John Riordan: New York manager Johnny McGeeney building an American dream

When Sligo visit the Bronx in April, an Armagh man will send out a panel of Irish-Americans steeped in a culture of success

Johnny McGeeney

In the summer of 2019, Johnny McGeeney took a panel of Irish-American footballers home to Armagh.

The majority of these talented players - the younger of the two New York men’s squads sent to the third GAA World Games as representatives of their native County Board - had come of age under his watchful eye both as a coach at St Barnabas and as the head of development at Gaelic Park.

Days later they would be appearing at Croke Park for that year’s Native Men’s Football Championship final.

First stop in the Orchard County was a visit to their manager’s native club, Culloville Blues. Eight years prior, McGeeney was here celebrating an Armagh intermediate football championship success which should have also been his premature, injury forced swansong.

Louth club side St Mochtas provided the opposition, helping the young men avail of a little bit of no-nonsense sparring before the main event against their compatriots, New York Liberty.

The second of a two-day tour north of the border brought them to Crossmaglen where the visitors gazed in awe at the thing they’d heard about through their parents and through their communities in Irish strongholds throughout Queens, the Bronx and the counties of Westchester, Rockland and Orange.

Here was the British Army barracks infamously overshadowing Oliver Plunkett Park on the outskirts of Newry. McGeeney arranged for Joe and Alan Kernan to lead his charges in a training session they wouldn’t forget.

“When I was growing up, I never would have imagined something like that would be possible,” McGeeney recalled for me this week. They would go on to make history in that decider, outsourcing their familiar opponents 4-8 to 2-8.

McGeeney, 36, first arrived to New York in the summer of 2010, playing with the Armagh club and finding his feet in the Bronx. He spent the 2011 season back home helping his club clinch that title after which a back injury forced specialists to tell him the bad news that at the age of 26, he would never play again.

Although there would be a few corner forward roles for him for the New York branch of Armagh and the New York county team, it was never enjoyable again and it was this harsh reality which propelled him towards coaching. He took on the Armagh New York senior team by way of obligation but the real focus and passion for him was the U8s and U10s of Woodlawn’s St Barnabas club.

About five years ago, current New York Chairperson Joan Henchy decided it was high time for a development squad representing the county and she headhunted McGeeney to lead it. Memorable trips back to Ireland to colleges championships and the World Games helped form the bedrock of a panel that has now begun preparing for the visit of Sligo in mid-April in what will be an emotional return to the States of the Connacht Senior Championship Quarter-Final for the first time in three years.

“It’s the same crop of lads the whole way,” said McGeeney who took on the role of manager late last year. “It’s savage to see it.”

As a player and as a coach, McGeeney shared the vision of many in New York that the county team sent out to welcome the annual Connacht visitors should ultimately be made up largely or completely of native-born players. He bolstered his case when he oversaw the first (and second) county titles by an all-American born squad in 2020 and 2021 as St Barnabas made history with two successes in a row.

Five years ago, Barnabas went senior for the first time in their history, a major breakthrough in and of itself. The next peak seemed insurmountable and should have been but for an unforgettable twist of fate.

Player commitment had been a struggle with work and college but, two years ago, Covid and Zoom sessions changed everything; all of a sudden fortune flipped at the most unlikely time.

After the initial brutal wave of the pandemic swept through the region, New York GAA started to tentatively plan out a truncated season. And McGeeney saw a chance to provide his young players with a positive outlet. He arranged for sessions at a Crossfit gym in Mount Vernon, just over the bridge from the club’s Woodlawn neighbourhood.

“The lads were able to make it because they were home from college or were out of work and the whole thing sprung from there. They bought into it and we all put the heads down.”

It was a strange silver lining in an awful year and after a dramatic drawn decider against Sligo in October of 2020, Barnabas overcame their opponents and made headlines back in Ireland for the first achievement of its kind. Looking back, the real boon was the brotherhood which was spurred on by the pandemic playing havoc with the lives of the young players.

“It helped us because it brought lads closer together. It was an unreal experience. I didn’t get to enjoy it at the final whistle. I don’t know how to explain it. We won, ok, that’s great. One of my very good friends, Johnny Glynn, was on the opposite team so I didn’t want to be too much of a bollix about it.

“It was when I got home and realised what we had achieved… When you see the likes of (veteran clubman) Mike Brosnan crying, the likes of Eamon Deane involved for years. It was unforgettable.”

One of the few players who didn’t grow up under McGeeney’s wing, Jamie Boyle, had a perfect front row seat to the recipe for success of the manager. Boyle was drafted into the Barnabas set-up by his childhood friend Sean Riley with whom he played at St Brendan’s in Upstate New York.

“I feel very fortunate to have joined the club at the right time,” Boyle told me. “it was a great feeling to climb the mountain but it took me until after the game to really understand what it meant to the older guys at the club. We were Kings of Woodlawn for a few weeks and a few months. I appreciated it more in 2021, though. It was huge.”

McGeeney describes Boyle as the greatest man-marker he has ever coached, attributing some of that technique to Boyle’s basketball nurturing, a trait not uncommon for Irish-American footballers.

This past Sunday at 8am, almost 60 senior and junior panelists gathered in freezing temperatures at Gaelic Park for yet another gruelling McGeeney session.

“The training has been great and it’s an added bonus that they feel familiar,” says Boyle. “It is so tough and so demanding - every time you get to the Park, your heart drops. ‘What are we going to do today? What is the sprinting going to be like?’

“But all the players trust Johnny. not just the Barnabas players but all the players. His methods got us results - the sessions were brutal but you could see it pay off. The games were easy because we were in monster shape.”

One of McGeeney’s management team, Gareth Bailie, holds an All-Ireland medal from Down’s glorious 1991 but more importantly, it was to him who McGeeney looked for inspiration when giving young players a chance to participate in the game. It was never win at all costs.

“We have only one or two players who are blessed with elite football skills,” points out McGeeney. “We are blessed with a good attitude, right across the panel. Irish-American players don’t give out, Paddies never shut up. That’s the truth! With the Americans it’s ‘yes coach, no problem coach’. With the Paddies, it’s ‘shut up you wanker’. That’s why I never wanted the New York job until now.”

If the name is familiar, it’s because he isn’t the only McGeeney plying his trade in intercounty football management; his second cousin Kieran leads out Armagh against Dublin on Saturday night.

And the Orchard apple doesn’t fall far from the tree in terms of physical conditioning. That trip to Culloville two and a half years ago inspired the younger McGeeney to import the idea of a recovery room to New York. He and his business partner Johnny Glynn, the Galway native and hurling All-Ireland winner, will open Failte Sports Recovery to the public next week, above that Mount Vernon crossfit gym. On Sunday after another tough session, the New York footballers will give it a test run in preparation for the big day.

“His biggest strength is how he organises his drills,” extols Glynn of his good friend. “I’ve never experienced anything like it. We have almost 60 lads out there and it doesn’t feel crowded because everything is planned to a tee.”

It’s the likes of Boyle that drives McGeeney on, helping him and his management team realise the grand ambition of a majority American team lining out for the Sligo game. That would be a first at senior level.

“It’s always going to be special, every time you put on the red white and blue and represent,” Boyle added. “We grew up watching those games so it’s going to be very special to be part of it.”

- @JohnWRiordan