EUREKA SECONDARY SCHOOL, KELLS: Seán Kennydiscovers how a school with no history in soccer could go on to have national and provincial success and produce international stars

SOCCER DESCENDED on Eureka Kells out of the ether. Neither time nor place seemed propitious - a girls' convent school in the GAA heartland of Co Meath in 1970 - but the sport broke out, becoming a happy contagion. Two young male teachers, John Broderick and Leonard Noone, established a team at a time when soccer played in a girls' school was anomalous. John recalls the sport's genesis in the lunchtime battleground of teachers v pupils matches.

"It was extremely unusual, and at that time we had a nun as principal and no history of sport in the school at all. There were a number of blokes here at that time and there would be fierce contests between teachers and pupils at lunchtime. The principal used to have to come out and run us back into class. We would be very reluctant to go back. We were just bigger kids than the kids themselves. A lot of grudges were settled in those games."

The knees-and-elbows scramble of the playground gave way to the formation of Eureka teams. The game in schools was a fluid mass then, with only the bones of organisation. In a couple of cars cramped in exuberant defiance of the safety rules of the future, Leonard and John and their players followed whatever meandering path football took them on: south to Cork, west to Galway, wherever a game was to be had.

With all the force of exclamation implied in its name, Eureka made a discovery; it could best most schools on the football field. Success came with a gratifying swiftness. "The teams would have won from day one. There would be a history of winning. That created enormous interest. A lot of kids coming in then would want to be on a team because their sisters played. There were certain families where all the kids played soccer here."

A whole mint of silver has been acquired over the years. A rough tot gives a tally of 81 trophies won at provincial and national level, throughout the age groups. Four All-Ireland Senior Schools' titles and seven Leinster Schools' Senior Cups gleam brightest.

In addition, 18 Eureka girls have represented Ireland at underage level. Some alchemy is afoot in the old monastic town.

Colleagues and ex-pupils point to Leonard Noone's coaching. He ducks for doorways at the first sign of personal praise. Then he rattles off the week's schedule for some of his teams: an under-14 cup quarter-final on Tuesday, an under-19 league game on Thursday, an under-16 league match on Friday. It is a litany of travel and time given for no reward but the game itself. The school, he points out, has always been accommodating when football calls him away from his English class to some mud-caked corner of Leinster, or further afield. His own involvement stretches beyond the school itself with the Eureka Kells senior club.

"We played in the Dublin women's soccer league in the summer there. That'd be mostly ex-pupils as well as some present pupils and three or four outsiders. Quite a few of them would be in their 30s now, and still playing. We won Dublin Premier A last year at senior level."

Football is a world beyond the hard-cast textbook and whiteboard environment of the classroom. The coaching role is a little looser, a more expansive place.

"I suppose you enjoy the response, seeing how quickly they learn. It can be frustrating at times, I can assure you. Some girls learn very, very quickly. Others don't. But there's always good craic. You see another side to them totally. There's too much emphasis on this academic ability. There are many types of intelligence. I think sport is of paramount importance."

John agrees with his colleague on football's importance as an outlet in the school. "I would say that, for a significant number of students, the fact that they played soccer made school life more than palatable, ones who mightn't enjoy school, or for whom school doesn't really fulfil any kind of need. A lot of them would play soccer and get an awful lot out of it because of that."

The school's success is a watchword on the rudiments of the game. Its path to success has been rutted with small adversities. It does not have its own pitch, but has colonised and chalked out a field a quarter-mile from its gate. Goals were donated by local businesses. The tennis and basketball courts which once saw impromptu football matches are now crumbling and pitted with age. Lifts must still sometimes be given to games by parents and teachers when buses cannot be paid for. Eureka teams will sometimes be shorn of a couple of their best players, appropriated by the basketball or Gaelic football sides on occasions when the calendar is unkind to the spirit of sporting ecumenism which usually prevails.

Interest from the pupils can vary from year to year. Having won successive under-13 cups in 2006 and 2007, the school struggled to even field a side in that age bracket this year. The absence of a League of Ireland club in Meath is perhaps a hindrance to growth. The schools in Drogheda and Dundalk that Eureka often compete against enjoy the boon of being located in football towns.

The school is known for its high academic standards. Football must find its place without impeding the progress of the well-greased wheels of academia, as John explains.

"You're looking a parents as well, of course. The main purpose, as far as parents are concerned, is to get a good Leaving Cert. We would have times where you have to negotiate with parents and promise them that the football won't impede their daughter's academic work. But you'll always find that girls who have played soccer have done very well because they have a good attitude and they'd make up the time themselves. It's a balancing act, but they're playing soccer because they love it."

John and Leonard have hurdled the obstacles for almost four decades, ploughing on down the footballing byroads of Leinster and beyond, assuming nothing, putting teams out for the love of it. And, more often than not, taking trophies back to Kells with them. "Keep me out of it," warns Leonard Noone.

The final word then, goes to John. "The fact that the teams do well is nice. You're always aware that, everywhere Eureka goes, there's a huge respect for the school among the soccer-going fraternity. I meet people and, if I say I'm from Eureka, the first name they mention is Leonard Noone. He's Mr Eureka as far as they're concerned."

EUREKA FACTS

School:Eureka Secondary School, Kells, Co Meath.

Founded:1956.

Number of pupils:750.

Sports played:Soccer, Gaelic football, basketball, athletics, swimming, equestrian sport.

School sports colours:Blue and white.

Major recent honours:In soccer, Eureka has won four All-Ireland senior schools' cups, seven Leinster senior schools' cups and six Leinster schools' senior league titles. A total of 18 pupils from the school have represented Ireland.