Ladies football in Cavan is on the proverbial up and up. The sport's popularity in the county has soared in recent years and the emergence of many talented players has served to give the game an increasingly high profile in the Breffni county. One such player is Mullahoran's Patricia Beglin. Maynooth University student Patricia Beglin is used to dealing with the unexpected in her role as ace goalkeeper with Mullahoran ladies and the premier team in NUI Maynooth. However there was one delivery last month that caught her almost completely unawares. January 22nd was a red-letter evening for a whole host of some of the country's best young GAA talent. The university in Maynooth staged the MBNA-sponsored scholarship awards for the cream of the sporting talent studying in the Kildare college. Patricia, from Kilcogy, Mullahoran, was one of the sports stars recognised with a scholarship. Reflecting on the awards evening, 20-year old Patricia says she was honoured and proud to be a recipient of such a prestigious scholarship award: "I wasn't honestly expecting to be chosen as a recipient of an award but when I became aware of the judges' deliberations I was delighted of course. "The fact that the scholarships are open to first year and post-grad students means that there are quite a lot of people who are in the running each year for the scholarships so I was very pleased to have been fortunate enough to have been one of the ones chosen for the scholarship scheme." As a fourth year post-grad Maths student, Patricia's football talents are well known to those au fait with the big ball game in NUI Maynooth and, indeed, to those au fait with the contribution made to the Gaelic game there by Patricia, the Mullahoran lady's award came as no big surprise. In being awarded her first ever scholarship award, Patricia fulfilled all the requisite criteria and came through the various 'tests' as laid down by the adjudicators with flying colours. Patricia's commitment to cause of ladies football in NUI Maynooth, her commitment to Mullahoran ladies football club and her involvement in the promotion and development of ladies football were all factors which swayed the minds of the adjudicators of the scholarship awards scheme. There was, of course, also the mandatory personal and group interviews before Christmas with representatives from sponsors MBNA, the Leinster Council and the Kildare County Board. Again flying colours were the operative words when all was done and dusted. A product of the Cnoc Mhuire Secondary School of academic and sporting excellence in Granard, Co. Longford, Patricia has been ensconced as a student in NUI Maynooth since 1998 and, all things going well, she will graduate this coming summer with a H. Dip in Maths. Daughter of John (current vice-chairman of Mullahoran Dreadnoughts GFC) and Ailish Beglin, the top-notch 'keeper hails from a GAA-mad family in which her brother Raymond (a leaving cert student at Granard Technical School) plays both football and hurling for the Dreadnoughts while other brother Michael plays schoolboy football. Interestingly, Patricia's other brother Sean has been tripping the light fantastic of late in the United States as a member of the famed Riverdance troupe. No wonder then that Patricia has shown such a turn of foot between the sticks for Mullahoran and Maynooth over the years! Patricia confesses to having enjoyed every minute of her time playing football to date, even, she says, when asked to act as an emergency full-forward! "My best position and my preferred position is in the goals although I did play a few games in the forwards at underage level years ago. I think it'll be best for all concerned if I stay in goals," Patricia quips. With a league and championship medal double with her beloved Mullahoran under her belt from 2001, Patricia is looking forward to adding to her medal haul this year. She believes thought that the Dreadnoughts won't have it easy as they attempt to consolidate their pre-eminence in Cavan. "Ladies football in Cavan is improving every single year with new teams and new players coming on the scene all the time. "We're obviously hoping to win the county title again this year but I'm sure Lurgan will have something to say about that. They will probably be our main rivals for the title but you couldn't rule out the chances of a team like Erne Gaels making an impact because they've got a lot of good young players coming through. "A lot more people are becoming involved in promoting ladies football in Cavan and because of that a lot more players are coming through. The future looks very bright for ladies football in the county," Patricia enthuses. Reflecting on Mullahoran's Ulster club campaign last year, the angst and disappointment of having been beaten at the final hurdle is still vivid in Patricia's mind but she believes the Dreadnoughts can learn from their rather humbling experience. "We got well and truly beaten by Donaghmoyne in the Ulster club final in Clones but, nevertheless, it was a great experience which is bound to stand to the team in the coming years. After all, there was no shame in losing to them (Donaghmoyne) especially as they went onto reach the All-Ireland junior final. "We didn't really do ourselves justice against Donaghmoyne though. I think the whole day sort of got to us, playing in Clones for the first time and all that that entails." So what does 2002 hold for Mullahoran ladies? "I'll be disappointed if we don't reach the Ulster club final again - that's presuming that we'll be good enough to win the county championship. "We're up among the best teams in Ulster but we have to prove our worth once again in Cavan first. I think the gap between ladies football in Cavan and the game in Monaghan is closing all the time so hopefully we'll get a chance later in the year to prove the point." Of course, a lot of water has to pass under the bridge before Patricia and co. can set out to defend their county title. For starters, there's the college football scene to take care of first. In this regard, Patricia says she enjoys playing with NUI Maynooth. The Mullahoran stopper reckons the standard of football on the college front is a tad higher than the club scene. There's a greater quality in depth, she maintains. "On our team, for instance, we have a number of players who have won All-Ireland medals such as Helena Lohan and Sabrina Bailey from Mayo and Mary Kirwan from Laois. "A lot of the teams we meet in the colleges' league and championship competitions are proven county players and so the standard of football all-round is that much higher than at club level. "Most of our time training at college is spent on team-work and basically maintaining the levels of fitness which we're expected to reach with our clubs. "We won the division two league and championship last year in Maynooth for the first time ever which was great for everyone at the college and hopefully we can repeat some of that form this year too." A dab hand at basketball and rounders too, Patricia says she gets a great kick (no pun intended) form playing ladies football. Winning things helps fuel her enthusiasm she admits and, needless to say, the attendant social scene that is generated by playing and mixing with her team-mates. Delighted to see that the profile of ladies football continues to soar in line with increased media coverage, Patricia says that her time on the football scene since the age of 14 has bestowed on her a great sense of community and team spirit. The popular net-minder says that if she can garner another few awards/medals in the coming years she'll be delighted but if not she'll still continue to enjoy the game as much as she has to date. Nothing more, nothing less. The Maths student is obviously an intelligent lady footballer. Tweet

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