Young Sports Stars of the Year Award winner No. 31: Mayo Under 12 Schoolboys

Last but by no means least in our list of the Young Sports Stars of the Year Award winners is the overall male team of the year, the Mayo Under 12 Schoolboys (born 2006).

This team enjoyed a 2018 that will live long in the memory. Well placed in their SFAI Subway Inter-League Championship group at the start of the year thanks to victory over Longford in late 2017, Mayo consolidated their position with wins over Roscommon (5-2) and Galway (1-0) before the final game against Athlone.

Knowing a draw would be sufficient to secure their place in the national semi-final, Mayo did what they had to do and the 2-2 result set up a last four encounter with Donegal.

In that game Mayo needed a late goal to equalise after Donegal had taken an early lead. They went ahead in extra-time but succumbed to a late leveller, forcing penalties. The shootout went Mayo's way, however, and that left them in the final against the superpower of Irish schoolboys football, Dublin & District Schoolboys League.

The final, played in Mullingar last May, seemed to be slipping away from them as they trailed one-nil with time running out but an equaliser five minutes before the end was quickly followed by a second goal for a lead that the boys would hold on to in the closing stages despite serious DDSL pressure.

Mayo also played in the prestigious Sligo Super Cup and Galway Cup tournaments last year, finishing fourth out of eight teams in the former and claiming the Galway Plate title in the latter.