DISABILITY football coach Kevin McVeagh has urged the Stormont Executive to provide a date for the return of outdoor sports after expressing concerns for the physical and mental well-being of his players.
McVeagh is one of a number of coaches dedicated to developing the players at west Belfast team Cumann Spóirt an Phobail (CSP) Football for all Disability.
Like all other outdoor sports, CPS have been banned from playing since mid-December.
Just recently, the club received £2,000 from cross-border body Co-operation Ireland to buy iPads for the players to keep them connected through keep fit classes and other remote social activities.
While welcoming the equipment, McVeagh says zoom calls don’t come close to matching the team’s training sessions and playing together every Wednesday night for one hour out of the Corpus Christi Youth Centre on the Ballymurphy Road.
McVeagh, who’s coached the same group of players for three years, said: “All you hear is mental health, mental health, mental health.
“It’s affecting people with disabilities as well, more so I think. The government should give us a date, something to aim for, tell us when we’re going to get out in the open. We’re not talking about indoors - we’re talking about out in the open.
“The guys are probably sitting indoors all day playing computer games, putting weight on. The iPads are good but there’s nothing like face-to-face for them, with a football and kicking it into a net.”
The age profile of the team ranges between 14 and 51 and have players with autism, learning difficulties, depression among other conditions.
During the first lockdown last March, the CPS coaches were genuinely concerned for the mental wellbeing of some of their players – and McVeagh sees similar issues re-emerging.
“In our group chat you have to leave voicemails because some or our lads can’t read,” McVeagh explained.
“Sometimes we’d call to the door of the players to see how they’re doing but you can sort of tell from the group chat that people are really going down. They ask you: ‘When is training starting?’ ‘Why is not happening?’
“It’s hard to explain to them that we don’t know when they’ll be back. We would do socially distant walks so you can talk to them. Out in the open, face-to-face is far better than sending a text message.”
In England, disability sports continue to run while they’ve ground to a halt here.
“We received £2,000 for iPads from Co-operation Ireland,” McVeagh added. “It means a coach can deliver a keep fit zoom and we can do different things with the iPads because some of the players wouldn’t have phones. We’ll have a time-table and we’ll let their parents know when we’re running the classes and get the parents involved and keep them active as well.”
On a feature of the club, carried in The Irish News last September, coach Joanne McCausland articulated just how important sport was to the 30-strong group.
“One of our players Mick Reid was 14 when he started. He didn’t know anything about football whatsoever.
“He was afraid on the pitch. But, week by week, I’ve just seen him progress so much. He’s coming out of his shell now, he’s more talkative.
“His social skills have improved, whereas he was normally on his own. It’s a very inclusive group. If there’s a new player that turns up they would make them feel as welcome, like they’ve been a part of the team for as long as they’ve been part of the team. For some of them it’s the only social outlet they have in the week.”
