Former All-Star and 2012 All-Ireland winner Mark McHugh joined Maurice McLaughlin's Fermanagh minor football backroom team in 2019 and has been involved with them for 16 months.
In that period, they have played just two games - a league match against Sligo and a famous Ulster championship win against a highly-fancied Down who had a high-powered backroom team consisting of James McCartan, Stevie Poacher and Mark Poland.
In those 16 months of mostly training, restrictions and lockdowns, McHugh and his fellow management members have done all they can to keep their young players engaged and connected.
"These kids need to meet their friends," McHugh says.
"At the start of the pandemic everyone was rightly worried about the elderly and that was the correct thing to do. While it has been exceptionally tough for the elderly who are cut off and anxious, they are still equipped with some life experience to try to deal with this.
"People my own age, 30, we've got life experience too. But these young people don't have that and I'm worried about them. I can see it myself that a few have gone into themselves or that they are struggling.
"Motivation is low. They're off school, they can't train with their pals, they can't meet their pals, I feel very sad for them.
"We meet on Zoom as much as we can so that’s something. Others can't even do that. Still, I can see a change in some of the lads and I would be worried."
Over the past few months McHugh has delved into his contacts book to bring guest speakers onto weekly zoom calls to chat to the Fermanagh lads.
These included Jim McGuinness, Michael Murphy, Tomás Ó Sé and three-time All-Ireland winner Ryan McMenamin. The most recent speaker was Jim Gavin (below).
"Where do you go after having Jim Gavin?" McHugh laughs.
"That's the top of the tree so we decided that for the next four or five weeks – and hopefully we will have some news of returning to train then – we can make a big push to keep the lads connected and motivated."
The panel decided to begin a month-long campaign to raise awareness and money for mental health charities, making a video talking about the issues. Helping others while also helping themselves.
The goal is to keep the young Fermanagh footballers active and connected through activity and conversation in order to help those who are struggling at the moment.
"We want to incorporate the number '5' in everything we do because research shows that one in five people suffer from mental health issues, " McHugh told RTE Sport.
"We started on 5 March and the campaign will run it until 5 April. It involves five marathons a week, 50 hours of mindfulness, 50 hours of yoga, 500 hours of walking, 500 hours of talking, 5,000 sit-ups, and 5,000 push-ups. We've already started into with a yoga class which the lads really enjoyed and we had a mindfulness class on Monday of this week too."
All proceeds will go to the Samaritans, a charity partner of the GAA, and Action Mental Health, a local charity in Fermanagh.
McHugh says the month will give some badly-needed assistance to those deserving causes but says it is also about much more than that.
"I can see lads on the team are just not themselves," he says.
"It would be similar all over the country, I would imagine. From that point of view the slogan that we came up with - 'It's not Minor. It matters.'
"I would love to see others county minor teams adapting that hashtag and driving it on with their own projects. Colm Bradley is with us on the backroom and his wife came up with the slogan. I am not a qualified counsellor or psychologist, but we know people who can help.
"Young boys can have a serious issue with talking about mental health to friends, family, teachers, so we are showing them that its okay to speak up."
When play eventually does resume, McHugh has a Donegal county final with Kilcar to contest while the Fermanagh minors have an Ulster semi-final date with Monaghan. McHugh is also involved with the Fermanagh under-20 squad. There is plenty to look forward to.
With cries for teams in the six counties to resume training – if allowed – earlier than southern teams, McHugh says it’s still all up in the air when a resumption of activity will be allowed.
"All I know is that having the lads back on a pitch together will give everyone a massive lift – even if only in groups of 15 and non-contact," he said.
"During this pandemic and the various lockdowns, the fun is gone out of Gaelic football because all you are doing is running and lifting weights. People are sick of running on their own, they are fed up. Whenever it happens, we are looking forward to just kicking a ball to a teammate and catching it again.
"Youngsters need that team environment – you don’t feel part of a team when you are on your own and it’s the same for everyone."
The Northern Ireland Executive is due to give an update on restriction levels next week while GAA is still awaiting clarification from the Government in the south on when a return to activity could be possible.
On that front it’s expected that no further detail will be available until the end of March.
