SEAN Óg Teague will make history at Celtic Park this Sunday when he becomes the first player from Dean Maguirc, Carrickmore to captain a side in a Danske Bank MacLarnon Cup final.
The Greencastle clubman, whose father Sean captained Tyrone to Ulster Championship glory in 2001, was part of the history-making Markey Cup winning side of two years ago and he is looking forward to the clash with Patrician High, Carrickmacross.
“I was a fifth year on the Markey Cup winning side and I think there was maybe six or seven players on the team the same year,” says Teague.
“It was great to win it and there is no doubt that experience has been crucial in helping us to step up and play MacLarnon Cup football.
“The buzz that was in the school when we won the Markey Cup was unreal and the build-up to this weekend’s final is brilliant as well and we are all really looking forward to the game.
“I’m very happy to be in the final and to be captain makes it extra special. I feel like we have worked hard and deserve to be here.
“We took each game step by step and prepared well for them but we face our biggest challenge yet in Carrickmacross, although we have to be happy with the position that we find ourselves in.”
This group of Dean Maguirc players have won a few Ulster titles during their school careers, but there is no doubt that this will be the biggest stage that they will have ever been on. However, Teague feels that they are in a good place going into the decider.
“We won Ulster titles earlier in our school careers and while they may not have been at the highest grade, the development and experience that we have gained from that has stood to us,” he stressed.
“It has given us a winning mentality and I would say that it’s better than maybe going to a bigger school and not getting minutes on the field.
“We are a tight group and if we play against each other in a club game you give them a good fight, but on the school team we are all very close and good friends and we have a good bond whenever we put that Dean jersey on.”
Dean Maguirc’s season started with a defeat at the hands of St Pius’ X, Magherafelt, a school who had knocked them out in the quarter-finals of the competition 12 months earlier, but they haven’t looked back since.
“We didn’t get our campaign off to the best start when we lost to St Pius’ in the group stages but it was probably a result that stood to us later in the competition when we met them in the semi-final as we realised that we had a bit of work to do,” he said.
“We all worked seriously hard for each other in the semi-final, with the defence particularly impressive. I felt that we really showed our team spirit in that game and while they came at us in the closing stages we were able to see the game out.
Carrickmacross will go into the final as favourites but we don’t mind that as most games we played this year we were the underdogs so that tag perhaps suits us.”
