Varsity men’s soccer captain Darragh McGee has much more on his plate than just the pitch. In the two years that he has called Canada home, the charismatic Irishman has found success in places he never anticipated to since making the big jump over the Atlantic; one of those successes was being part of last year’s OUA championship team.
“I was 17 when I was offered my first semi-pro contract, and at that point, I’d been playing at county-level, which is slightly smaller than regional here,” McGee recalls. “I was captain of my county at the time at the under-18 level.
The prospect of a successful career in soccer soon became reality when the Donegal, Ireland native was called up to play for the Republic’s national squad at the age of 19.
“That was an incredibly proud moment for me and my family. I knew it was a great achievement, I was delighted, but I saw it very much as a stepping stone”
After completing his undergraduate degree in Sport Excersise and Leisure, McGee decided that a more intense relationship with academia would be his next step — but not without a little footy on the side.
“I had the chance to train on an everyday basis, and more or less on a professional basis, while pursuing my Masters which was something that I thought would be perfect for me, and it turned out to be ideal.”
Fresh from his Masters Degree in the Sociology of Sport in 2009 at the University of Loughborough, a school known for its excellence in the fields of sports and sports science, McGee was extended an unexpected offer he could not refuse.
“I met a professor called Michael Atkinson who, following a year of doing my Masters, was offered a job at the University of Toronto, and over dinner one evening, he put the idea to me, and before I knew it, I was on a plane here.
“I literally finished my masters in late August, moved home for 12 days, and jumped on a flight [to Toronto], having never been [to Canada]. I didn’t know anyone here and had no support system here whatsoever. I was 22 years of age and it just felt right.”
Ironically, the midfielder destined to win the 2010 Canadian All-Star Defender of the Year Award had no intention of playing soccer at the Varsity level before coming to Toronto to start his doctorate.
“I must admit that this move was the point at which I [thought I] was leaving soccer behind, which is kind of ironic given what was happened since I’ve come here,” McGee explains. “This was me moving [on] from my soccer career, and it was going to take a backseat to academics.”
Before leaving Ireland, McGee contacted Varsity men’s head coach Anthony Capotosto to express an interest in getting some practice time with the Blues.
“I didn’t mention even the possibility of playing,” he recalls. “I was at that point where I didn’t want the team’s structure, I didn’t want the on-field stuff — I was just interested in potentially training. And the coach, in his stubborn manner, said ‘yeah, yeah, sure, we have an open tryout on the 3rd of September, come along and I’ll see if you’re fit.’
“Within three days, I got another email back saying ‘We’d be delighted to have you. Is there any chance we could bring you over earlier? When is your expected arrival date? Can we help you in any way? Can we look after anything for you?’ Turns out, I think he’d learned a little more about me online. So when I arrived, he was pretty good to get me out here.”
McGee’s move to Canada meant starting from scratch, leaving an incredibly supportive and tightly knit family in Ireland. Disillusioned a first, he quickly grew accustomed to the North American style of the game and brought his vocal Irish spirit to the pitch, showcasing his potential and natural leadership skills — but not without first overcoming a few barriers with the help of his new support-group.
“The team carried me, and maybe I’ve had to carry the team at other times, but my first year, I was not the player I am today. There were times on the field where I clearly was not at the races. I was not happy with myself. I was injured all the time, so my first year here, the guys carried me not only on the field but also off the field.”
Only six weeks into the season, #4 McGee wore the captain’s armband for the first time, proving that he was regaining his love for the game and had something special to offer to the Varsity team. Things only got better from there, as the OUA accolades prove.
“Coming back into my second season here, I was determined to give something back, because I felt I had owed something at that point. More importantly, I felt like I had shown 30 per cent of what I could do, so part of me said, ‘Okay, Canada, I think we need to have a talk about what I can really do in your game here.’
“When I came back, I was really determined to have a season where I’d prove to people that the player they thought they had, they didn’t, and that I was a much better player than they thought. That’s where I possibly had a role to play and this season, at this point, it’s been going incredibly well.”
Despite the OUA Championship-winning goal last year, Darragh regards wearing the big C as his proudest achievement as a Blue. “It symbolizes for me much more than soccer,” he explains. “It symbolizes me coming here and being able to establish myself. It’s capped off the process of [going from] someone who hated the game to someone who can lead the guys again.”
Soccer is, in many ways, a consuming passion for the 25-year-old midfielder on and off the field. McGee is currently in his third year as a doctoral candidate studying for his PhD at the Faculty of Physical Education and Health at the University of Toronto.
The research for his doctoral thesis explores the inner workings of exploitation in soccer, specifically susceptible adolescent males in West Africa who are brought to Europe with the false promise of a professional soccer contract.
McGee is set to depart for Africa this coming January for nine months to learn more about his area of study by working with a charity whose mandate is to provide education for youth and ultimately help them make a career in professional soccer. McGee will be teaching, coaching, and interacting with the children, helping him to further understand the way they live. The trip will also give him a chance to recover from the knee injury he sustained in a recent match against Ryerson.
“My research seeks to understand [their vulnerability] from a perspective where I immerse myself in that life I become part of the culture, and I try to understand what it is about their everyday lives rather than me sitting at the university in Canada and saying, ‘well, we know that the poverty rate is this, we know that the unemployment rate is this.’ But to really understand it, you need to be there and see how their lives are, and you have to hear their experiences.”
McGee’s devotion to his work both athletically and academically speaks volumes about the importance participation holds in his personal progress. “Our … coach always says, ‘The journey is much, much better than the inn,’ and in this program a lot of guys, only when they’re done, realize what they’ve been through and what they’ve done and what [that] meant to them.”
“He has become the face of Varsity Blues men’s soccer,, as he personifies everything that our program represents,” says Blues head coach Anthony Capotosto.
“The leadership, maturity, and professionalism that Darragh brought to our program over the years has been nothing short of outstanding, and to be perfectly honest, has helped me immensely to grow as a coach.”
