HE may not have had the opportunity to sharpen his skills in the ring, but the last six months have proved beyond any doubt that Jon McConnell has the mental toughness to go far in the fight game.
When the country was plunged into lockdown last March, the Holy Trinity prospect was on a high. In January he had come through five hard fights in the toughest weight category at the national U18s, rising to the challenge week on week to land the 60kg crown.
That secured his spot on the Irish team heading out to the European Youth Championships in Montenegro in April. McConnell was buzzing and, having landed bronze at the European Juniors two years previous, was confident of going even further this time around.
It is now October and he is still waiting for those championships to take place, as he bids to get back to winning ways after suffering a narrow defeat to Welsh champion Scott Evans in Cardiff at the start of March.
Yet while the long lay-off has been a huge challenge for young people everywhere, McConnell has managed to maintain his focus in the most trying of times.
“I was very disappointed because I had a good tournament in January, I was really happy how it had gone,” he said.
“That European juniors in 2018 really kick-started me believing in myself more. Before that I’d won the cadets but I hadn’t fought for Ireland, I hadn’t fought internationally, it was only my first full year in Holy Trinity.
“Nobody really knew a lot about me then, and when I went out there I was only focusing on winning, even though I was against all the top countries. I wasn’t thinking for one second I wasn’t going to win, so when I drew the Russian or whoever, it didn’t faze me.
“That mentality was down to Mickey [Hawkins] as well - don’t be listening to anybody talking about the draw, just believe in yourself, go in and do what you’ve done before.
“This time around, I was going into the European Youths feeling very confident so when the pandemic struck, I didn’t really want to believe it too much. I just kept ticking over until we got word they were off.
“But you just had to try and stay positive at times like this. The coaches at the club are class, they would always be in contact, sending texts to see how you were doing and what you were up to.
“The IABA [Irish Athletic Boxing Association] were sending the youth team wee training sessions to work on as well, those things kept you going. You were looking forward to them.
“The boxers in the club and even in the youth team have WhatsApp groups so you were just keeping in touch, hoping we would get word on something.”
In the meantime, McConnell – who is in his final year at St Mary’s CBS - worked away at a makeshift gym at his Glenavy home, and took the opportunity to try and learn from the best the amateur game has to offer.
“I was watching a lot of the top Cubans, seeing how they have mastered boxing over three three minute rounds – picking up points every half a minute, looking at what they do and their style.
“You have to try and make the best of the situation you’re in. We set up a bit of a gym at the house, got a big tyre, a sledgehammer, a few weights, medicine ball and did different circuits out the back to mix things up a bit.
“Through lockdown I just tried to stick to a routine every day, and I used that time to work on stuff that I wouldn’t really have paid a lot of attention to before. I was looking back at my fights from January and, while my performances were good, there were a lot of things to improve on moving forward.”
Whether he gets to showcase those improvements at the European Youths remains to be seen.
With other nations across the continent back in competition, they have been pencilled in for November 11-23. The IABA had scheduled a youth competition for this week after releasing a provisional calendar of activity for the remainder of 2020.
However, just as all juvenile competitions have since been cancelled, that U18 competition was soon shelved when Dublin was placed into a localised lockdown. And with those Europeans getting under way in just over a month, it is unclear whether Ireland will be in a position to send a team at all.
“I’m still hopeful, but it’s out of everyone’s control. No-one can do anything about it but if we do get the green light, I’ll be ready,” added McConnell, who turned 18 last week and is looking forward to his first year as a senior boxer.
“If the Europeans were next weekend, I would be flying, definitely. I enjoy training, I enjoy eating healthy, I enjoy living the life. That’s just me.”
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McCLEAN DEPARTURE SPARKS REQUEST FOR MINISTER TO REVIEW IABA
A FORMAL request has been made for the Irish minister for sport to carry out a full governance review of the Irish Athletic Boxing Association (IABA), in the wake of the departure of respected youth coach Billy McClean.
A split has developed between the Association’s board of directors and central council, and minister Catherine Martin has been asked to intervene by Fine Gael minister of state Peter Burke.
It is understood that members of central council were unaware Belfast man McClean was no longer in the role.
The former Holy Trinity boxer was appointed national youth and junior coach in 2011 and, under him, Ireland won 10 World championship medals and 69 European championship medals, including 12 gold.
In August minister Martin was alerted to issues within IABA by Burke and, an a letter, he called for recent events to be addressed.
"Due to recent negative media coverage surrounding this controversy, the sport and its participants have been brought into disrepute. This will cause long-term reputational damage should action not be taken.
"As you will be aware, amateur boxing is extremely important to communities and plays a crucial role in the lives of many athletes, some of whom have otherwise been led down a different path in communities that often have a deficit in youth services and activities.
"These boxers need positive role models and the IABA leadership must be shown to follow all procedure and protocols to the letter of the law. We cannot expect high standards from our young athletes if leaders of the sport are not held to the same standard.
"If questions remain around governance, this may call into question funding and sponsorship which will lead to communities suffering. The knock-on effect must be avoided at all costs. I would request that you examine these recent issues and direct officials to conduct this review urgently."
