Growing Oaks: James Sargent and Eamon Young look back at the recent Derry minor success

James Sargent and Eamon Young were named on the Electric Ireland minor football team of the year after helping Derry win a second successive All-Ireland. They told Michael McMullan about the journey

JAMES Sargent and Eamon Young were born to play. You can tell by how natural they are on the ball and the ease with which they recall their memories.

In the same form class in St Mary’s, Magherafelt, their here and now is the hope of steering the school to another MacRory Cup final. After getting their hands on silverware in Year 8, the semi-final stage has been their glass ceiling since.

On Saturday, they were chatting freely about the recent Derry minor story. Another chapter with the county’s underage fortunes on the climb.

What goes before always make an impact. Players are impressionable. Young looked on as Newbridge clubmate Mark Doherty picked up man of the match in the 2020 minor All-Ireland final win over Kerry. Seeing a photo with brothers Oisin and Conor struck a chord. He wanted a similar one when his time came.

James Sargent remembers it too. The sight of Matthew Downey lifting the Tom Markham Cup lit another fire. He wanted to follow.

Sargent’s earliest footballing memory was watching Stephen Cluxton kick the winning point in the 2011 All-Ireland final. Sitting in a packed Croke Park, the roar greeting every score was inspiring.

When Lavey won the Ulster minor title, he was a year too young. It was another moment of inspiration. There were the days kicking off left and right foot in Lavey’s indoor hall. The small steps all add up.

For Young he remembers heading off with the family to watch Newbridge seniors. Speaking before Saturday’s win over Magherafelt, he chats about himself and Cathair McBride coming out of minor next year. Of Paudi McGrogan being back from injury. They’d love to get their hands on the John McLaughlin Cup.

You soon see the passion for sport. Sargent is a handy hurler too. Young dabbled in a bit of soccer with Magherafelt Sky Blues. He tried to get Sargent to join. But he didn’t bite.

Damian McErlain ended a 13-year minor famine when he managed Derry to the 2015 Ulster title. They’ve been a regular fixture in finals since.

On a wet Saturday, early in 2023, he looked on as Donegal’s late goal pulled the league title from their grasp on his return as minor boss. It was an Oakleaf team with all the ingredients for success. But there is a mental side and how younger players can find a relative level of maturity.

“With minors, they don’t believe you until it happens,” McErlain said after the game, referring to a warning for his side to be on the money and Donegal being a tough nut to crack. His tone of voice didn’t have an ounce of panic. If anything, the defeat would do Derry no harm.

Fast forward to the championship and Young ranked their semi-final win over Donegal, in a tightly fought game, as the moment he felt Derry were as good as anyone out there.

“We had to crawl back and you never really knew what was going to happen for the entire 60 minutes,” Young said with a maturity not every underage player possesses.

“I think, after that, getting over the line in that game, it made us realise that, yeah, we have a chance of going all the way.”

It was only one step. The Ulster final was an adventure all of its own. The season’s middle meeting of three with Monaghan that went all the way to extra-time and penalties.

Before the shoot-out, the Farney fans congregated behind the goals. The Derry players just blanked it out. Sargent scored a penalty but just remembers selector Murtagh O’Brien going around the huddle asking who was up for taking a kick.

“It wasn’t much of a question,” Sargent recalls. It was just about stepping up and doing what was needed for the team.

“I was just thinking about the actual penalty itself… back when you practice at the pitch or even hitting penalties at club games when there was no one behind the goals. You just think back and what do you do in that situation, that’s what I did.”

Young scored a wonder goal to sink Galway in the All-Ireland quarter-final with a semi-final over Dublin setting up a rematch with Monaghan in the All-Ireland final. And it was back in the BOX-IT Athletic Grounds.

“The thing that stands out the most for me is how relaxed the team was,” Young said of heading to what was the biggest game of their careers.

“On the bus and on the journey to Armagh there were no nerves at all. Everyone was chatting away and having a craic.

“We knew what we were going to do. We lived the moment and didn’t really play the occasion. We played it like any other match.”

Watching Fionn McEldowney and Cahir Spiers lift the cup was memorable. There was hype but Sargent didn’t fully appreciate the moment until the next morning.

“You’re just at home, you’re just lying in bed and thinking, like, ‘we’ve just won the All-Ireland’ and that’s all you ever dream of,” he recalls, “that was unreal.”

Young and Sargent were part of the group available for the second season. With the same management in situ, there was high expectations of more success. There were enough players coming for a second time that knew what it takes.

“We definitely knew from the start that we could win the All-Ireland,” Young said, but it wasn’t openly talked about. Negotiating the ultra-competitive Ulster obstacles came first. Getting their hands on the Ulster silver was another target.

“The Tyrone game (Ulster semi-final) and the Armagh in the Ulster final, they helped us going down the stretch and pulling through eventually,” Young said of Derry’s arduous path to glory that saw them backed into difficult corners.

There were spells in the quarter-final against Dublin when guts, skill and composure were needed in equal measure. After passing up three goal chances against Kerry, they needed Sargent, with the help of substitutes Caomhan McNally and Cody Rocks, to pull them through.

“I’d say we had the tougher All-Ireland run compared to Armagh,” Young feels.

Another factor was having walked the walk before. The players who’d played in Ulster and All-Ireland finals, their calmness radiated.

“I think we were very relaxed going into the game,” Young said of the final. “It was nearly a carbon copy of last year, it was just different teams. The fact it was, that was relaxing because it was like last year all over again.”

Last year’s men stood tall.

Sargent hit the net. Young chipped in with two points. Goalkeeper Jack McCloy was assured in the air. Luke Grant was everywhere. Ger Dillon managed an injury to kick two points. Dara McGuckin, a sub in the first season, was a regular at wing-back. Dylan Rocks made a goal for younger brother Cody.

It all came together and Derry were All-Ireland champions again. Sargent did what Matthew Downey did. He got up the steps to lift the cup. Young was able to get another photo with his brothers like the Dohertys did.

“Everyone was like very friendly,” Young said of the off the field ingredient over two seasons. “We got along with everyone, I could say that I am friends with every player in the team for both years.

“I’d say the bond we had in both years really helped on the football pitch, because you could trust everyone on the pitch.”

Behind every team is another team and McErlain assembled a backroom group that ticked the necessary boxes.

“They were unreal,” Sargent summed up, saying how they all helped when a steering arm was needed.

Sargent also applauded how the management trusted players to work things out for themselves once they crossed the white line. It was the perfect match.

“They let us show our quality,” he said. “The way football is at the minute, a lot of that could be taken out, but those boys, they let our qualities shine through and let us use our own abilities to the max.

“I think that’s why we could win so many games, because there’s so many different skillsets and the many good players we had.

“We felt very in control, but they (management) were always the ones on top of it all. They made us feel confident for every game, like we were all equal.

“We could be confident about the things we thought needed changed on the pitch. They gave us that confidence.”

Now it’s school time with the MacRory Cup preparations around the corner. There will be the hope of progress at u-20 and beyond. For Derry, in the long-term, it’s all about growing Oaks.