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Donal Óg Cusack (born 16 March 1977) is an Irish hurling coach, selector and former player. He has been coach and selector with the Clare senior team since 2015. Cusack is regarded as the greatest goalkeepers of his generation. Born in Cloyne, County Cork, Cusack was introduced to hurling by his father, a long-serving member of the local club team. He enjoyed Harty Cup success with Midleton CBS Secondary School while later enjoying championship successes with divisional side Imokilly and club side Cloyne. A championship medallist in the senior grade with Imokilly, Cusack also won a championship medal in the intermediate grade with Cloyne. Cusack first appeared on the inter-county scene at the age of seveneteen when he first linked up with the Cork minor team. An All-Ireland medallist in this grade, he later won two All-Ireland medals with the under-21 team and one All-Ireland medal in the intermediate grade. Cusack made his senior debut during the 1996 Oireachtas Cup. He went on to play a key role for Cork as goalkeeper during a successful era, and won three All-Ireland medals and five Munster medals. Cusack was an All-Ireland runner-up on two occasions. As a member of the Munster inter-provincial team, Cusack won one Railway Cup medal in 2005. Throughout his inter-county career he made 54 championship appearances, a record for a Cork goalkeeper. Cusack retired from inter-county hurling in March 2013 after effectively being dropped from the team. Cited by many as one of the most influential inter-county players of his generation, through his championing of the cause of player welfare with Cork, as chairman of the Gaelic Players Association and his innovation as a goalkeeper, Cusack became the first openly gay elite Irish sportsman in 2009.〔 After being involved in team management and coaching in all grades at club level with Cloyne, Cusack has been frequently linked to various inter-county managerial positions as well as working as a hurling analyst with ''The Sunday Game''. He was appointed coach and selector to the Clare senior team on 26 October 2015. ==Biography== Cusack was born in Cloyne, County Cork in 1977. He was born into a family that had a strong link to Cork's hurling glories of the past. One of his close relations was Christy Ring, regarded by many as the greatest hurler of all time, and holder of a record eight All-Ireland medals with Cork. Cusack was educated at the local national school in Cloyne village and later attended nearby Midleton CBS. It was here that his hurling talents first came to the fore. Cusack quickly became a key fixture on the school's senior hurling team and in 1994 his team lost the Dr. Harty Cup (Munster Senior Colleges' Hurling Championship) final. The next year he repeated his Leaving Certificate and it paid off as he landed a Dr. Harty Cup title, making up for the previous year's loss. Following his secondary schooling Cusack began a career as an electrician. On 18 October 2009, ahead of the release of his autobiography, ''Come What May'', Cusack disclosed to the ''Irish Mail on Sunday'' that he is gay. In ''Come What May'' he writes: The following was serialised in the ''Mail on Sunday'': According to Cusack, discussing his sexual orientation strengthened his bond with his fellow players. He went for a walk with then captain Seán Óg Ó hAilpín, whom Cusack had known since they were boys, and told him "the whole story, stuff that I thought he would have guessed", had "a deep and complex conversation from both sides and we came out of it like brothers." Since then Cusack has been noted as one of the few "openly gay sporting heroes" both at home and abroad. ''Come What May'' won the William Hill Irish Sports Book of the Year for 2009. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Donal Óg Cusack」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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