Oran Keyes grew up fascinated by all things sport and knew it was how he wanted to spend his life. As part of his studies, he has begun a year working for West Ham United. Michael McMullan writes…

From the moment Gerard Keyes took his son Oran to the fundamentals in Carrickmore, he has been hooked on sport.

In a parish where the O’Neill Cup has wintered most, and where the Éire Óg hurling club has hoovered up titles, sport is everywhere.

Oran is only a few weeks into his journey with West Ham as a placement Physical Development Coach, an opportunity many would dream of.

He knows sport is the avenue he wants to stay on. The excitement in his voice says more than words ever could.

“Like most fellas, my father took me up to the fundamentals. I was probably five or six and it was just those small fun games,” Keyes said of his early sporting memories.

When he turned U10, hurling began and he loved that too. The more sport the better.

Then came Match Attax cards. For the Euros and World Cups, there were stickers to be collected. It was the typical primary school craze.

“Carrickmore is a pretty proud community in terms of sport, between football and hurling,” Keyes said.

“Being brought up there, it probably wasn’t hard to fall into an interest in it all.”

His uncle, three-time Tyrone All-Ireland winner Ryan Mellon, was an excellent role model growing up.

“I remember probably idolising him at the time,” Keyes added. “I can remember my father and uncle taking me to Páirc Esler to watch a Dr McKenna Cup.

“It was on a cold, wet, dark Saturday night and that’s probably one of my earliest memories of Tyrone. They would have been wearing Hunky Dorys-sponsored jerseys at the time.”

That was an era when Tyrone were regulars at Croke Park. Seeing another two Carrickmore players in action, Conor Gormley and Martin Penrose, also had a pronounced impact on him.

“I was fortunate that mum and dad would have done their very best to take us down to Croke Park,” he said.

Born in 2006, the memories of Sam coming to the county two years later are light. A photo with his sister Aibreán from Salley’s Restaurant in Aughnacloy at the homecoming is an important memento, however.

Regards soccer, he is a Manchester United fan, something that brought some light banter to his West Ham interview.

The 2014 World Cup is a vivid memory. The Premier League was sparking an interest too. There were also the giants of Barcelona and Real Madrid.

“I was even watching content creators on YouTube back then, so that’s probably where my interest sparked,” Keyes added.

After Primary School, it was off to Omagh CBS where his mother Cathy teaches.

Construction, sport and biology were his chosen A-Level subjects. Before that, like many of his age, he was unsure what path to go down.

He fulfilled the dream of winning MacRory and Hogan Cup medals. With the small ball, he won an assortment of medals with Éire Óg.

“It’s only really by A-Levels that I realised I wanted to go into sport, it was probably up in the air up until that point,” Keyes said.

“I would have jumped at the opportunity to go to any match, whether it was Tyrone or Carrickmore playing.

“I still remember watching the International Rules between Ireland and Australia.”

Looking back now, sport offered values he’d take into life and into his day-to-day work with West Ham.

“The main thing that I can take from it is being able to work as part of a team and being able to collaborate on something that has a collective goal,” he said.

There will be setbacks so that’s where the resilience kicks in. There will be highs and bumps along the way. It’s about keeping an open mind and stepping on.

After two years studying Sport and Exercise Sciences, a placement year was optional but Keyes saw the value in it. As someone who worked in his father’s business, he knew the importance of working hard.

Away from his own playing career, he was coaching teams around Carrickmore – both football and hurling. He also gained experience of coaching in the Tyrone GAA summer camps.

“The day I turned 17, I saw a job advertised out at Youth Sport in Omagh, coaching soccer,” he added, seeing it as a part-time job on his doorstep.

“My mother would have dropped me out and I would have done a couple of hours every evening,” he said. “I loved it, it was four or five times a week for a couple of years.”

Looking back now, it was an invaluable experience. He was coaching children, both boys and girls, of different ages and abilities. It ranged from someone seeing a ball for the first time to others who were preparing for a trial at a professional club.

“I would have been doing one-to-one sessions, two-to-ones and maybe group sessions on the weekends,” he points out.

“There was a Sunday skills school and I absolutely loved it. I was able to tie that in with playing sports. At that time sport was all that was really going on.”

During his time at Ulster University, he applied to an advert from Craigavon-based company Performa Sports who specialise in GAA Performance Analysis.

“They had offered me a bit of part-time work on a freelance basis in the Conor McGurk and Dr McKenna Cups,” Keyes said of another valuable step in the road.

It was an opportunity that saw him working with a range of teams including Armagh Ladies and Donegal hurlers.

After helping with the recording of games, he’d tag various events from the games, allowing management teams to pick out various areas on which to focus.

“I thought this would be something I would be really interested in and I loved it,” he said.

With the importance of the placement year, another random trawl of LinkedIn flagged up West Ham’s placement opportunities.

“They had a number of different placement roles for students,” Keyes said.

“I said to dad I’d applied for it and I’d see what comes off of it.”

Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Within a few weeks he’d been shortlisted for an online interview.

CUP CHEER…Oran Keyes celebrates an Omagh CBS success with his sister Aibreán and , brothers Matthew and Conn

With limited interview experience, he spent time getting prepared, looking into the club and their values. While he felt it went well, Keyes was still in the ‘we’ll see what happens’ frame of mind.

Within days, his email pinged with more good news. He’d made the cut and was invited for the next stage of the process – a day at West Ham’s training ground.

“At that point, I was thinking this would be great to see their facilities and maybe get a bit of an insight into what they’re really looking for,” he said.

At the end of January, he booked into a hotel in Romford, near the club’s training ground.

It was a long way from the early days of Carrickmore fundamentals in the Dean Maguirc College.

“When I arrived, there were maybe about 15 or 20 students, all going for different roles,” he recalls.

“I had seven different interviews that day with different figures in the club.

“I had identified that I wanted to apply for the physical development role.

“My logic was that I’d got an opportunity in performance analysis. If I got an opportunity in physical development, I could identify which one I wanted to go down.”

Part of the interview process was taking a session with the club’s U10 team. His evenings coaching soccer at Youth Sport were now gold, as well as the Tyrone camps and Carrickmore U10s.

“I really enjoyed it,” Keyes said. “They were the most mannerly children I’ve ever come across.

“Talk about 9 or 10 year-old lads coming up and shaking your hand, asking you your name and introducing themselves, it’s unheard of.

“It was just how they were reared and how they were brought up.”

Keyes got a positive vibe from the club, further rubberstamping a desire to follow a career path into sport.

That was a Wednesday. It was back home to university the following day. During one of his Friday lectures, he could feel his phone ringing in his pocket, from an unknown number.

“I was in the middle of the row so I couldn’t even pop out and take the call,” Keyes laughed.

“I called the number back. It was the Head of the Academy’s Physical Development at West Ham.

“I was automatically preparing myself for bad news, given that it was only two days since the interview.

“They were calling to offer me the placement. Everything else that was said in that phone call just went right over my head.”

Seated in his living room in the Belfast’s Holylands, his chin almost hit the ground. The answer was an automatic yes.

There was a phone call with the news into the family WhatsApp group. Amidst all the excitement, there were a series of forms to fill in before tucking back into his year two studies.

It has been a summer with a difference. Earlier this month he was on his way to London for an exciting new chapter.

“I am with the U18 boys at the club,” Keyes said of his role in West Ham. “I’m loving it so far. For now, my role is observing the gym sessions and the warm-ups.

“We do a lot of GPS and heart rate monitoring, so I am assisting with that.

“During the sessions, it’s very much hands on. I could be acting as a defender, putting pressure on the lads during their training drills.

“As we progress, I’ll be coaching with younger age groups, U14s, U15s and U16s.

“That’s going to be in their physical development, talking them through the movements that are going to be brought onto the pitch.”

Away from work, Keyes has transferred to local GAA club Thomas MacCurtain’s. Like at home in Carrickmore, all of the GAA codes are on offer.

“They have been absolutely brilliant to me, very welcoming and in helping me find accommodation,” he added.

“I won’t be home now until Christmas. The longest I’ve been away has been a week away on a boys’ holiday to the Santa Ponsa.”

Now he’s shopping for an entire week. No more spins up the M1 to Carrickmore at the weekend for clean clothes and a warm feed before another week back in Belfast.

For now, he’s helping shape the future of West Ham. A university placement with a difference.

For someone like Oran Keyes, this is dreamland. Love your job and never work a day for the rest of your life.