BY BARRY O'DONNELL

A WHOLE litany of star-studded footballers have passed through the gates of Omagh CBS over the decades but none came close to matching the achievements of the current crop of players who secured the All-Ireland crown in glorious fashion last Sunday.

Among its impressive list of alumni is Tyrone hot-shot and 2005 Footballer of the Year Stephen O'Neill who was naturally pleased to se his old school finally reach the Promised Land at Croke Park at the weekend, with their nine point Hogan Cup triumph over Tralee CBS.

The Clann na Gael ace reached the semi-finals of the MacRory Cup with the Brothers in '98, and the quarter-finals the following season. His team-mates on those sides included future county colleagues Michael McGee, Ciaran Meenagh and Pascal McConnell, but like a long line of CBS teams stretching back through the years, their Ulster and All-Ireland aspirations were ultimately dashed.

Perennially tagged as underachievers, there has been a notable shift in terms of attitude and approach to football at the Kevlin Road school over the last ten years, and O'Neill was aware of the seeds being planted for future success during his own days there.

" My first contact there was Seamus Woods who was a football fanatic and obviously keen to see the sport develop at the school. He had a big influence on things and after that you had Noel Donnelly and Ciaran McBride coming into the school bringing their experience and other quality coaches like Kieran Donnelly, Paul Donnelly and Foncy McConnell. A lot of them played at the highest level and were obviously keen to take football at the CBS onto another level."

Stephen, who is currently battling to overcome a hamstring injury in time for Tyrone's Ulster Championship opener against Fermanagh on May 20th, didn't see the Brothers All-Ireland contest as his own club were also in action last Sunday afternoon, but he had caught sight of them earlier in the campaign and was impressed.

" I seen the MacRory Cup Final and they seemed to be a very good team with a lot of quality individual players. They gelled very well as a team and never at any stage gave up even though they were struggling at times. They managed to turn that match around and by all accounts have improved since going by what I heard about last Sunday's game.

" It's a big occasion for any player, no matter what their age to get playing at Croke Park, so obviously they weren't affected by nerves judging by the result and hopefully one or two of them will be back there regularly in the near future playing for Tyrone and winning other trophies."

And O'Neill was adamant that there should be no reason why the CBS shouldn't continue to churn out top quality footballers, like himself, capable of representing their county at the highest level.

" It's a great school with a huge catchment area and its great that they have finally broken their duck so to speak. As a school it has achieved in so many areas away from the football pitch, that there's no reason why it can't enjoy similar achievements on the field. The Brothers had quite a few fellas in the 2005 All-Ireland winning team and has always produced its fair share of quality footballers. The signs are promising with what they have done this week that this trend will continue.

" They seem to have good coaching structures in place, with the same managers taking the same teams through from first year which helps in terms of continuity. It gives the management time to devise a system and tactics that the players can become adjusted to and very familiar with."