Next week will mark a major milestone in the career of Monaghan Harps handballer Eoghan McGinnity, who flies to Minnesota on Tuesday for the World Handball Championships.
Eoghan, son of Suzanne and Eugene, is a key member of the official Irish squad for the triennial event. As the Team Ireland representative in the 17 and Under grade, McGinnity - who also excels in Gaelic football with the Harps and plays golf off a handicap of four out of Rossmore GC – will be among the favourites to go all the way.
The talented all-rounder, who only turned 16 in February, previously won a world 13 and Under title three years ago and is looking to make it a hat-trick of major successes in 2018.
“I beat Josh Kavanagh from Wexford in the U16 All-Ireland final and then I went on to win the 17 and Under Irish Nationals,” Eoghan told The Northern Standard this week.
“I played Mark Rodgers from Clare in the semi-final of that, I just got over him. I beat him 11-7 in a toiebreaker, that was a tough game.
“Then I played my partner in the Worlds, Daire Keane from Kerry, in the final and it was another close game. He had me in the first game but I just took it 15-14, then I won the second and finished it out in another tiebreaker.”
McGinnity has been training hard under the watchful eye of Team Ireland coach Michael Finnegan from Kingscourt.
“It has been good, they have treated us really well. It’s a great experience,” he said of his preparations with Team Ireland.
“Coming up to the All-Ireland and the Irish Nationals I was training every day, flat out, and I have been training really hard for this as well.”
McGinnity's goal, like all of the top juvenile players in the country, is to eventually win an All-Ireland senior title. Given that he excels in a number of sports, however, Eoghan – who is going into fifth year in St Macartan's College – will probably have a difficult decision to make in the coming years but for now his focus is on handball.
“I’d be hoping to [win at senior level]. It depends how hard I train, if I stick with it. I will try to stick with it. It will probably reach a point where I have to pick one sport, golf is not too bad because it’s played mainly in the summer and doesn’t take too much out of you but football and handball can clash.”
Eoghan, whose favourite players are Cavan's Paul Brady and Cork's Killian Carroll, expects Rodgers and Keane to again be among his main rivals for world honours.
Team Ireland fly out to the States next Tuesday (August 7th), with action in the One Wall grade serving off later in the week. McGinnity hopes to follow in the footsteps of other Monaghan world champions including Darren Doherty (Emyvale, 2009 13 and Under), Conor McDonnell (Monaghan Harps, 2015 Men's 50+ B Singles) and Padraig McKenna (St Mellan's, 2009 15 and Under), who is currently a member of the Monaghan senior football panel.
Other Monaghan players attending the World Championships are Gavin Coyle and Gary McElroy (Bawn), Conor O'Gorman (Carrickmacross), Conor Holohan (Tydavnet) and Louise and Emily McGinnity and Sean Callan (Monaghan Harps).