team up from U10-U17. There were a number of players from that group playing with the various senior teams in the club up until last season, James Mullaney and Mark Dunne with the first team, Sean Mulhall with the B team, James Henderson, Barry McPherson, William Carroll, Callum Flannery, Shaun Flynn and Emmanuel Okpara with the C team. Also Darren Territt has recently stepped in and is leading some Goalkeeping sessions for our younger players and I could not fail to mention Cathal O’Connor who is managing our website and Facebook page from France where he is on work placement from college! Cathal was our captain and someone who I have great respect for. A very driven, confident and smart young man, who was a natural fit as captain of our team. It’s rare to meet young players who are confident enough to speak the truth and give considered opinions! Cathal always had that! A real pleasure to work with.

It is fantastic to see those players growing up into decent young men who are still keen to stay involved with the club, whether as players, coaches in the academy or in Cathal’s case on the social media side of things!

I really think it is a key thing for us as a club to try and find roles (playing or otherwise) for as many of our young players when they finish as schoolboys/youths, as possible.

•The club is working towards all teams at all age levels wearing the same shirts? What are your thoughts on that?
I’m delighted with that! I think we need an identity in the town and that will help!! I love the idea that our U10s are playing in the same kit as our seniors. I think that is the way it should be!

•Are any of your family members actively involved with Portlaoise AFC? In what capacity?
I have two nephews that play, one in the Academy and one until recently, in the senior men’s C team and I am very pleased to see them both playing and hope they will have many more years playing here.

•If you could wish 3 things for Portlaoise AFC, what would they be?
For all club members – players, coaches, parents and volunteers to work hard together to make this a club we can be proud to be a part of.
For parents to “love watching their kids play” and nothing else – let us all be quiet and let them get on with playing.
For our coaches and players to love being involved and to improve every season through their participation in our club.