‘It would definitely top the achievements because Eadestown is where I’ve grown up’ – Ruth Sargent hoping to lay down the law
Daire Walsh
When Eadestown’s Ruth Sargent made her Kildare senior debut in a Lidl NFL Division 3 game against Down at St Conleth’s Park, Newbridge last January, she became the latest member of her family to represent the Lilywhites in the adult ranks of inter-county football.
In addition to her father Seán lining out in goal for the county in the 1980s and the early part of the following decade, Ruth’s mother Barbara was the first captain of the Kildare ladies football team when they entered competitive action in 1993.
Twelve months before Ruth made a breakthrough, her brother Jack also made his competitive bow as a Kildare senior footballer in a league opener against Kerry in Newbridge. The latter might well be joined by another member of the Sargent clan in future years as younger sibling Daniel was player of the match when the Kildare U-16s captured the Gerry Reilly Cup earlier this year.
“My mum Barbara, she has actually been my coach since U-6s in the club and she’s part of our management with the Eadestown ladies as well. She has been my coach the whole way up, so I wouldn’t really know football without her. I can’t leave the house without getting advice off Mum and Dad, which is great because they’ve been through it,” acknowledged Sargent, whose sister Emma has also donned the Kildare jersey in the past.
“It runs in the family, which is nice. We have a competitive environment, but I like that. Jack would have joined Kildare and in his first year probably wouldn’t have been starting. He was coming on, but it was great to see over the years how he is very committed to it. Then getting his starting position in last year and having a great year playing with Kildare.”
While Gaelic football is very much in their blood, Ruth and Jack both took an active part in a multi-discipline sport during their formative years as teenagers in Eadestown.
Comprising running, swimming, horse riding and shooting, tetrathlon is a team competition that is primarily organised by pony clubs for its members.
It is through the Kildare Hunt Pony Club that Sargent was introduced to that and having previously competed in national showjumping events, she took to this new sporting pursuit with considerable aplomb.
“Jack would have done it before me and I joined when I would have been in primary school at the age of 11 or 12. Then I would have competed with that both in Ireland and in England as well. We would have had a trip over to England every June bank holiday in the summer to compete against the teams in England, Wales, Scotland.
“I would have been big into the tetrathlon and then I think I stopped tetrathlon at 17 or 18. Then I just decided to focus on football. I thought it was the sport for me and I probably didn’t really have enough time to carry on doing them all. I picked football and stuck with that.”
Electing to focus solely on Gaelic football has certainly paid dividends for Sargent, given the level of success she has enjoyed with her club, county and college teams in the past few years. Since breaking onto the Kildare panel at the beginning of 2023, she has garnered Division 2 and Division 3 titles in the Lidl National Football League, a TG4 Leinster Intermediate Football Championship and – most crucially of all – a TG4 All-Ireland Intermediate Football Championship.