Success for boxers amidst Covid crisis

Success for boxers amidst Covid crisis

24 March 2021

“IN 2019 our club had three Irish champions. That is some achievement when you are outside of Belfast. And we have helped a lot of kids, especially those who have maybe struggled with other things in life.”

The words of East Down Amateur Boxing Club coach Sean Bell as he discusses with the Recorder, the impact on youth boxing and its fighters in the district of Covid-19.

Like all grassroots sport, boxing has been on hold due to the spread of the virus. Sean says it has been a huge change in life for everyone involved.

“We have 35 kids who use our club regularly. They would have trained on a Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. At the time when Covid hit, we had about 15 of those kids who were training at a really high standard. 

“Under the guidance of the Amateur Boxing Association, we had no other choice but to stop. Then they let us back in for a six-week period with 11 kids. We decided to bring those kids back to our club who had been previously showing a great deal of promise.”

Sean says now it seems like the road back to action for the club, which is based in Crossgar, will be a long one. “As things stand, we won’t be able to look at getting back up-and-running now until summer. The kids didn’t get any boxing at all during 2020. 

“In 2019, we were the only club outside of Belfast who had more than one champion. The club, and boxing itself, is an escape from other things, somewhere were the kids especially can channel things, where they can have a structure.

“Discipline and structure - they are the two key things that boxing teaches you. And these kids are now missing that — badly.”

Sean says that whilst things have been tough enough for the fighters and the coaches, the more the inertia goes on, the worse things will become in terms of the young stars developing their skills.

“There is no doubt the longer we, and other clubs are out of action, talent will fall by the wayside. We, as a club, are not driven by the need or desire to produce champions. 

“It is another purpose this club serves. It is, as I have said, about structure, it is about fitness, the discipline that boxing gives.”

Despite the frustrations that many within the sport will have been experiencing, Sean says that it is a testament to the focus of many in East Down that they are still sticking with their lifestyle of health and fitness.

“Some of the boxers have been doing well still, keeping fit and motivated. Some of them around the local roads, I have seen them out running,” he remarked.

“Boxing is a sport where the fighters are incredibly disciplined. At our club alone, many of them were training four days per week, watching what they eat, and that is a big thing which they have all lost now.”

The one bright spot in all of this for Sean, and everyone in the club, is the knowledge that one day things will return to normal. However the worry is, what will ‘normal’ be?

“It is really difficult to know what things will be like when we come back,” he admitted. “In many ways, because it will have been such a long time since we were last together, we don’t know who, or how many will come back. It could almost be like starting up a new club again.”

That is tough prospect to contemplate for those involved in running a club that has been a key part of the community in the Crossgar area for the last 12 years.

“We have built up a really good place here,” said Sean. “We have helped so many guys along the way. It is an important community role which we play in the area.”

What has the future in store for East Down Boxing Club? “It is still difficult to know. Boxing is, by its very nature, a close contact sport. Who knows when the action will be allowed to take place again at an amateur level? The guys can still do their fitness work like running, skipping, hitting the bags, but it is just not the same. In some ways, doing too much of the like of that, can actually feel like a waste of time.”

Sean says the sport in Northern Ireland is probably waiting to see what happens after taking its lead from those governing boxing in the Republic: “Well we are governed by the Irish Boxing Association. We won’t get the green light up here, until things do in the south. In that regard, it is really difficult to see how we’ll be back before the summer at some stage.”

The one thing that all sports have found out, is that whether they are out of action altogether, or playing to empty or sparsely-populated stadia, there are still bills to be paid. The lower down the ladder you go, the more those bills can sting.

“At the end of the day, we still have rent to pay on our premises at a time when there is no money coming into our club,” said Sean. “We get no help from other bodies, and in fact in our club, there are those who are putting their hands into their own pockets just to help cover costs at the moment.

“That is where we are. Certainly we would be at the stage now where we would gladly welcome donations from anyone who wants to continue to see, not just the club, but boxing in this area survive and again thrive.”

Sean has managed to diversify his sporting and coaching skills in a different way by taking advantage of the lockdown appetite for online fitness.

“I hold a Zoom fitness class for maybe eight or nine people. It’s something. it keeps the fitness levels up to an extent, but it is nowhere near the same for me as when the boxing is in full flow.

“It is just keeping things ticking over. But that is what we do — we keep people mentally and physically fit.”

Sean has also devoted some of his sports coaching career to Amateur League soccer. He has had spells with Drumaness Mills and Kilmore Rec. He says it is equally disheartening to see how soccer players have fared.

“It is disappointing that we haven’t managed to get the boys back at the level of Amateur League and Newcastle League soccer,” he said. 

“It is so easy for someone who had previously been involved in sport to be taken away from it. And in many ways, that danger has never been greater than it is now.”