FORMER GALWAY FOOTBALL star Gary Sice has paid tribute to his Corofin teammates for helping him come through the death of his wife last year.
Sice, who turned 39 this week, was the top-scorer winning his 13th Galway SFC medal as they saw off champions Maigh Cuilinn by 1-11 to 1-9 at Pearse Stadium.
In September last year his wife Bevin died after a battle with cancer and Sice, whose family is steeped in the Corofin club, said his teammates and club members had been a rock of strength for him and the couple’s young daughter Sadhbh.
“It has been a tricky three or four years for me. Football has been a place to go and the club has looked after me outrageously well. I’m so grateful to everyone in the club.
“The family at home have given me the space to train and train properly and to get the body right and give as much as I could for as long as I could was the goal.
“I met my dad (Jimmy Sice) out on the pitch there and it was just special. There have been tough times, very tough times and I’m just grateful to everyone who helped us through it.”
Sice stood in the tunnel at Pearse Stadium with his daughter on his shoulders and commiserated with the Maigh Cuilinn players as they returned to the dressingroom having surrendered their Galway and Connacht titles.
Sice has been there through all the glory days for Corofin but the national school teacher knows the value of this one as an infusion of young talent saw them capture their 22nd title and first since 2019.
But for all the youth coming through, it was Sice who showed the leadership when it was most needed against a Maigh Cuilinn side who were dealt a hammer blow in advance when Galway captain Seán Kelly was ruled out through injury.
“A lot of hard work gone into this one,” added Sice. “A lot of young lads getting their first taste of it and absolutely no talk about us being underdogs and I think we performed very well.
“It was a good team effort, everyone did their job and I thought we were clinical when we got chances.”
Corofin manager Kevin Johnson, who has now guided clubs to senior championships in three counties, praised Sice for steering them to victory after a year of such personal hardship.
“It has been an extremely difficult year for Gary but this is his football family,” said Johnson, who previously managed Tourlestrane in his native Sligo and Ballintubber in Mayo to success. “On a Tuesday night he’s the first man there at training and the last man to leave because he just loves the group and the group is really special to Gary.”
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