History

There has been a Soccer Club in Corofin since 1967, making it one of the longest established clubs outside of Ennis.  It was originally known as Newtown United and later as Corofin Albion.  In recent years it is simply known as Corofin FC.  Promoting soccer in Corofin has always been an uphill struggle as it is one of the few dual Gaelic parishes in the county having both senior hurling and senior football teams.

The club has always made an effort to promote underage activity and prior to the establishment of the Clare Schoolboys Soccer League, Corofin entered a Youths team in the Clare & District Soccer League as often as resources permitted.  It was considered important to do this in order to provide players likely to make their place on future junior sides.  Fielding a Youths team in recent years is proving almost impossible.  The best players available are already committed to county hurling and football teams and most young people of this age now seem to have weekend jobs and are not available to play.

On the establishment of the Clare Schoolboys Soccer League, Corofin entered a team at u-16 level.  Although not achieving any significant success Corofin did contest three consecutive U-16 Cup Finals in the early 1990's.  Many of these players are now prominent members of the junior side.

One of the most significant achievements at schoolboy level by the club occurred in 1995 when the opportunity presented itself to send a team to an u-12 Soccer Tournament in Boston USA.  A major fundraising drive was underway for almost a year to pay for this trip.  Sixteen players travelled under the management of Dave McCarthy & Jimmy Lahiffe.  The nucleus of that team constitute this years U-16 side.  This team have graduated through the ranks of U-13, u-14 & U-15.  Two years ago an U-12 team was introduced, with Gerry Halpin in charge, in addition to the then U-14 side, under Dave McCarthy.  Most of these players are now part of the present U-14 side having played at U-13 level last season.  Ideally the club would like to have entered an U-12 team this season, thus catering for a greater spread of age groups.  However there did not appear to be enough players to form a panel or the personnel available to take on the job of running another team.

The limited population of the Corofin area means that the club can only hope to enter schoolboy teams  at two year intervals i.e. U-14 & U-16, which puts them at a disadvantage to the teams from the urban areas who are usually all of the same age and physical strength.  The future of Schoolboys Soccer in Corofin will very much depend on a greater willingness by adults to become actively involved in the club and in team management.

2002 was a historic year for the club when an under 11 team was entered under the management of Val Egan & Chris Cherryman. This group more than held their own in this year's competitions winning the under 11 cup final against a much fancied Avenue United team and the first ever title at schoolboy level for Corofin Harps.