We're back! Throw open the gates and let the kids loose on the pitches again!

The WhatsApp groups have burst back into life. The phones ping with activity, return to play forms and protocols and times for training have been sent. It's happening. This is not a drill, folks. We're back!

The thumbs-up emojis quickly follow along with messages of 'Can't wait' and 'Won't it be great to see them back!'

And it will.

For over six months thousands of our kids have been left without the outlet of sport and those precious developmental ingredients of belonging, connection, good health and discipline. Six months since our pitches last heard the sound of ball off boot, sliothar off ash and the echo of youthful energy. This absence has been one of the most heartbreaking chapters of lockdown.

So, tomorrow they return, 26th April, the day Government has deigned it's safe for outdoor collective sport and training to restart. The tea-time car runs will resume but not before a scramble under beds in search of hurls and gloves and boots, where are the boots? Cries of 'Mam, these shorts are too tight!' and 'Has anyone seen my gumshield? Bring it on.

The chains will come off the gates, water bottles will be filled, the boots will crunch on the gravel, swish on grass and hopefully the smiles will spread across a sea of young faces. It's been too long.

As parents we're aching for our children to pick up the pieces they lost in the Covid fire, sports and recreational activities were among the first things to perish.

When over 200,000 students returned to school on 12th April, many would have done so with trepidation and anxiety. With so many accounts of loneliness and loss it's little wonder a significant number of our young students have struggled to re-engage with school life after months plugged into Teams and Zoom all the while suffering real world disconnect.

We'd be naive to believe the return to sport will be any different for them. Our kids will be looking to pick up the threads of friendships left dormant for the last six months while trying to re-establish their social skills as much as the sporting skills that have faded along with their fitness.

Not all our kids will go back to their clubs and teams with the same feelings they had before they abruptly left. Too much has happened for it to be that easy.

It's well documented how difficult it can be to keep teens playing sport, particularly teenage girls and for some this enforced hiatus may mean that football, camogie, soccer or athletics no longer holds their heart.

The full impact of these lost months and lost confidence will only be known in the weeks and months to come.

For now let's embrace tomorrow, throw open the gates and let the kids loose on the pitches again. To all the wonderful mentors and coaches out there who have been the unsung heroes of lockdown keeping spirits raised with online quizzes, challenges and check-ins, you've got this!

You know the laps can wait, the drills can be delayed, the sprints can start another night. Tomorrow and this week should be about reconnecting, reunion, laughter, picking up the threads again, rebuilding after the fire. It should be a celebration of why we do it all in the first place.

Good luck all...now, where are those boots?