Giving it stick: the career of an Irish hockey player

Irish Olympic hockey star Katie Mullan grew up with a stick in her hand. But, not a hockey stick, she was standing in gaps at home on the family beef farm in Portstewart, Co Derry.

Katie addressed the student finalists of the Certified Irish Angus Schools competition at an awards ceremony in Croke Park last week. She shared her experience of growing up on a farm and how this positively impacted her sporting career.

“I think it definitely made me maybe a little bit more fearless [growing up on a farm],” the hockey team captain told Irish Country Living.

“It really shows you from a young age what hard work looks like as opposed to it just being a phrase used by people.

“I grew up seeing the crazy hours in the morning that my dad and brothers got up at to throw meal into the back of the van and go feed cattle.”

He laughed at me, said that it wasn’t a professional sport in Ireland

Katie was a keen sportswoman in school and remembers the day she told her careers guidance teacher that she wanted to be a professional hockey player.

“He laughed at me, said that it wasn’t a professional sport in Ireland and that it wasn’t going to be anytime soon.”

I was just fascinated by the human body

When she returned to the school last year and told him that she had just played two years of professional hockey in Germany “he couldn’t believe it and he said he distinctly remembered me telling him that that’s what I wanted to do. But for me, it was always about hockey in school. I knew I liked math and biology, so that’s kind of how I fell into biomedical engineering. I was just fascinated by the human body. But there wasn’t really any opportunity to study agriculture when I was in school. I know that my school is doing it as a subject now and it’s wonderful that so many kids that want to be farmers can study it.”

Katie took a slightly unusual route into selecting what she did for her third-level education.

I knew the subjects I enjoyed, but I didn’t necessarily know the exact career I wanted to follow

While most people focus on the courses, she focused on the sports facilities. Once she had set her mind on going to University College Dublin (UCD), she then had to find a course she liked.

“I knew the subjects I enjoyed, but I didn’t necessarily know the exact career I wanted to follow.

“So for me, it was making sure that when I went to university, I was studying things that I was interested in which played to my strengths.”

Paying the price

As much as she wanted to be a professional hockey player, Katie knew that, at the time, to play for Ireland you had to pay.

“So I knew that I was still going to have some sort of career and hockey would always be on top of that.

“I was making sure I had both those elements of my life running side by side,” she said, adding that from the age of 15 when she was doing her GCSEs she was playing international hockey.

Time management was a massive skill that I learned from a young age

“I find that actually really helped me. Time management was a massive skill that I learned from a young age.

“It really frustrates me when I hear youngsters say that they’re in their final year of school and they’re not going to play hockey. Whereas for me, hockey was my release.

“Even when I was in university, I would have been in a lab with all of my classmates trying to solve a problem. I’d leave for two hours, go out and hit 100 balls to relieve my frustration, I’d come back and the answer would come to me.

“Meanwhile my classmates wouldn’t have done anything for the two hours. So I see massive benefits to having both [education and sport] and just making sure I manage my time really well.”

Women in sport

The Irish women’s hockey team became overnight sports sensations in August 2018 when they won silver medals at the World Cup. Irish Country Living asks how they dealt with becoming role models for women in sport.

We’re slowly but surely getting there and I think the media has a massive part to play

“We are constantly trying to fight the battle of social media and body image. We’re really trying to portray that ‘strong is the new skinny’ for youngsters and girls with biceps is actually a really good thing.

“We’re slowly but surely getting there and I think the media has a massive part to play.”

There was no pressure in the World Cup, nobody expected us to do well

Just to paint a really clear picture of how the hockey team shot to fame overnight, a month before the world cup in 2018 they played a game in Cork that had just five parents and two dogs standing on the sideline.

“Fast forward into the World Cup and there’s 10,000 people in the stadium. There was no pressure in the World Cup, nobody expected us to do well.

“When we flew out, people asked us in the airport if we were the women’s karate team.

“Coming home, we had a chartered flight into Dublin airport, were met by four fire engines on the runway and brought in to meet the crowds in the city centre. So it literally transformed in two weeks.”

Katie admits that sporting bodies can put in place all the structures they like to promote women in sport, but having a team that performs at its best and is successful, is the best recipe.

Donnybrook

The first weekend of November 2019, went down in hockey and Irish sporting history.

A record crowd of 6,137 turned out at Energia Park in Donnybrook to see Ireland face off against Canada in the Olympic qualifier, the biggest crowd ever for a women’s international team event in Ireland.

It was also the first time any Irish team qualified for the Olympics.

“The weather was horrendous and it didn’t seem to make the supporters flinch, they were amazing.

“When we ran out, there was pressure [on us] and I think, if we’re being honest, that a little bit of that crept in. We should have won the game in normal time but we didn’t and that’s a massive learning point for us.”

At the end of the two matches, the Irish team were two points down in the penalty shoot out but managed to pull through, “which shows you the belief within our group, we’re never going to give up”.

We’re still getting the games we need. We’re still getting the conditions we need to play under

Looking forward, the girls are preparing for the Olympics in Tokyo this summer. They are going to Malaysia on 16 March to play eight games which will be in hot and humid conditions.

“We’re still getting the games we need. We’re still getting the conditions we need to play under. We just keep doing what we can do, control the things we can control.”

The Irish pool for the Olympics includes the Netherlands, Germany, Britain and two nations ranked below them; India and South Africa.

“I actually think it’s a huge bonus be in the same group as Holland because you get the opportunity to play them, it brings you up to the best in the world straight away at the group stages and it also means you avoid them in a quarter-final.”

Katie’s favourite hockey move:

360 spin

“When you catch the ball in the hockey stick, and you spin 360°. You catch a lot of people with their feet inside the circle with that one.”