An example to all.
For a lad that played on the Roscommon minor team for three years, Boyle’s Enda Smith was incredibly modest ahead of his first year in college, and a season of freshers football.
2013 was the year, and Roscommon had been knocked out of the minor Championship at the quarter-final stage, and an ambitious Smith wasn’t happy with his performances in their campaign.
“To be honest, we lost the All-Ireland quarter-final to Kerry in 2012 and I didn’t play particularly well that season,” he said at a recent AIB event.
“I wasn’t earmarked for that much (in the DCU freshers set-up). We had the likes of Conor McHugh from Dublin coming in, and he was after winning the minor with them, we had lots of other stars, too, like Ciaran Byrne and Gavin Burke,” he said.
Far from having his head in the air, like many three-year county minors would have, Smith had his feet on the ground and knew he had to do enough to make a name for himself.
“I didn’t actually feel much of a burden that way, it was more just a worry that I would play, that I’d make the fresher A team. That was my main worry, it wasn’t even worrying about my performance in the games,” he added.
The class of 2013 went on to win the freshers Championship, after a titanic battle with a star-studded UCD side in the final, one that contained Dublin underage stars Paul Mannion and Jack McCaffrey, and Smith played a vital part in their success.
Indeed, Smith got the best out of his four years in the Glasnevin college, eventually winning a coveted Sigerson Cup in 2015, but you get the impression that his ambition, drive and hunger from when he first moved to North Dublin was crucial in his development as a footballer.
Now he’s one of the most highly-rated midfielders in the country, after a barnstorming Connacht Championship with Kevin McStays’ Rossies’.
It wasn’t all about winning, either. It was the friendship, the camaraderie, the opportunity to play with and socialise with lads from other counties, from other places, and he still keeps in touch with them today, despite finishing up in DCU last May.
“The Sigerson cup is brilliant football, real passionate, real dogged, but it’s such a high standard, too. It’s a brilliant memory, that Sigerson medal we won in 2015, because I’m still friends with the lads, lads that you’d have something in common with,” he said.
That’s one of the best things about college, meeting new lads and having the craic with them. It can’t be all football, and Smith feels that when players get the chance to socialise in the early stages of semester 1, they should partake in it as much as they can, because there’ll be plenty of nights they’ll have to stay in, or they’ll be away home for training.
“When February/March hits, you can’t be doing too much messing, because you’re in the midst of the National League, but there’s a time for it as well. Early in the first semester, the football is a bit lighter so you can socialize a bit more,” he said.
You have to strike that balance, and that’s where choosing your housemates wisely comes into play, because it’ll be harder to resist a night out if you’re going to be left on your own in the house.
“The good thing about DCU was there was a good few of us under the same umbrella. We were living together, and I suppose when three of your mates are staying in with you it’s nowhere near as bad. If you’re living with lads who are going out all the time, it’d be a bit difficult. The lads were playing games as well, so it didn’t affect me,” he concluded.
That’s how to you strike the balance between working hard and playing hard.
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