ATHLETICS:An unofficial counsellor, mentor and spokesman for Irish athletes on scholarship in America, the Nenagh native richly deserves the lifetime achievement award he received last week, writes IAN O'RIORDAN

IT WAS just typical of the man that as I tried to congratulate him on his lifetime achievement award he interrupted me with news of the Irish in America.

“David McCarthy had a brilliant run,” he told me. “Shane Quinn did too, the top freshman in the Northeast. And wonderful to see Charlotte Ffrench O’Carroll back running so well again.”

Ever since Jimmy Reardon pioneered the scholarship trial in September 1948 – laying the foundation for what soon became known as “the pipeline” – there’s been a fascination and mystique about the Irish athletes that set off for American colleges, many of whom are never heard from again, and no one has a better appreciation of this than Brother John Dooley.

So last Saturday evening, when Brother Dooley was given a standing ovation for his contribution to the sport at the National Athletics Awards in Santry, it was only fitting that earlier that day the Irish had still proved their worth in America. At the nine Regional Cross Country races, which lead to next Monday’s NCAA Championships in Terre Haute, Indiana, there was sufficient proof the pipeline hasn’t yet dried up, despite the irrevocably changed landscape of American collegiate distance running.

For almost 30 years now Brother Dooley has been a sort of unofficial counsellor, mentor, and spokesman for Irish athletes on scholarship in America and, trust me, without him the pipeline would have dried up long ago.

Not that his lifetime achievement is limited to just that. Few people realise Brother Dooley was Irish 1,500 metres champion, in 1972, and once beat Noel Carroll over 1,000 metres – which is no mean feat.

He’s also one of the most trusted, honest and successful coaches in Irish distance running, with a distinguished list of former pupils that includes Ray Flynn, Enda Fitzpatrick, Róisín Smyth, and Mark Carroll, who to this day rates Brother Dooley as the single biggest influence on his career.

Carroll couldn’t be in Santry last Saturday as he’s now coaching himself – at Auburn University in Alabama – although he did send a short note which was read out on the night and in many ways captured Brother Dooley’s enduring role in Irish athletics.

“You have been a coach, adviser and true friend to me through the many ups and downs over the years and for that I will always be grateful. You have influenced the lives of so many with sound advice, knowledge and guidance. Their successes are too many to mention tonight, but you have the great satisfaction of seeing your athletes do so well in all aspects of life.

“As a coach myself today I look to your teachings for guidance when working with my young athletes and I feel blessed to have had you as my mentor.”

I couldn’t have put that better myself.

Brother Dooley’s running philosophy was and still is distinctly simple: like any sporting talent it’s to be appreciated, and those going on scholarship to America should feel privileged. Like Carroll he instilled that in me back in 1990 and I haven’t forgotten it either.

I remember, too, he used warn us that those going on scholarship to America could end up in one of four categories – the winners, the scorers, the chokers, and the wasters. Of course he was right, and the sad thing is many of us didn’t listen.

Yet Brother Dooley could take particular satisfaction from the results coming back from America last Saturday. The Northeast Regional cross country, staged in Buffalo, New York, saw Waterford’s David McCarthy finish a very close second to big favourite Leonard Korir, from Kenya. McCarthy is in his senior year at Providence College, although he actually dropped out a couple of years back.

He could have ended up one of the chokers but thankfully is proving one of the winners, and I’m very excited to see how he runs in the NCAAs on Monday.

Fellow Waterford and Providence runner Shane Quinn finished 17th, which made him the top freshman – and he’ll also be running in Terre Haute on Monday as the Providence men qualified as one of the 31 teams (still coached, by the way, by the long-serving Ray Treacy). Charlotte Ffrench O’Carroll finished seventh for the Providence women, missing qualification for the NCAAs by one place, yet showing a welcome return to form – while at the South Regional Cross Country, staged in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Brendan O’Neill, now running in the colours of Florida State University, finished fourth.

Both McCarthy and O’Neill were part of the Irish under-23 team, coached by Brother Dooley, that last December won the gold medal at the European Cross Country, down in the Algarve.

That success will be long celebrated as one of the special moments for the sport, not least because Brother Dooley had nurtured that team for five years previously, and ultimately inspired them with his pre-race pep talk, complete with the famous lighting of the scented candle.

As if to prove the politics of Irish athletics is still alive and well, at least in some small pockets, there were those who thought Brother Dooley got a little too much credit for his role in that under-23 success, which completely baffles me. Indeed it may be that Brother Dooley’s greatest asset is his ability to keep politics out of the sport. That ability may have something to do with his religious vows.

It was while studying as a Christian Brother in New York in the early 1980s that Brother Dooley got his first insight into what it takes to succeed in college in America.

After returning to Ireland he first taught at Coláiste Éanna, in Ballyroan, where his pupils included a certain Pádraig Harrington. It’s probably just as well that he couldn’t convince Harrington to stick with the running instead of the golf, but after joining the staff at North Monastery in Cork, Brother Dooley was soon master and commander.

“When are you starting back the running?” Carroll used to ask, in his first years at the school, and under Brother Dooley, North Mon won nine of 10 Irish Schools’ Cross Country senior boys titles, in and around the 1990s.

He also taught Setanta and Aisake Ó hAilpín during his time there, and reckons they would have made fine distance runners had they not been poached by the Na Piarsaigh GAA club.

Although now retired in his native Nenagh, and based at the Christian Brothers School in Summerhill, Brother Dooley remains a vitally important influence on the sport, especially when it comes to American scholarships.

Just ask Marcus O’Sullivan, head coach at Villanova, who qualified a men’s and women’s team for the NCAAs on Monday. Or Dubliner Mick Byrne, who now coaches at Wisconsin, the men’s top-ranked college – because they too have called on Brother Dooley countless times over the years.

Or just ask the likes of McCarthy and Quinn and O’Neill, who once again fly the Irish flag at the NCAA Cross Country, which since 1938 has been the biggest and best test of collegiate distance runners in America. I know who I’ll be ringing on Monday evening for news of how they got on.