By Michael McMullan

JOHN McKeever says that Holy Trinity is a ‘GAA mad’ school and has paid tribute to Peter Canavan for his input in getting the Cookstown side to a first ever MacRory Cup final.

Tyrone legend Canavan, the school’s Director of Sport, who manages the team with McKeever, has been involved in the school for 30 years and the duo steered them to a 0-10 to 0-5 semi-final win over St Patrick’s, Maghera.

“Peter deserves a lot of credit for starting it,” McKeever said in the aftermath of Sunday’s memorable win. “I am there 13 years, so I have been following his guidance. I am delighted for him because that is 30 years of work to get to a final.”

There will be a tremendous buzz in the school ahead Sunday week’s final showdown with St Mary’s, Magherafelt.

“There could’ve been 18 or 20 teachers that came on the field there, to congratulate the fellas on their win,” said McKeever.

“Myself and Peter are lucky we have that support from different departments and from Mrs Russell, our Principal.”

Their appearance comes four years after winning the MacLarnon Cup and following on from All-Ireland titles at Vocational School level.

“This has been in the planning for a few years now,” said a delighted McKeever on their final appearance.

“We were extremely disappointed two years ago in Loup when St Pat’s (Maghera) fully deserved their victory over us, so that gave us a bit of motivation.”

From that night, Shea Lawn swapped the goalkeeper jersey for a place in attack where he notched five points in a Man of the Match performance. Shea Quinn is the leading scorer with Head Boy Blaine Ryan an important cog at midfield after helping Moortown to Tyrone intermediate success.

McKeever was full of praise for how their side stuck to their game plan of soaking up the Maghera pressure and hitting them on the break.

“We knew the conditions weren’t going to be good,” said McKeever. “It is hard (to play with patience) but a lot of these boys have good game intelligence and a lot of maturity beyond their years.

“The instructions and information they are given, they take it and they stick to the plan. Instead of sticking to it for 40 or 45 minutes, they stuck to it for 63 minutes.

“A lot of these boys are involved in their own clubs; they have moved on to play at senior and reserve level.

“We are dealing with intelligent footballers but we also know there is a big challenge (in the final) we’ll be massive underdogs.

“It is an exciting couple of weeks in the college, the biggest day in their history, in terms of GAA,” McKeever added.

“We don’t want to just make up the numbers; we want to get ourselves well prepared and play a game of football, not the occasion.”