Managing expectations

SHARING THE MOMENT Rice College, Westport joint manager Shane Conway (left) and Kevin Keane are pictured after the final whistle in the recent All-Ireland Post-Primary Schools Senior ‘A’ FC semi-final. Pic: Michael McLaughlin

Interview
Mike Finnerty

IF you wanted to get an idea of what makes Shane Conway tick when it comes to coaching Gaelic football teams, then you could do worse than read his recent interview with the GAA.ie website.
“For future success as a club or county, you cannot neglect the underage teams,” Rice College’s joint manager said during the build-up to the Connacht Senior ‘A’ Final . “Coaching involves improving their skills and creating a sense of belonging and ownership. It involves educating them with regard to making positive life choices and affirming their efforts.
“Finally, coaching should help to develop a culture whereby young people want to become good and proactive adults and hopefully stay involved in some capacity - on or off the field -with their club or county.”
Those few sentences tell you everything you need to know about why Shane Conway is so highly-regarded as a teacher, and as a coach/manager at both schools and club level.
His strong and positive relationships with Peter Ford in Breaffy and Martin Connolly at Rice College also reveal just how easy Conway is to work with.
Occupying a ‘joint manager’ role with both Breaffy and Rice College underlines how comfortable Conway is with shared decision-making, delegating tasks, and splitting the workload. Anyone who knows him will tell you: he doesn’t do ego. As he told GAA.ie, ‘I enjoy coaching teams’.
That enjoyment that comes from sporting success has spilled into every aspect of life at Rice College, Westport in recent times.
Speaking to The Mayo News after the recent All-Ireland semi-final win over Naas CBS, Shane Conway explained:
“We talk about wellbeing. Wellbeing seems to be a word that’s thrown around every day, and for me this is what wellbeing is all about.
“You go into the school now, into work, and there’s a great buzz around. Everybody is happy to be there, the lads who are playing are like local celebrities, the guys who are supporting them can’t do enough for them, the teachers have all got in behind the team.
“We’ve a great staff, a great school, and the last five weeks have really shown that.
“It’s an outstanding achievement by an incredible group of lads” he added. “It’s one to savour.”
In the aftermath of that semi-final win, Conway was keen to mention the input of the likes of Joe Cuddy, Fergal Macken and Kevin Keane, who have all stepped into the breach this season to help out ‘on the line’ with Rice College.
But there is no disputing who drives the whole thing: Mr Connolly and Mr Conway. The dynamic duo themselves.
“Martin’s an incredible man. He’s put in so much effort with Rice College, and he made a big effort to be at the semi-final.
“He and [his wife] MΡire drove up, and it was his first time to be outside for more than 15 minutes since he was unwell.
“But Martin doesn’t really do rest” smiled his sidekick.
There are two of them in it really!

Did you know?
SHANE Conway is a dad of three who is married to Donna, and lives in Manulla.