This year’s Donegal Sports Star Awards has thrown up a rather unique family link.
Soccer nominee Kevin McHugh, the veteran Finn Harps striker, will be joined at the 37th presentation function by his father-in-law Eamon Coyle who is the Hall of Fame winner.
So the extended Coyle and McHugh families along with the county’s sporting public will be watching with great interest to where whether Kevin gets the nod in the soccer category and join in his father-in-law on stage to be presented with an award by special guest Billy Walsh the Irish Olympic Boxing Coach.
All will be revealed at the Donegal Sports Star Awards on Friday week, January 25th in the Mount Errigal Hotel when McHugh will find out his fate in a very competitive soccer category along with Ciara Grant, Barry McNamee and Ryan Rainey.
McHugh, who is married to Eamon’s daughter Aine, had his testimonial year in 2012 and once again the Killea man didn’t disappoint on the field in the Finn Harps colours leading the attack and finishing up the team’s top goalscorer again.
Ryan Rainey from Bonagee helped St. Eunan’s College to an Irish Schools Soccer title in April and has gone to represent his country at U-16 level. And in the Autumn he moved from his native Bonagee Utd to English Championship side Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Ramelton’s Barry McNamee began the season with Derry City’s excellent young Ulster Senior League side who eventually ended up winning the USL for the first time in the club’s history. The ex-Swilly Rovers man nailed down a regular place in central midfield in the final two months of the season.
It culminated in the 20-year-old winning an FAI Senior Cup medal with Derry at the beginning of November and later saw him being invited over for a week’s trial with Nottingham Forest. Letterkenny woman Ciara Grant has represented her country at every underage grade and in December the former Kilmacrennan Celtic player made her senior international debut in an away fixture against the USA. So there is plenty for the judging panel to mull over before making a decision on the Donegal Sports Star Award soccer winner before we will know whether a McHugh will make it a double success for the extended Coyle family.
Eamon Coyle might have came to late to boxing but the Downings native quickly made up for lost time as in the space of just seven short years he reached the pinnacle of his career winning a Senior Super Heavyweight title at the National Stadium in 1982.
Remarkably he was 21 before he became actively involved in the sport joining the British Railways Club in the Dublin Docks after getting his first job with the Department of Agriculture in the Capital.
That was in 1975 and just four years later he won his first Irish title in the Junior Heavyweight Division. The national success earned him the 1979 Donegal Sports Star Boxing Award. By the time he reached the Senior Super Heavyweight Final in 1982 he had won two Ulster titles fighting out of Letterkenny Boxing Club under guidance of the legendary John McLaughlin.
Tickets for the Donegal Sports Star Awards on Friday week, January 25th can now be booked by contacting the Mount Errigal Hotel on 9122700. Tickets are priced at 25 euro for adults and 15 euro for primary school pupils. For further information on the Donegal County Council sponsored event visit donegalsportsstarawards.ie. or follow us on Facebook at Donegalsports Starawards.
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