Here we are year two of Covid-19 restrictions and lockdowns.
March 12th 2020, Then Taoiseach Leo Varadkar speech from Washington around 11am and then a rush of sports including the GAA suspending all club and county activity.
Two weeks later, Varadkar confirmed the full details of the lockdown, no football just exercise within 2km of your home
War had effectively been declared on Coronavirus, or it certainly seemed like that as we all took in the address, like something you would see on the big screen in a world ending movie.
School, work, sport, the normal way of living ground to a halt. Similar to today, travel was restricted there was nothing to go to or do.
Sport was the big hit! Everything stopped, considering that we have some limited access to sporting action at the moment, it is hard to believe that at one time in summer 2020 there was nothing, only reflection and nostalgia as past glories were played back and memories rekindled.
Mind you there is only so much looking back you can do! Planning the future, you need to see the present.
Professional - Elite sport returned, becoming the focus, indeed for the back end of 2020 the GAA allowed themselves to be bracketed as a professional outlet to obtain the elite status, ensuring the completion of the national leagues and the running of the championship.
At grass root level, clubs returned to the field with competitive football from u13 right up through the age groups.
Restrictions were implied and rightly so, with online questionnaires to be completed prior to any training session or game. Sanitizing entering the field of play or grounds were the norm, where possible social distancing was observed.
Everyone was happy to be back on the field, players that had spent the prior few months pounding the highways and byways within 5km of their homestead were keen to see if it would make any difference. The weight sessions out in the back shed could be tested.
Further down the player food chain, youngsters met up, social interaction returned, cheers, giggles, laughs and shouting could be heard around club grounds again. Points could be kicked over the “big goals” before the juvenile equivalents would be positioned on the 20 metre line.
Social distance groups and drills were run through. The basic skills of the games were practiced and honed. Numbers at these training sessions swelled as parents took an opportunity to remove their darlings from the games console in the corner, and the young people themselves just wanted to get out and meet their own.
For anyone who has coached, managed or guided a young sports person, the work is always on the training field and at home. Some can take to it easier than others, some have the interests, and others have to be cajoled. Everything starts with the basics, and is built up over time. Days, weeks, months, years, can see an incredible development in any player.
From the young person who was perhaps the shy one who standing away from the group on the first night, now leading a drill and giving guidance to others.
From the one who just could never get the hang of doing the solo run, to running the length of the field, alternating the skill between both feet.
From the one who never thought they would be good enough to be on a team, to becoming the one that is practically the first name on the team sheet.
This all happens in a cycle. You spot the potential, and guide it. Keeping a group like this together and interested is seeing the present to plan for the future.
In one foul swoop of a pandemic that is lost. The return of underage action in August2020, saw a return back to basics, re-introducing players to each other, honing the skills, enjoying the fact that we could get together.
Competitions were played, games were won and loss, there may have been some silverware gleamed and the future looked bright.
A good group to work with there
would have been a common line after a training session or game.
Roll on 2021, and the return of it all.
Not so.
More lockdowns, more restrictions, back to square one. No school, no physical education.
Associations and coaching groups have to be commended for their online presence and organising of coaching sessions, but it is not the same. Yes the time is clocked in, the ball is soloed or kicked, the hand pass is perfected against the gable wall, but it is not the same as been on the field, surrounded by your team’s mates, friends and fellow players. There is no coach to correct your mistake, applaud and encourage your skill, guide you to be better.
The online session ends, and more often than not it is back to the game console. A niggling parent or guardian may get them out to the garden or yard for a quick kick about but it is hard to be motivated when you know not when the next game will be or indeed when you will see a football field again.
As times goes on, interest can drift, the appeal of scoring the winning point or hitting the back of the net may not be as great. Young minds can easily be turned. Years of having honed the skills and moulding for the future, gone in a flash. It is a stark observation, but one that will no-doubt occur.
When the trip back to the field does happen, it will be back to square one. Simple physical fitness will be the start, then the skills, the working as a team again, the getting to know new team mates.
By its nature at underage football, there is constant movement between age groups, players that finished up at perhaps u13 level in 2020, they have yet to meet or share a ball with their U15 team mates.
That step up continues right to the minor grade and beyond. Minors ready to make the step to senior have now lost a year, maybe that time is perfect for them to develop further and not allow the step from one grade to the next seem so big, but maybe the step now will not be taken.
No one could for-see the effect Coronavirus was going to have on the world let alone at local level. In context thousands of lives have been lost and socially we may never be the same again. It is already easy to see that we are evolving to live with the restrictions and will continue to do so.
It just seems a pity that a generation maybe lost to our sporting fields and areans. It may not be noticeable right now or indeed in the next two or three years, but down the line, what we are seeing in the present will ensure we have to plan for a different future.
