SCHOOL DAYS:Stephen Martin was a boy wonder on the fairways but schools hockey took him along a road that led to Olympic gold, writes Johnny Watterson.

STEPHEN MARTIN, the Olympic Council of Ireland chief executive, gives the impression his international hockey caps and medals all just fell into his lap, somehow effortlessly; that he had a bit of talent at school in Bangor, which went on and on and on . . . until one day he was standing on a podium at the Olympic Stadium in Seoul in 1988 with an IOC official draping a gold medal around his neck.

He is, though, the classic motionless duck on the surface with the legs paddling furiously underneath.

The former Bangor Grammar boy was always destined to be an international hockey player from his teen years in secondary school, but earlier in a carefree sporting career he had been courted by other games.

Back then soccer and golf were the first sports with which he seriously flirted. Golf was a pastime of summers spent camped in his granny's house near the course at Donaghadee. Hockey came later and was the one to finally sweep him off his feet and end in marriage.

"I went to Bangor Central in primary one and then went straight to primary three at Bloomfield Road, which was a brand new school and much closer to where I lived," he says.

"In the early days at school the first sport I would have played was soccer and I represented the Bangor schools area. In 1970 I went to Bangor Grammar School and stayed there until university in Jordanstown.

"I remember one of the first things I disliked about school was having to wear a cap outside school, having to conform to a whole new set of rules and ensuring my hair was the correct length."

Like it or not, that discipline was to be useful in years to come. Martin became the first hockey player in the country in the early 1980s to train two and three times a day in a professional way (bleep tests) and tailor diet and lifestyle.

Within four or five years of taking hockey as his main sport, he was looking toward the Los Angeles Olympics.

"I made some great friends in school, including Seán Curran (Ireland hockey player) and David Feherty (professional golfer), and I remember winning the Honours Blazer in third form for, not hockey, but golf.

"We used to play a lot together, myself and David. Then when it came to the time to chose which sport to play seriously I picked hockey and he chose golf and we went in different directions.

"I was a member of Donaghadee Golf Club, where my uncle was a scratch golfer, and maybe for three or four summers between the ages of 10 to 13 I was playing virtually every day, walking back to granny's to have lunch, dinner and sometimes even breakfast. I basically lived on the golf course and managed to get down to a four handicap.

"David was in the school so we played all of our schools golf together and then when the time came, I chose hockey.

"At that time I would have been the better golfer but at around the age of 14 I stopped and focused just on the hockey. David was just really getting to grips with golf at that stage. He left school in fifth form and went on to become an assistant professional. I see him from time to time. He hasn't changed really at all. He still stays in contact with people when he's at home.

"Essentially when I began playing hockey in school the exciting things were getting on a train and coming down to Dublin to places like Newpark (school, Blackrock) to play schools interpros and meeting people from different parts of the country, then getting picked to play for Irish schools.

"If you ask me what were the most exciting times of my hockey career, it would be the schools stuff and under-21 stuff. I just found that unbelievable, good from a social perspective, great craic, all young people bursting to be as successful as we could be.

"And if you look back . . . we were very successful. We were in a European final in Trinity, winning a silver medal, and we went to the world under-21 championships and finished 10th out of 16, I think."

The next stage was playing for Ireland (135 caps) at 19 and during Olympic Games cycles playing with Britain, where he went to three Olympics - 1984 (bronze medal), 1988 (gold medal) and 1992 (sixth place). The difference between school and after was the difference between potential and achievement.

"Did I think then I could play at a higher level? Probably yes, but I didn't know how. I mean everyone on that Irish schools or Irish under-21 team knew they were talented. At that age you know you're talented but you don't know how to apply yourself for the next stage. You learn that and then you find yourself playing in front of 60,000 people in Pakistan at a Champions Trophy or in Seoul at the Olympics."