It’s many a young boy or girl’s dream to make it to the top of their sport.

We regularly hear the response to the question: "What do you want to do when you leave school?" is to play for their favourite football or rugby or other sports team, or maybe to make it to the top at snooker, tennis, darts or other famous activities.

Some make it part of the way to significant positions, but few make it the full way to the top of their game.

Therefore, what a great achievement for Fermanagh man and Ipswich Town FC manager Kieran McKenna.

While Kieran has had an impressive time so far in his career within football, starting his youth playing at Enniskillen Town United, moving to Ballinamallard United before being spotted by a Tottenham Hotspur scout.

His playing career at Spurs was short-lived due to an injury that stopped him playing altogether, however, he moved into coaching and was soon the Spurs U18 team manager.

From the North London Club Kieran moved on to manage Manchester United U18s and then to take up a position as José Mourinho's assistant manager.

In December 2021, he was appointed as manager of League One side Ipswich Town.

McKenna's arrival produced an upturn in Ipswich's form, with the team's results and performances much improved. This has now resulted with back-to-back promotions for Kieran and Ipswich, and next season they will be competing in the top level of English football.

We just need to look at some of the sportspeople that have come from Fermanagh and made headlines in recent years. These include; swimmer Ellie McCartney; rowers Ross Corrigan and Nathan Timoney; Darts player Brendan Dolan; motorcycle racer Lee Johnston; rally drivers Alastair Fisher, Niall McShea, Garry Jennings; rugby player Robert Baloucoune; of course in football Roy Carroll, Andy Little, Kyle Lafferty and Casey Howe. This is just a snapshot of the talent that has come from our county in the recent past.

This past 10 days in football we had locals Micheal Glynn and Corey Smith win the Irish League Premiership with Larne, Chris Curran win the Irish Cup with Cliftonville and Kieran McKenna gain promotion with Ipswich to the English Premiership.

Whether at the highest level of sport as a professional or just playing as a pastime and activity it provides great opportunities and builds lasting memories for those who participate.

Sport is such a great means of bringing people together, forming new relationships, inspiring competitiveness, building team comradeship and instilling discipline within mainly the younger, but also advanced generations who compete in the many different sports available to them.

Just looking at the sports pages of this paper every week you realise the number of people participating in the various sports and activities within our county, most of these sports attract people from right across the community.

The opportunities that can be availed off within the sporting world are many and varied, some people partake in a number of different sports and activities, whereas others are more focused with maybe just one activity.

Whatever category you fall into it is important that you enjoy those pursuits and make the best of the prospects presented to you.

While many people get a very real pleasure from playing and participating in their beloved sport and activity, there are another group of people, without them many sports could just not continue – the volunteers that are around every organisation.

Many people give up a huge amount of their time to provide support and assistance for those who participate in their beloved sport. Hundreds of people locally give up thousands of hours annually as volunteers to help individuals and organisations be part of their sporting ambition.

The volunteers carry out many and varied roles, which include coaching, financial controlling, availing of sponsorship, general maintenance, administration, looking after kits and media management.

Much of this work goes unnoticed but is vital to the facilitation and progress of the sporting organisation or individual that reaps the personal rewards.

For local people to have the opportunity to compete at the Commonwealth Games, Olympic Games, European Championships, World Championships, playing for their national team and competing at the highest level of their preferred sport is a massive achievement and something that most will treasure for their life.

Many of us will only imagine what it is like to participate in your favourite sport in front of tens of thousands of spectators, or watched by millions on media channels. 

But for those who do get that experience, I’m sure it is a massive inspiring opportunity for them and their family.

For all those that are playing and participating in their favourite sport or pastime, whether as a professional or hobby please try to enjoy every minute of it, but also remember those volunteers in the background who are making it possible for you to be where you are and providing that opportunity for you.

While much is happening in local sport these days, this week must surely belong to Kieran McKenna and his massive achievement with Ipswich Town FC.

I’m sure when Kieran left Fermanagh, probably 20 plus years ago to sign for Tottenham Hotspur he had a vision of a long playing career with leading teams in the world of football.

However, a cruel injury changed all that, but not to be deterred he transferred his expertise to coaching and management and had to adapt to what life brought to him, which has now paid dividends for the Fermanagh man.

I enjoy watching the progress of local sporting talent and I’m certainly looking forward to following Kieran’s continuing development in football and maybe one day see him managing Spurs or indeed Northern Ireland.