Bringing the love of athletics to the schoolyard

DECLAN OWENS was a flying wing-back/wing-forward with Hollymount/Carramore years before he found his true calling on the athletics tracks.

That call came on foot of suggestions from his teammates that his lightning quick heels would catch fire with a bit of tuition.

He got so into it that he had to jettison his beloved Gaelic football after Under-21 as the mantle at home began to heave.

Barely in his 20s, he quickly made a name for himself, capturing medals galore at county and provincial level.

He dreamed the dream and talked the talk of winning and All-Ireland. Last year, he walked the walk (sprinted, actually) when he won an 400x4 relay medal with Claremorris AC.

But there’s more to Declan Owens than sprinting.

The 29-year-old is currently full-time pursuing a master’s in special education; a follow-on from three working as a special needs assistant.

“I always had a big interest in that area,” Declan tells The Mayo News.

“It was just one area that I seen as very rewarding. I think it was always nice to see that small improvement day to day with kids and the most basic things.”

He was quick to bring what he learned on the red tartan to the schoolyard of a special school in Castlerea.

“I was kind of doing a bit of an exercise role where I’d be taking on kids to see can they improve at their exercise programme and then train them up for the special Olympics,” the Carramore man explains.

“Getting the things right for them to hit the ball in table tennis and all that kind of stuff, I found that fairly rewarding. I said to myself I’d love to go back and do the teaching. I’d be more involved with the learning side of things.”

He knew he’d found his professional calling in working with children with special needs.

So after two years in Tooreen NS, Declan enrolled in a Professional Master of Education (PME) in the University of Galway last year.

Unsurprisingly, he took to it like a duck to water.

“I was doing my placement last year in the Sacred Heart School in Westport, so I was heavily involved in the cross country in the track and field and just coaching and seeing the sport from a different perspective.

“I’m going to the same in Ballinrobe in the next few weeks when I do go back and the school’s track and field and cross-country season gets underway,” he adds.

Safe to say, Declan is far from done, personally and professionally.

In the past, he has spoken about clocking a 100-metre spring in the ‘high 10s to low 11s’.

In the next five years, he wants to make the Irish masters track and field team and/or win an All-Ireland singles medal.

“To get the Irish singles is a massive end goal no more than an individual All Ireland medal.”

Massive, but not insurmountable for Declan Owens.