I was absolutely blessed to have been on the sideline as Melissa Patterson became one of the best footballers in Mayo, one of the best ever to wear the Red and Yellow of Castlebar Mitchels, the Green and White of Davitt College or the Maroon and White of St Angela’s NS. 

A decade of amazing memories were created on the football fields of Mayo and beyond as Melissa and her friends won, lost, laughed and cried with her club, her secondary school and initially her national school.

It was in the grounds of St Angela’s that Melissa first showed her style and attitude while still in fourth class as she and her buddies learned the skills and prepared for memorable Cuman na mBunscol campaigns.

She was part of the first St Angela’s team to win the Castlebar area mini-sevens on a memorable day in Ballintubber and the nerves, excitement and joy experienced on that wonderful day will never, ever be forgotten!

That was the start of it all. The St Angela’s girls became known far and wide for their style, skill and teamwork and they consistently won their area at both mini-sevens and Division 1 level from then on while Melissa, Belinda and their friends wore the Maroon and White.

At that time, Melissa was also learning her trade with Castlebar Mitchels. Training session took place every Saturday morning and each week Carmel would rock up with the twins, even though they hatred getting out of bed so early. However, as soon as they were on the pitch everything changed. They were transformed and raced across the ground as if they were born to play football with the Mitchels.

The U10 team became the most important team in the world when Melissa and Belinda were on it and they soon became known far and wide for their savage determination, their dynamic skill and tremendous attitude.

Soon, they graduated to the U12 side and winning became second nature. The team reached the county semi-final on a famous evening against Hollymount in our beloved home ground of Davitt College. The Mitchels were two points up in injury time. Melissa was fouled, the ref didn’t give a free. Hollymount went up the other end and got a goal. We were all absolutely devastated. We sat together on the pitch afterwards, with tears streaming freely and thought we’d never be happy again. We promised that evening that we’d never be in that situation again.

With St Angela’s, Melissa was excelling and on a magical day on the top pitch at the back of MacHale Park, the St Angela’s girls beat Westport by a single glorious point to win the county semi-final. The joy and excitement at the final whistle had to be seen to be believed.  Unfortunately, The Quay, Ballina were too good for St Angela’s in the final, but the Castlebar girls were determined to get better and better.

The following year with Mitchels, Melissa and her friends were determined to finally get their hands on silverware. They won game after game at U14 level and made it all the way to the county final. The game was scheduled for Islandeady on a sunny Saturday afternoon with Louisburgh as opposition. The nervous tension in the dressingroom before that game was almost overpowering but Melissa, Belinda and their cousin Eva made history that wonderful afternoon when the Mitchels danced in the sunshine after a famous victory. The celebrations were long and loud and the victory cavalcade in the road from Islandeady and around the town was something the girls had never experienced before. They would experience it many more times in the following years.

Soon, Melissa, Belinda and many of their football friends had left St Angela’s behind and walked through the doors of Davitt College. Immediately, they became an integral part of the football history of that famous school.

The school’s girls teams had been reinvigorated that year and the twins lined out with every team, from the first year blitz team to the senior team and they played vital roles on each and every squad.

The greatest day from that first season was when the Davitt girls went to the back pitch in MacHale Park and defeated their neighbours St Joseph’s by a point. That announced the Green and White as a serious outfit and the following year Melissa was front and centre as Davitt lost to St Joseph’s Foxford in the Connacht final.

There were great scenes of heartbreak that day, but the crew gathered in the dressingroom in Parke after that defeat and swore to one another that silverware would be won.

Back on the Mitchels front, things were going from strength to strength. In 2012, the club won each and every game they played at U16 level and won the league and championship double defeating Swinford and Kilmoremoy in the respective finals. Melissa was a star in each and every game and her uncanny positional understanding with Belinda became legendary.

The summer of 2012 was also hugely memorable because of Team Castlebar’s ten-day trip to New York. Castlebar Mitchels and Castlebar Town made the trip together and played football and soccer there during a never-to-be-forgotten trip. Mitchels played two wonderful games against New York in Gaelic Park and Rockland and Melissa enjoyed every second as the Mitchels came from two points down to win the Gaelic Park game by a single point before winning handily in Rockland the following night when they famously scored nine goals and eleven points.

The following season, Melissa and her buddies were now in Transition Year at school and they played football with great joy and abandon. Every game was won at U16 and senior level and davit reached the Connacht finals of both competitions. The school was finally going to win a provincial crown – we thought. That’s not the way things worked out.

Carrick-on-Shannon were victorious in the U16 final in Ballinlough after a thrilling game and five days later Tuam won the senior final at the same venue. Devastation reigned supreme. We didn’t think we’d ever be happy again, but we promised each other that day, in the depths of our despair, that we’d come back and win.

The following year, Melissa was in Fifth year at school and we prepared like never before. We prepared mentally and physically and produced some wonderful football to make it back to the Connacht senior final once again. This was going to be our day, we thought! Foxford beat us. This time, the devastation was almost overpowering. We wondered if we’d ever be happy again, but once more we promised one another that we would come back and win it! Melissa and her friends were going into Leaving Cert – they had just one last chance to make their dream come true!

On the club front, Mitchels were flying. Melissa captained the minor team to the league title and herself and Melissa played minor for the county. They were an integral part of the senior team who established themselves as one of the best around with free-flowing, hard-running football.

Back at school, the Davitt project was reinvented once again. Each year, the team and management had worked hard to gain an edge and improve and the 2014/15 season was no different. Most of the team were studying hard because they were in Leaving Cert, so it was decided to train at 7am before school.

Once again, Carmel was pressed into action and she’d deliver the twins for training at 6.55am, when the rest of the world was still asleep.

The girls trained like never before. They worked extremely hard and afterwards had breakfast in the school. Those were very special mornings.

The campaign began well when the girls went to Westport and won a very close match. Melissa was an inspiration that day. She refused to be beaten. Amazingly, the wheels almost came off the wagon in the following match when Ballinamore beat us in Ballaghaderreen by three points. We were staring elimination in the face after that. It was a very quiet bus journey home from Ballagh’ that day.

We got together, changed many things about ourselves and once again reinvented the wheel. We won game after game and arrived at a play-off with Westport knowing that it was all or nothing.

On a sunny morning on our own beloved pitch we performed brilliantly and won a place in the semi-final. The dream was still alive.

The semi-final took us to Headford where the local girls were eventually overpowered. Melissa was taken off near the end to ‘mind her for the final’ but as always she didn’t want to come off in case the other team came back. They didn’t! We were back in another final.

Ballinamore would be our opposition and we knew how good they were after them beating us earlier in the competition.

Once again, we prepared well. We knew this was our last chance, we knew it was now or never and it had to be now. The nerves were terrible, but we had been around long enough to know that business had to be done.

The sideline in Bekan was packed with our supporters willing us to finally get over the line. We started well and Melissa was central to us taking a seven-point lead to the interval. We went back to the dressingroom, looked deep into one another’s eyes and promised that we’d do everything humanly possible to win the game.

Within a minute of the restart our lead had been chopped to just two points after Ballinamore scored a goal and two. We were rocking. We were going to lose again and this was our last chance. The hand of history was weighing heavily and then our goalkeeper Kirsten pulled off a brilliant save and the tide began to turn.

Melissa was needed in defence so she arrived back from her attacking department and that was the end of the Ballinamore stream of scores. Herself and Belinda worked brilliantly and as the game ticked into injury time we were well clear and the noise and excitement around the ground was something to behold. Then, the final whistle sounded and all hell broke loose. A dam of emotion finally broke and tears fell like rain. Davitt had finally won the provincial title and it was time to celebrate.

The All-Ireland semi-final took us to Carrick-on-Shannon to play Ulster champions Colaiste Oiriall from Monaghan and Melissa was once again a central figure as the girls in green won easily. The scenes in the dressingroom afterwards, the bus trip home and the celebrations that night will remain forever in the brain. We were on top of the world!

The next two weeks were full of hard work, preparation and planning. We took on Kilcullen from Kildare in the final in Longford and after a thriller were beaten by three points.

Melissa was heartbroken afterwards but as always put it behind her and looked towards the next adventure on the football field and there would be plenty, we thought, as Mitchels set about becoming the best that they could be. We were wrong!

Our amazing Melissa was taken from us, long before her time, long before she should have been. We will never be the same again. We will forever miss her. We will forever miss her style, her speed, her bravery, her determination, her pony-tail, her swerve, her temper and her lovely, lovely smile.

We were blessed to have had her with us. We were honoured to know her. We will never, ever, ever forget her.

I was the luckiest man in the world to have experienced all these and many other great, great days.

Michael Gallagher