“COMING FROM A big family, my dad couldn’t commit to every single game, but there was this coach I had when I was 12, Caroline, and she would bring me to every training session. She was so committed to get me to training or wherever I needed to be because she believed in me.
“She saw the player and the potential in me.”
Katie McCabe was asked earlier this year about the first coach to come to mind when she heard the word ‘inspiration,’ and she didn’t once hesitate. Caroline McCaul’s name was front and centre for the Ireland and Arsenal star.
“When I think back about Katie, she was always very quiet,” McCaul tells The 42, delighted to turn back time and share her memories of the history-making Irish captain from her U12 to U14 days at Templeogue Girls.
“There was no, ‘I’m gonna be rich and famous or a star,’ or anything like that. Katie was always very quiet, came in, did her work, got on very well with the other girls. There was never any messing. She was dedicated, she always turned up.
“There wasn’t a selfish bone in her body. Even playing football — where she’d clearly have an open goal, she’d be the likely one to pass it over to any of the other girls. That’s what I always remember about her.”
The image of McCabe waiting at the door, boots in hand, remains clear in her mind. One of 11 children, her father Gary was always working and McCaul was more than happy to help out.
In fact, that’s how she got involved with Templeogue in the first place.
Originally from Cavan though living in Dublin for years, and generally sports-mad all her life, she would bring a friend’s daughter to training and matches and soon fell into helping out with teams.
She became an ever-present for McCabe, and others, from there.
“There was never any problem just flying up and grabbing Katie. You didn’t want to go to a match without Katie McCabe in your squad!
“She was one of them kids, when you said, ‘I’ll be there at nine to pick you up,’ she was always at the door waiting for you, boots in hand. It’s one of them weird little things.
“We had that extra layer of chats going along. We’d be chatting away about God knows what. It wasn’t that we were always talking about football or anything like that, we were talking about the other kids, school and very mundane things really. It was always very nice. And even as a young 12-year-old, you were always thanked.”
On the pitch, McCaul saw something special in McCabe immediately; her former Kilnamanagh coach Eamon Connaughton likened her to Liam Brady in an interview with The 42 last October.
For McCaul, her commitment, passion and obsession with the game from that early age stands out — along with her natural ability and talent.
“From my perspective, it was her dedication. I’m not surprised, put it like that, because she wanted it. You’d often hear, ‘I’m gonna make myself rich and famous doing this…’ There was nothing like that, it was just pure football. Ball, Katie, off you went.
“At some stage when we crossed paths some years ago, I said, ‘Katie, you do know now that I go around telling people that I taught you everything you know?!’ But you don’t teach a player like that. Katie came fully formed.
“She laughed and she said, ‘Well Caroline, if you didn’t give me all them lifts, who knows?’
“Sure that’s nothing to do with it. What coaching can you do on somebody who’s just naturally gifted? Genuinely I will take no hand, act or part into the football end of things. She was always just a pleasure to deal with on every level.”
The 2008 Gaynor Cup comes into her thoughts. McCabe was part of a south Dublin squad including now Ireland team-mate Chloe Mustaki with McCaul among the coaches involved.
To McCaul’s knowledge, that was the first time that McCabe and Mustaki played together, their international journey since bringing them from the U19 European Championships in 2014 to now, Ireland’s first-ever World Cup.
But it all began with winning the Gaynor Cup.
“Katie, of course, no surprise, she got the Golden Boot,” McCaul notes with a grin. “That was the first time that she stepped out beyond a club level, you could say.”
McCabe soon moved on to Raheny United, following in the footsteps of other ex-Templeogue players Pearl Slattery and Rebecca Creagh. Her star rose there and at Shelbourne, when the clubs amalgamated, and one needs little reminder of what has happened since.
A huge star on the world stage now, she has never forgotten where she came from.
That reflects best in McCaul’s meetings with her in recent times.
They crossed paths at Crumlin Hospital a few years back, McCaul spotting her a mile away as she left work.
“She was like, ‘Caroline, it’s Katie.’ I remember going, ‘I know who you are,’” she laughs.
“She was introducing herself. The lack of big-headedness always stood out for me with Katie. She’s like, ‘Caroline, it’s Katie.’ I was like, ‘I know who you are’. We had a great giggle.”
It was the same case in Dublin Airport last October. McCaul works in airport security and a chance meeting, as McCabe and her Ireland team-mates flew out for their World Cup play-off, lit up her shift. The journey came full circle there and then.
“What a coincidence. I was in the right place at the right time, that’s for sure.
“I was working away, I just looked up and there was Katie McCabe standing in front of me. I says, ‘Ah Katie!’ She gave me a big hug and the whole lot. I said, ‘Well, you’re off to play your little match tomorrow.’ She goes, ‘Yeah.’ I said, ‘Sure look, the best of luck.’
“When you’re thinking what to say, you don’t want to say, ‘Oh Jesus, the biggest match possible ever,’ so I said I’d just go the other direction of, ‘Ah sure yiz are off to play a bit of football tomorrow. Good luck with that little match!’”
That little match paved the way for World Cup qualification, with McCabe and co. realising their long-awaited dream in a few short days.
That quiet kid McCaul remembers from Templeogue United will lead her country out on the biggest stage in the world, making history as the first-ever Irish women’s captain to do so. To do it in front of over 80,000 fans at a sold-out Stadium Australia is the stuff of dreams.
“So proud, so so proud,” her former mentor beams.
“You do be super proud to even say you know Katie.
“I pop up to do my bit of shopping in Kilnamanagh in Dunnes. I’d say I hardly ever go in there without Gary being there. It’s just, ‘Hiya Gary, how are you?’ I often look at him pushing his trolley down the aisles going, ‘Nobody knows that that’s Katie McCabe’s Dad!’ I love that element of things, the down-homeness.”
And from hers in Templeogue, McCaul will be keeping a close eye on Sydney from 17,204km away on Thursday. With one player to the forefront of her mind.
“It’s going to be so exciting. I wouldn’t go out into public to watch any of the games because I scream at the telly too much!
“Wishing all the girls the very best. I have really good feelings. The time has come. I think good things are gonna happen. I’ll be watching with absolute pride on Katie’s behalf anyway, and of course for the rest of the team.
“I’ll be watching with absolute pride in my heart. Can’t wait.”
