MATTIAS Cogan knows exactly where his roing journey took off – the day Denise Walsh brought him into her training group.

The Schull teenager, who turned 18 in May, is developing into one of the country's top young rowers, but admits there was still something missing in his early days.

‘I didn't fully love it,’ he says.

That changed when former Irish rower Denise Walsh took him under her wing.

She is one of Skibbereen Rowing Club’s great success stories – a local girl who took on the best in the world and has since transitioned into a top-class coach, helping shape the next generation.

‘When Denise almost adopted me into the older age group, that's when I really started to enjoy it. I liked the way she pushed everyone on. Training was hard, it was very structured and I really enjoyed that set-up,’ Mattias says.

‘As soon as she brought me into her group, I got completely hooked. I could see myself improving on the rowing machine every week, dropping splits, getting faster all the time, and I suppose that almost becomes addictive. You just want to keep getting better.

‘Denise would always be there in the background saying, “You need to work on this, this and this.” They'd be your focus points for the next week. Then you'd do an erg test and be 10 seconds faster than you were two months before.

‘You get completely hooked on the obsession of trying to get faster every week and that's what I really enjoyed about the club.’

Walsh, now a high-performance coach with Rowing Ireland, learned from one of the best in the business, Dominic Casey. The calibre of coaches within Skibbereen Rowing Club has been the foundation for its rise to become Ireland’s most successful rowing club.

Skibbereen rower Mattias Cogan, from Schull, with his family.

‘She almost adopted Dominic's training programme and philosophy, but made a few tweaks of her own where she felt things could be better. Obviously it worked really well because she's produced so many fast athletes.

‘I definitely wouldn't be the athlete I am today without her. She's incredibly supportive, she always has something you can improve on and she's just a fantastic coach.’

Mattias has the Skibbereen rowing mindset, a toughness forged by thousands of hours spent on the River Ilen.

‘It's the best river in the world, I'd say.’

He has a point. The Ilen is the playground of Olympic and world champions, where they learned to row, race and eventually conquer the world.

The stories of Olympic heroes Gary and Paul O’Donovan, as junior rowers, chasing then Olympians Eugene and Richard Coakley and Timmy Harnedy on the Ilen are well told.

But the geography of the winding Ilen is also key to Skibb’s success.

‘I think one of the hidden advantages of Skibbereen is that the river has a flow,’ Mattias says.

‘When you're rowing with the flow, you need a very front-ended stroke. When you're rowing against it, you have to balance things out a bit more and become stronger through the back end of the stroke.

‘It teaches you different ways of rowing and different ways of handling conditions. Sometimes the wind and flow combine to make things choppy and difficult.

‘I think that's one of the best things about rowing in Skibbereen. It helps make you a complete rower who can handle all sorts of conditions.’

The Ilen and Skibbereen’s coaches have helped Mattias’s rise. Last year, at just 17, he competed in an Irish eight at the U23 European Rowing Championships. Already this year, the Schull teen finished sixth in the A final of the junior men’s pair, alongside Evan O’Byrne (St Michael’s Rowing Club) at the U19 Europeans. They will be in action again at the U19 Worlds in Bulgaria in August. Then it’s the European Rowing U23 Championships in September.

But before all that come the Irish Rowing Championships next month. For Skibbereen rowers, this is what really matters.

Mattias wants to win a national championship ‘pot’ and put his name on the roll of honour board that hangs in the hallway at the clubhouse.

‘It'd be class. All the legends are up there – Paul, Gary, Fintan, Shane, Mark, Denise and all of them. They're all up on the board, so it'd be nice to join them,’ he says.

In his last year as a junior 18, he wants to go out in style.

‘I'd be hoping to stick to the sculling events – maybe the single, double and quad. This is my last year as a junior 18 as well, so it'd be nice to try and get my first pot as a junior,’ he explains.

‘That's probably one of my biggest goals this season. Going to international events is cool and all that, but if you don't get a pot, it'll always be lurking in your mind.

‘You want to win at home and you want to be the fastest at home. So the goal is definitely to get a pot.’

The Schull Community College student, who will begin his Leaving Cert year after the summer, enjoys the grind too. That’s important. There’s a beauty to the monotony, but also a drive needed to keep pushing.

Mattias thinks back to his first year or two when the thought of sitting on a rowing machine for 40 minutes wasn’t appealing. But Denise Walsh helped change all that.

‘I started looking online at times other guys my age were posting and thinking, 'I'm actually a good bit faster than a lot of these lads.’

He has set Irish indoor rowing records three years in a row, first at junior 16 and then twice at junior 18 level.

‘On the good days, when you're feeling really good, pushing yourself isn't even a question. It's the bad days that matter – when you're tired or unmotivated and you have to remind yourself why you're doing it,’ he says.

‘Whatever your goal is – making the Irish team, winning medals or proving to yourself how good you can be – that's what gets you through those days.

‘There is definitely an enjoyment in it. Sitting down on the rowing machine or heading out in the boat for 90 minutes gives you a chance to switch off from everything else. You're out there doing something most people aren't doing and that's what I really enjoy about it.’

His summer is shaped around rowing, regattas and training camps, but this is what he wants. There is a reason he was shortlisted for Rowing Ireland’s Young Male Rower of the Year award – he knows the rewards come from the effort he puts in.

‘It’s class, to be fair. You might miss a few nights out or hanging around with friends, but you can't beat rowing.

‘Training with the lads is great craic and I really enjoy it. I genuinely wouldn't change it for anything in the world.’

From working with coaches like Janet Murran, Bernadette Walsh, Sharon Murphy at Skibbereen, and then Denise Walsh, each has played a role in Mattias’s story that is still in its early chapters.

He’s just getting started.