Ola Jopek, Park Hotel presenting the November Sports Star Award to Patricia Jackman. Included are Patrica’s Parents Lar and Jenny, John C. Flood, Joint Chairman Gailltir Camogie Club and Neil Gough, adjudicator. Photo: Sean Byrne//Deise Media.
Park Hotel Waterford Sport Star monthly awards are not easily won. As a judge I can guarantee you that. But I think that the GAA and wider sporting communities will all agree that one woman who has been knocking on the door of this long running awards scheme for a long time is Gailltir and Waterford camogie star, Patricia Jackman. Well the wait is over as she takes her first monthly award for the month of November after she played a starring role in captaining her club to Munster Intermediate Camogie glory over Nenagh Eire Og of Tipperary.
She has been a star of the county team for many years as well as being the almost annual Queen of the Mountains of the All-Ireland Poc Fada in the Cooley Mountains, but now she is tearing it up with her own club mates as the defeated great rivals Lismore to lift the Waterford title before going on to add provincial glory and now they are on the hunt for an All-Ireland title. Needless to say she was delighted to receive her first Park Award over Christmas on a short break at home in Waterford from her base in college in England.
‘I’m delighted to win my first Park Hotel award and also to accept the award on behalf of Gailltir camogie club as it’s great that our Munster Final win has been recognised. It was a great day, a tough game and we were thrilled to come away with a narrow victory and it’s great also to see the sport of camogie recognised within our own county.”
A DAY TO REMEMBER
Munster Final Day is a big day for any player but this one is one that Patricia Jackman will never forget as she was the star of the show, scoring 1-9 while captaining her team to their first Munster Intermediate Camogie title. ‘I think it was just one of those days that any ball that fell my way seemed to work out but I think that’s down to my team-mates more than anything because I spent most of the game inside in the full forward line and the supply of ball I got from my team-mates was top class and if you’re not getting the ball in there then you can’t do any damage. They made 99% of the chances and I was just on the end of them.”
This is of course is true but every successful teams needs leaders and in Patricia Jackman, Gailltir and Waterford have one of the best. ‘We’ve spoken all year about the importance of having plenty of leaders and on different days all through the campaign different players have stepped up in different ways. It’s not just about people getting the scores, someone could get a block or a hook at the other end of the field and sometimes they don’t get the recognition and it’s something that I definitely recognise that it’s not just about getting the scores, it’s about the hardwork that everybody puts in, I got the scores but they have to be worked up the field and huge credit is due to every one of the other girls on the team for their contribution.”
Next up is an All-Ireland semi-final later this month and it’s a whole new experience for Patricia and her Gailltir team-mates.
‘It’s very different to be honest because we’re not used to training and preparing for big games at this time of the season. It’s hard coming off the back of a long hard year but it’s very exciting and it’s something that we are really looking forward to. We’re playing Eglish from Tyrone who are a highly experienced outfit having won two Ulster Championships in a row but hopefully we’ll get everyone there in one piece, be in as good a shape as we can, work as hard as we can for 60 minutes and hopefully we can come out on top.”
FREQUENT FLYER
As well as being a star of Gailltir and Waterford camogie Patricia is also a PHD student in Sports Psychology at the University of Lincoln in England, which means countless flights over and back throughout the camogie season. ‘Yeah it has been difficult physically, mentally and logistically over the last couple of years and it definitely does take its toll but when you come back and see the effort that everyone is putting in it’s easy to make those commitments. It’s not over nice having to get up at six in the morning to go training on your own but that’s the choice I’ve made and at the moment it’s working out quite well. I’m also in my final year so that will be a big priority for the coming year.”
Eventhough it’s a team sport, Patricia and others who are living and working away have to put in the hours on their own, so does she find it hard to keep motivated and training so much on her own?
“It is hard, there’s no doubt about it and it can get tricky in terms of how you manage your own preparation but I’ve a good support network at home and the girls drop me texts to see how I’m getting on and that all keeps your spirits up and I get support from my colleagues in the office even if they don’t know a whole pile about camogie and look at me a bit when I arrive in with a hurley in the morning. But when you are playing in All-Ireland semi-finals and in places where you always wanted to be you just have to grab them with both hand and give them as good an effort as you can because they could well be once in a lifetime opportunities.”
As we head into the New Year, what are Patricia’s goals for 2017? “Definitely getting my PHD is top of the list and in sporting terms it’s just about trying to give it my very best as I always have and hopefully it all works out in the end.”
And what’s the plan after hopefully getting her PHD in 2017? “The plan is to pursue a career in academia. I’m currently doing some lecturing at the University of Lincoln and Nottingham Trent University so I hope in the long run to get into research, teaching and maybe some applied consultancy work as well. I’m very passionate about Sports Psychology and it’s something that I’m very keen to learn an awful lot more about. At the moment I’m doing a lot of work on Optimal Performance State, when athletes perform at their best what goes through their mind and how can they access that ‘zone’ that everyone talks about and in the long run I’d like to broaden it out and look at different aspects of athlete performance like wellbeing and so on and that’s hopefully where the future is going to be.”
But before all that there’s the small matter of an All-Ireland semi-final with Gailltir and hopefully an All-Ireland decider after that in what promises to be another highly hectic year for Patricia Jackman, but I get the feeling that she wouldn’t have it any other way.
