Newell boys still training

The coaches of the community based sports club, who work out of Brooke Park Leisure Centre, recently decided to record training video sessions that are weekly sent to the parents’ WhatsApp groups.

As a result they constantly get feedback from parents who are helping the kids to put together their own wee sessions that the club then put up on our Facebook page.

One father Louis O’Callaghan, whose two sons Louis (Junior) and Sean-Paul both play for Newell, admits he is enjoying the sessions he is doing with his children.

“I like helping the club as much as I can when the season is on, but just the way things have been in terms of everything shutting down and the social distancing stuff, I wanted to keep Louis and Sean-Paul at it and thankfully the clubs were able to help me,” he stated.

“I contacted Paul (Roddy) and asked could I get some equipment, which he said was no bother, so then when I started doing some of the sessions, I started to video it and forwarded that onto Paul and he then started to use it on the club’s Facebook page and stuff like that, so other parents could do the same with their children.

“Also to be fair to Paul, who has been in regular contact via Whatsapp, he would go to the store and get other stuff so I could change the wee sessions up each week and I have just taken it from there.

“On a Sunday we would go to the big field at Ballyarnett and do the video. Because of the social distancing the boys can’t play with their friends, but they are playing together and enjoying it.”

Louis senior is also happy that his eldest son Sean-Paul is even taking over and doing the sessions with Louis junior.

“Sean-Paul is 15 now and he has really shown himself to be a fantastic coach,” admitted his father.

“When the boys get together he takes over after I do the first run through and as a father that’s lovely to see and that has been really great.

“Obviously a lot of the feed back from the parents has been great and it has encouraged other younger ones to get involved and get out doing stuff with their parents and their brothers and sisters, so my first few sessions with my boys has meant that it has kind of grown itself, which is great.

“From my point of view I enjoy doing it and the boys also enjoying it, in fact wee Louis loves it. Also from our point of view we know we are all doing it for the club and the programme that Newell have is fantastic.”

O’Callaghan also concedes that one thing COVID-19 seems to have done is that it has brought families closer together, which he believes can only be a good thing.

“Look this coronavirus has certainly been bad but the one thing I have noticed is that it has brought families closer together,” he added.

“I’m lucky that I’m able to take my boys out and play a bit of football but what I have also seen is that a lot of parents are doing the same, which is great to see and the more people continue to do that, the better we will start to feel.”

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