THEY call him ‘24’.
Move 24! Don’t answer, just do it 24! Do you want to quit 24?
24 is Tommy Stevenson’s number on RTE2’s mind-boggling extreme ‘Special Force’s Ultimate Hell Week’. Two episodes into the show (Thursday nights at 9.30pm) and the former Antrim hurling coach, now manager of his native St Paul’s in Lurgan is revelling in conditions that would send most of us diving under our duvets, quivering in panic.
The second instalment of the series filmed during the winter high in the Wicklow Mountains went something like this:
A couple of hours sleep.
A foul-mouthed wake-up call from a ‘Full Metal Jacket’ style drill sergeant (DS) with a Dublin accent.
Then walk up a mountain.
With 47 kilos on your back.
In an hour and 45 minutes.
But that’s just the start.
Hike through the snow to a freezing lake.
Swim across it, one armed, pushing your pack.
Some competitors pull out with hypothermia.
“Do you want to quit?”
“Y-y-y-y-y-y-yes DS.”
And it’s not over yet.
Stand on the edge of a bridge.
High above a freezing river.
Look straight ahead and then step off.
Plunge into the icy water.
Drag yourself out soaked and shivering.
Then back to camp, sort out your gear.
Sleep comes quickly and ends quickly.
Do it all again (or worse) the following day…
‘Hell Week’ it is absolutely not for the faint-hearted but 600 hardy souls applied for the 24 places on the show.
Tommy made the cut and when the call came offering him a spot, the 47-year-old (the oldest contestant) didn’t hesitate for a single second.
“I had to drop everything and just go for it,” he says.
“It was the opportunity of a lifetime and it has been fantastic to be honest.
“I do mad races in England, tough guy races and iron man races… but you’d never get an opportunity to do special forces training. It’s been nothing short of barbaric, there’s no let-up at all from the DSs.”
Stevenson, manager of the gym at the Armagh City Hotel that includes Ireland Rugby skipper Rory Best among its members, wore the St Paul’s number five jersey for 20 years and retired when he was 40. In the past seven years he has been involved in coaching and management, always trying to get the best out of himself and the men and women around him.
“I do team-bonding days, I train teams and manage teams and in the gym I always like to push people to the limit and push myself out of my comfort zone,” he said.
“Going on the show was a combination of that and admiring what the special forces do.
“It was an opportunity to give it a lash, I’d always wanted to give it a go although I know it’s not for everybody – the type of language they use is to try to break you, but I love that type of thing.
“That’s what you sign up for and they are trying to use the language to intimidate you and make you feel threatened so you’ll walk out. The 24 contestants knew what they were signing up for and they are the toughest people I had ever met in my life as well.”
But being fit, all the contestants are fit and hewn out of marble, isn’t enough to get you through. You need a clear head and a sharp mind to deal with the conditions and the constant I-will-break-you chatter of the sergeants, all real life Army Ranger Wing veterans.
“The fittest man I had ever met in my life went out in the second week,” says Tommy.
“He got to level 61 in a yo-yo test and I’d never seen anybody get over 44. His whole demeanour and character and positive attitude within the camp was brilliant and then hypothermia got him (swimming across the lake).
“Everybody has a weakness and they try (the sergeants) and exploit it.
“But it’s great to be involved in something so extreme.
“It’s all hard but the sleep deprivation – sleeping one or two hours a night is really difficult along with the mental and physical stuff on top of it.
“And then I wouldn’t be good with claustrophobia but I overcame that. They get you to climb up a pipe and tie your feet so if you get stuck they can pull you back out.
“I wasn’t going to do it but they talked me into it and I completed it. Then there’s the cold and a lot of us weren’t too far away from hypothermia setting in, getting into our bones… It was tough. One of the guy’s was starting to shut down, his organs were starting to shut down and they got him out of it. It’s all extreme stuff.”
After two episodes, six people have had to pull out. Next week’s show includes a mountain top fight club segment in which the surviving Hell Weekers go at each other with bag mits so prepare for busted noses, bruises and blood. It’s tough going – and that’s for the viewers.
“It’s hard watching it for family members and kids,” says Tommy.
“I’m the oldest competitor there. I’m in decent shape, I’ve never drank or smoked and fitness has been my life. I’ve always played or trained.”
He played for Lurgan’s St Paul’s for two decades before he went into triathlons and he has graduated from there to half iron man, full iron man and now Hell Week.
“I keep telling the boys at the club that the number five jersey has never been filled from I retired,” he says with a laugh.
“But this year Ryan McCaughley has done very well there, his twin brother Rory is getting treatment for cancer and I made the two of them captains this year.
“We beat the Clann na Gael last week down in Davitt Park for the first time in years. We’re probably the fittest team in the league, tactically we are getting there and we could do really well in Armagh this year if the boys apply themselves.
“That’s what I want for them. I’d just love to see Ryan and Rory lifting the Armagh championship, it would be brilliant to see that young fella, who’s been fighting a brain tumour, to see the joy on his face when he lifts that cup.
“That would be my vision. I bring a positive attitude, we’d don’t do negativity at all and that’s why we have 35 at training every night.”
Stevenson was in the Antrim backroom team when the Glensmen won the Walsh Cup in 2008/09. He was involved again last season and this year before but he found he had too many irons in the fire and something had to give.
“Things got so busy with work and family and Hell Week,” he explains.
“It was just too much.
“I have two young girls who play football, my wife is a runner (she ran the London Marathon last weekend) so life is just mad. That’s the way I want it, it keeps everybody healthy.”
Keep ’er lit 24.
