Derry City coach Mo Mahon uses Children’s Mental Health Week to outline some of the challenges during Covid-19 lockdown

The Candystripes’ academy sides haven’t trained or played any matches in close to a year now and Mahon predicts players of all ages at the club will be struggling both physically and mentally with the current situation. Indeed, the City coach revealed he had to talk to a player who was struggling with depression over the past 12 months, something the individual concerned was thankfully able to overcome and recover from.

Mahon was speaking during ‘Children’s Mental Health Week’ and he welcomed the news that the FAI, together with its Medical Director, Dr. Alan Byrne, a member of the Expert Medical Group, is working with affiliates on identifying key mental health areas that need to be addressed across the sport during this Level 5 lockdown.

“We recognise the physical, mental and societal issues that our wider communities are facing during this prolonged and enforced break from the game and these are firmly at the heart of our ongoing discussions with Government which are also reflecting the very real financial impact to grassroot clubs and Leagues and how we can address these moving forward as well as other key areas of the game,” explained FAI CEO Jonathan Hill.

Only last week Derry’s first team goalkeeper, Nathan Gartside, and former striker, Mikhail Kennedy, who was forced to retire from the game because of injury, held a Zoom meeting with academy players aimed at outlining the potential pitfalls of the professional game.

“It is concerning and just last week in one of our Zoom calls with the players, we had Nathan and Mikhail on to talk to the boys about their own careers and how to deal with any potential negative impacts, physically and mentally. Nathan, with his heart condition, and Mikhail with the injuries which led him to retire, have a wealth of knowledge and experience and it is good for the boys to hear that side of the game,” he stated.

“Nathan spoke about being out of the game for a year and obviously Mikhail explained about having to retire so while you hope these things never happen, there also has to be a focus on life and making sure they stay focused, not just on football, but on all aspects of life and stay positive.

“Most of our boys at the club are U13, U15 and U17s who are all still at school so we encourage them to put the same effort into their school work as they do their football and we meet them regularly through Zoom calls. All the academy coaches keep in regular contact with them. They all have their own work-outs and we encourage them to speak to us on a daily basis. We, as coaches, are never off the phone to them and we are fortunate at the academy in that myself, Donal O’Brien and Richie Stewart, our full-time jobs are working with young people outside of Derry City so there’s a wealth of experience to identify support and help these young people.

“We are lucky that we can spot things like that. Everyone in the academy are really clued in and placed a big emphasis on mental health.

“While the guys are all doing their strength and conditioning work, they aren’t getting that contact time with other individuals or working with coaches face-to-face, so it’s important then that our personalities have come through to these boys. Around the last lockdown last year, we had a player who was seriously, seriously depressed and thankfully he contacted us to talk about it. Now his parents and ourselves are aware of the situation and he’s now absolutely flying.

“So, yes, I’m concerned for all the boys because all these guys know is football and their school work. Both of those things have been taken away from them to a degree.”

The ex-Foyle Harps youth team coach worries that comradeship and team spirit generally amongst the squad has also been badly hit by the Covid-19 pandemic which compounds the problem.

“Covid-19 has had an impact on young players, both physically and mentally,” insisted Mahon. “Not playing or training affects their physical health, especially at a time when maintaining your physical health is vital, while social interactions are key to everyone’s happiness and sense of belonging. A positive mental health routine isn’t easy during this pandemic.

“For some of these boys, the training and camaraderie of being part of the club is a big thing for them. For some, it keeps them away from negative influences in the community because playing for Derry City, or indeed any club, helps them have that sense of belonging.

“Also at Derry, we have a strict code of conduct for players in terms of school and leading a good life outside of football. When they are in with us we can implement that positive influence but without that structure of playing and training, players could be vulnerable to more negative influences. We make sure all the academy members have a programme from Kevin McCreadie, who is the club’s strength and condition coach, and we hold regular Zoom calls but as long as the restrictions mean we can’t meet up, there will also be a worry.

“Football is massive and sport in general is massive. If you look locally, we have already seen the demise of football at an adult level with leagues struggling due to poor numbers, less uptake and less participation in adulthood.

“There’s more distractions than ever for young people, especially as they get older with social media and a modern football society where some players think that by 20 they had to have made it. If they haven’t then it’s seen as a failure. All clubs need to promote football as a lifelong involvement because it’s only a small percentage that make it a career.

“Our job is to develop young people through football and hopefully give them lifelong participation involvement in the game but we are also preparing them for life in general, education and future employment. If we can do that through football, so well and so good.

“We encourage all our boys to stay in football regardless of what level, playing football should be for the enjoyment of it.

“Obviously before Covid we also encouraged our boys who lived local to meet up. Years ago we would have gone out and played football by putting two jumpers down for posts and playing away for hours so we encourage our players to meet up and have a kick about together, a bit of street football and they had done that in the past before Covid. It was something they enjoyed.”

When asked if he was worried about the lasting problems Covid-19 is going to have on players, Mahon stated some may feel they’d missed their chance of playing senior football.

“Everyone is unsure of the long term effects, how it will have impacted the lives of those players who had it, but also for the players who have lost relatives to Covid-19. That adds to the level of the support they need,” he explained.

“Although physically there seems to be no long term impact on young people, some players may not develop the way they should because they aren’t getting that contact time at training and playing in games.

“Look, every one of our players have aspirations and dreams to play in Derry City’s first team and walk out at a packed Brandywell. They are all local, either from Derry or Donegal so of course not getting on the pitch and getting the coaching sessions will leave some feeling they are going to miss out on that dream of playing for Derry or going across the water. I am worried that way for the development of some players.”

Mahon also believes the Brandywell club from Chairman, Philip O’Doherty, right down to the underage coaches, are doing everything they can to help every player at the club because they are in constant dialogue to ensure everything is being done to help the players at this difficult time.

“Just last Saturday all the youth academy coaches had a meeting with Philip O’Doherty, Declan Devine and Paddy McCourt (Technical Director) and everyone is pulling in the same direction,” he explained. “All the coaches are all staying in touch and all keen to get things back on the road when it’s safe to do so.

“It’s massive that every single player at the club knows there is support there. That’s what we are making sure, so that no player falls out of love of the game.

“In saying all that, what we are doing is easy compared to what the health care and front line workers are facing. We are just keeping young people involved in the game, trying to make sure we have a positive impact on their life in the long term. Sport is a great way to providing young people with so many lasting benefits from health, to friendships and greater opportunities in life.

“So while I’m obviously worried that some players would fall out of love for the game, our job and aim is to try and keep them involved.”