It was a mighty year for the Cavan Vocational Schools team, who captured the Ulster VS title for the first time since 1991. We speak to team manager Niall Lynch, who also led the Virginia VS teams to an historic treble and trained the Cavan minors. Niall will hold the same positions again in '04. At Brewster Park, Enniskillen on Wednesday March 26th, Cavan Vocational Schools defeated Tyrone Vocational Schools by 1-11 to 1-7 in a replayed Ulster VS final, thereby capturing the coveted provincial crown for the first time in twelve years. Needless to say, Niall Lynch, who managed the team, was delighted with the win. Reflecting on the bridge-gaping success, he points out: "It was a great achievement because Tyrone came at us late in the drawn game to force the replay and a lot of people expected us to fold in the second match. But the lads held themselves together and put in a superb performance to capture the Ulster title." The fact that the Breffni boys had toppled none other than Tyrone in the decider made the victory that little bit sweeter. "Their individual schools have dominated the Ulster and All-Ireland competitions in recent years, and they were very much the fancied team. But we stood up to them and proved that there's some good talent in Cavan as well. "Tyrone have dominated Ulster for so long and have enjoyed a psychological edge over the rest of us. We hoped the win would give us the belief we needed to go on and beat them in the Ulster minor championship, and it very nearly did [Cavan succumbed after a replay]. Now we're hoping we can carry the belief into the present year and make a concerted challenge for the 2004 Ulster MFC." Niall himself is in his fourth year as PE teacher at Virginia Vocational School. He has taken charge of the school's football teams at U14, U16 and U18 levels throughout that time, and is assisted in these duties by woodwork teacher and fellow Cuchulainns clubman Michael Duffy (originally from Mayo). Captain of the Cuchulainns first team last year, he also took charge of the county's VS side for the first time. It was a successful year on all fronts, beginning with Virginia, who recorded a famous treble. Says Niall: "We made history by winning the county U14, U16 and U18 titles. The U14s and U16s went on to reach Ulster semi-finals against St Ciaran's of Ballygawley [Mickey Harte's team], while the U18s lost to Cookstown Holy Trinity [of Peter Canavan fame]. All in all, it was the most successful year Virginia VS have ever had. It's not all that long since the school was struggling a little on the field, so to complete the clean sweep in '03 was a stunning achievement. The U16s were winning their third successive county title, and Virginia have since made it four-in-a-row at that age level by capturing the 2004 county crown also. (The competitions are ran off early in the year to facilitate participation in the provincial phase.) Virginia VS also retained the U18 title this year. A total of seven Virginia players were included on the Cavan panel, which draws from the seven Vocational Schools located throughout the Breffni County. To help finalise his panel of 30 for the glorious Ulster championship campaign, Niall oversaw two worthwhile challenge games against Meath at the county border venue of Oldcastle. Winning the competition outright was a tremendous achievement, bearing in mind that northern sides tend to have older players available to them. Niall - who was assisted during the year by selectors John Gilsenan (Cavan) and Pete Ward (Cootehill) - admits that he always felt quietly confident that Cavan could top the Ulster Vocational Schools pile in '03: "I felt we were quite strong and that proved to be the case. A number of them also went on to play for the county minors, who were unfortunate not to beat Tyrone. We had been beaten in the first round by Monaghan in 2002 [Niall was a selector] and were determined to go better this time." To say that they did better would surely be an exercise in understatement. Cavan VS went to Armagh for their first game and put together a masterful performance, teaching the Orchard boys a footballing lesson en route to a spectacular 1-26 to 1-6 victory. "After beating Armagh by 20 points, we got the idea that we could possibly go on to win the Ulster title," the manager confirms. "We played Monaghan in the semi-final at Mullagh. The weather was bad at the time and we were fortunate with the venue. We came out on top by 0-11 to 0-6, qualifying to play Tyrone in the Ulster final." The rest, as they say, is history. Last time Cavan claimed the Vocational Schools title was in 1991, when Philip Kermath and Peter Reilly featured on the winning side. "This is Cavan's first provincial win in a long time at any level," says Niall. "Tyrone have been a real bogey team at underage level and we're hoping the Vocational Schools win will be the push we needed to bring the Cavan minors on." Ten of the VS players were involved with the Cavan minors in '03. These included goalkeeper David Clegg, full forward John McCabe, corner forward Enda Mulvey, wing forward Anton Reilly (who captained the winning schools team), Alan Clarke (who broke his collar bone in the drawn VS final but made his comeback as a sub in the Ulster MFC semi-final replay against Tyrone), midfielder Padraig McKiernan, wing back Declan McCabe and corner forward Aaron Duignan. Niall enthuses: "The structuring of the Vocational Schools system means a lot of these lads will be underage for minor again this year [2004] and we're hoping to see the fruits of that. Declan McCabe, Alan Clarke and Anton Reilly are all minor again, as well as practically all the 2003 subs." Cavan face Monaghan in the first round of the 2004 Ulster VS championship. They're expecting to have a strong team again and are hopeful of retaining their crown, though some of the Class of '03 will be hard to replace. Niall concludes: We're very grateful to the clubs who facilitated our games over the year because a lot of the schools don't have any facilities of their own. Tony Brady, who was county minor manager in 2003 [replaced this year by Donal Keoghan], allowed the VS and minor panels to train together at vital times during the year and that was also greatly appreciated." Cavan Vocational Schools, 2003 Ulster champions: David Clegg; Mark Lynch, Sean McGee, Ronan Flanagan; Gary Ferncombe (0-3), Declan McCabe, Stephen Lynch; Anton Reilly, Padraig McKiernan; Joe Shanaghy, Paul McKeown (0-2), Aaron Duignan (0-1); Enda Mulvey (1-4), John McCabe, Niall McCaffrey (0-1). Tweet

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