Max O'Connell

To the O'Connell Family,

My name is Ben Thompson and I knew Max from as far back as I can remember, playing football in Queens Park, seeing him often in the Irish. I live in New York now and only recently learned of his passing. I cannot begin to express how sorry I was to hear the news or how much Max will be missed. Sarah Villegas was kind enough to send me the link for Max's blog so I thought I would write a short passage below and attach a photo that was taken of Max and me in an Irish bar on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, we met up there in NY a few years back. It was the last time I saw Max.

I always felt clumsy and foolish playing football against Max in Queens Park. I guess that's what he always able to do to you. At first I would try to tackle him but he would effortless skip past me with some trick he had and then score. Man was that embarrassing, especially as I was a little older and well known as a pretty solid defender. So I tried standing off him, so he couldn't use his repertoire of feints and tricks but that would just cause him to shoot from further out, and he would still score, that's what I remember about Max. Everyone knew him, liked him and agreed on how gifted he was on that field. I wish I'd known Max a little better off it, I was fortunate enough to have a drink or more like a few with him in New York at some Irish bar. We chatted casually about life, what his plans were, he said he was going to Spain at some point, football, people we knew, New York and everything else. I didn't know it would be the last time I would see him. We had a great time though and that's what I'll remember most.

Ben