For Keelan Sexton, sport is everything, he lives and breathes for it.
He’s a key player for the Clare senior footballers but he’s excelled on a much broader scale.
He’s no stranger to hurling, and played underage for the county. He also flirted with soccer and at one stage was headed towards a career in the League of Ireland after Bohemians showed interest.
But it was boxing where Sexton really shone.
"My grandfather, Martin Burke, boxed in London for a couple of years in the 60s and 70s," Sexton told RTÉ Sport.
"He fought in district championships. He was a big influence on me, he encouraged me to get into it and I picked it up from there."
Sexton was talented and it didn’t take him long to make his mark at national level.
He won three national titles while fighting out of West Clare boxing club and two more when he joined Ennis.
From there, the budding young star started to make national teams and compete in international tournaments.
He moved right up through the weights to 81kg before settling at 75kg.
"I went to Europe and represented Ireland in the Schoolboy Championships and got a bronze medal there and I went to the North European Championships with a team of six or seven from all over Ireland and I got a gold medal there at senior level," he said.
"I was in the elite set-up at youth level; I’ve beaten a lot of the lads who are there today. I’ve beaten Sean Conroy from the Ballyhaunis club who got to a world final and has a silver medal from it.
"He got beaten in the Irish final this year; I’m not saying I would have been Irish champion.
"In my mind I would definitely be competing with the likes of him and even if I was in Joe Ward's weight, I would be competing with him. I might not beat him but I’d definitely compete with him."
Although Sexton was on an upwards curve in the boxing world he couldn’t shake his love for Gaelic football and give boxing the focus it required.
The now 20-year-old grew up in West Clare, his club is Kilmurry-Ibrickane one of the strongest in the county.
The club and football are part of his identity, for him it’s more than just a game. As well as loving the competition element of football the sharp shooting forward is also drawn to the team aspect.
"It happened that I became more interested in football and I like being on a team, boxing is a lonely sport," said Sexton.
"There are days when you are on your own and you are thinking what the hell am I doing here.
"In football you can go and have an off day and one of your team-mates will have your back.
"It’s a team game and you are not under a microscope as much. Not that I’m scared of being under the microscope it’s more comfortable in football."
Sexton is refreshingly confident and possesses the winning mentality that is associated with the top players in the game.
It helps of course that the University of Limerick student is part of a Clare team who have made massive strides under manager Colm Collins and that the days of moral victories are long behind the Banner County.
"It’s different for the younger lads who are on the panel, we always had that mentality at underage level," he said.
"We were always competing with teams and even when we were going off to play challenge games we were beating teams that were big like Down and Mayo.
"That is now in the senior set-up and you have players like Gary Brennan driving it too."
Clare showed impressive form in the Allianz League, they finished third in Division 2, just three points behind the promoted teams, Roscommon and Cavan. Collins' side won three of their seven games, lost two and drew two.
He said: "People say we had a good League but to be honest we are very disappointed, we had two draws and if we had them, we would be in Division 1.
"We are upset we are not playing Division 1 football next year. You can’t help but think if you had done one more thing, if you had made a block or put the ball over the bar then you are in up in the top division and we think we should be there.
"It’s disappointing not to be there but we took a step back and set our goals for the Limerick game and the Kerry game."
Clare disposed of Limerick in their Munster championship opener to set up a clash with Kerry. Their last win over Kerry in the championship was in the 1992 Munster final but they will be confident that they can pull of a shock.
"I’m really looking forward to it," he said, "it’s nice to go down to Killarney not a whole lot of pressure on us, they are expected to get a job done, we are looking forward to going down there and causing them some problems.
"Hopefully we can cause an upset."
Last weekend Carlow made history when they beat Kildare in Leinster for the first time since 1953. Longford also registered a famous win over Meath, their first championship win over the Royals in 35 years.
"These games used to be a foregone conclusion," he said.
"It is great people are taking notice of the smaller team and they know they can compete if they put a system in place that plays to their strengths," explained Sexton.
"Everybody who plays inter-county football is going to be training four or five times a week, the differences are the big teams do the small things really really well consistently.
"They don’t drop balls short and they execute well. The really impressive thing about Carlow last week was their scoring efficiency.
"If you can do the simple things right you will compete with whoever you playing."
Sexton will have a big role to play with the Clare footballers both tomorrow in Killarney and in the future. It will be a journey worth following.
