A Day in the Life: Lee Chin
June 20, 2013
Lee Chin ©INPHO/James Crombie
For the young 20 year old qualified barber, who is currently seeking work as a salesperson, it's second nature to play both sports, and he is a prime example that the dual player is not a dead animal, albeit an endangered species at present.
"They do say it is dying off with the way the game has gone, that it is so intense and stuff," he told hoganstand.com.
"There is so much professionalism gone into the game nowadays that it is very hard to do both. I do look at it and I want to be a dual player and I wasn't going to let anything like that stop me.
"It's basically maintaining what you are able to do is what I always say. It's not a case where you are out running five nights a week where everybody thinks that's what you are doing. If you just maintain your training and know that you are able to keep going and when you have to stop.
"It's about management, who luckily for me are very understanding and also if both of them are on the same level and they are agreeing to agree with you to let you do what you do.
"You get a lot of support from your family and friends and you take as much confidence as you can on board. When you can do that it is very helpful too."
Working out training between hurling and football can be tough, but when the footballers have a game at the weekend and vice versa with the hurlers, it's that particular code gains focus.
"That's the way it kind of worked in the league. One or two weekends there were both games on the same weekend or day, but the weekends it was just one I focussed on that particular code in the lead-up to it.
"This week is just hurling and I'll just train with the hurlers, but I will stay in contact with the football. I'll stay in contact with the football and give (manager) Aidan (O'Brien) a buzz and see what's happening. That's the way I work it."
Chin's hunger and effort and his equal love of both sports rang true when last February he made the mad dash from the Athletic Grounds in Armagh to Bellefield in Enniscorthy after the footballers Allianz League Division 2 tie was called off late due to weather.
A quick dash 165 miles down the M1 saw a Bord na Mona Walsh Cup final against Dublin waiting in the wings and Chin arriving during the opening half, but coming on at half-time in place of teenager Gary Moore, with Chin scoring two points from play.
However, Dublin claimed their second title in three years, following a 1-19 to 0-16 win with Paul Ryan scoring 12 points.
"It was obvious to me that once one game was called off I had to make it to the other one. It was a no-brainer for me. I just wouldn't have been able to sit on a bus from Armagh trotting down the road while our game was called off and another game was going on.
"I made it my business to get back. I was looking forward to getting back. I was looking forward to the league game against Armagh too, but unfortunately it was called off. It gave me a chance to play hurling."
Lee says decisions in placing one code ahead of the other are tough on days when both teams have games.
"It breaks my heart to leave one team for another team. It is hard because you are with a team so much and then when it comes to one day you have to let them down and say I can't play this day, there is another game.
"The National league was more important that day than the Walsh Cup. It's hard when you are doing things like that. That is the most frustrating thing about this dual thing - when you are letting one team down after putting so much into training with them and stuff."
Burnout is a common phrase in the GAA lexicon, and Chin says he manages it with good cooperation from managers, when he needs to take an occasional day off to recharge the batteries.
"The rest that you need is crucial and it plays a big part and that's all to do with management," he said.
"They can recognise themselves when I need a break and that's all about management too. They can decide on it as well, they will ask me. Those few days of a break that you might need are crucial to your game.
"Then again you have to work hard after those days. You are basically with both teams 50 percent of the time. You are committed to both of them but you can't be fully committed, well I am fully committed but you are not with them every night as the others are, because one night it's hurling and the next it's football.
"In that regard it's hard, but it is also hard to ask for a few nights off when you have only been with them three nights that week and the rest of the lads have been there for four or five.
"At the end of the day you have to look after number one and that's yourself and the two managers have a great understanding with them that the two of them really understand each other and you are able to balance it out."
Codd's, Guiney's, Lyng's, Murphy's, Rackard's, Jacob's are just some of the familiar names surrounding Wexford inter-county teams over its history, with Lee being the first Chin to play inter-county for the Slaneysider's - his dad Voon for Chin is a Malaysian native.
"He came from Malaysia about 25 years ago, but I've only been there twice in my life, when I was two and when I was eight years old," Chin said.
"I suppose I wouldn't mind going back in a few years to go back to my roots and see where my father was from. I remember small bits of being there when I was young.
"I wouldn't have met my cousins over there as they would be much younger than me. They wouldn't understand what is going on here with GAA.
"If my father rang and said that 'Lee was on the TV today' or whatever, I suppose they would be happy about it, but they wouldn't understand why I was on telly or what it was for. They don't understand GAA or anything like that, so it wouldn't be a case that they would be building me up to be some sort of a star."
Gaelic Games is growing in Asia, and Chin would love to help out if at all possible.
"It would be very interesting to help, because I suppose they would look at someone like me or anyone who has the profile of playing inter-county, as someone who would be an expert in the game.
"If you went over to give a hand I suppose they would be interested, and it would be very interesting for me too to do something like that. I'd say they would really enjoy it and they would learn a lot of new stuff and different things."
Lee is hoping that the Chin name can be even more common place on Wexford teams in the future, with his 18-year old sister Danielle already following in his footsteps.
"She plays football for Clonad, the same club that Ciaran and Diarmuid 'Gizzy' Lyng originated from," he said.
"She actually plays Minor football for Wexford as well. My other sister Molly is five, so she is very young. She hasn't got going yet, but she will soon enough."
It wasn't all GAA in his youth, with Chin having played some soccer for Waterford United, while two of his good friends Shane Dempsey and Paul Murphy have played for Wexford Youths.
Lee first got involved with Wexford teams at under 14 level, and was due to play in a Tony Forrestial hurling Tournament for the Slaneysiders, but a pre-booked family holiday got in the way, under Tony Kearns and 'Heffo' Walsh.
"My position that year was wing-back in the team and I really enjoyed it. It was pretty settled and little did I know that my family had booked a holiday for us all to go to Salu. I was basically sitting in training one day and the managers sat us down and asked us all was everybody going to be available for a certain date in the Summer.
"I put up my hand and said that I thought that I was going on holidays around that particular time. It was the same time that the Tony Forrestial was on, basically the competition that we all had been training for.
"I was pretty much ruled out for that then. I ended up going on holidays and they actually ended up winning the Tony Forrestial that year. I missed out on my first All-Ireland medal."
And he hasn't managed to get one since although there was a Leinster Vocational Schools title with Wexford Vocational School when he was in fifth year.
The GPA helped put Lee through a barbering course in Blessington after he finished up in secondary school, following in the footsteps of his mother Joanne who is a hairdresser.
However, Chin wants a change of direction in his work-life now and is seeking a role as a sales person.
"I am seeking a role along the lines of being a sales-rep. A lot of my mates do it and it seems like something I would be interested in doing," he said.
"I actually got a job doing it a while ago, but I couldn't take it as it was totally commission and I couldn't afford to take fully commission work.
"Down along the line the role of sales rep would be something I would be very much seeking at the moment. There is a lot of times in that job where you can do it basically in your own time and that's what I would like.
"That was one of the things really why I got involved in barbering, because if you are working for yourself you kind of do your own hours. It's not as if you have to open up at a certain time or a shop or anything like that.
"Sales repping you basically do your own hours and when you get your hours done then the rest of your day is basically your own. That would balance around my training as well."
Lee has been the subject of some racist abuse over the years on the pitches, but he has never let this stop his love of Gaelic games. His passion always coming to the fore.
"I'm so passionate about it and I would never let anyone else stop me," he said.
"It's because it was a case that I was able to deal with it. It's something that I knew maybe I was going to get. I never expected it in the moment, but it was something that I always knew I was going to get growing up.
"It never really crossed my mind that I was going to pack everything in because of that. I remember speaking to Jason Sherlock about it when I was on the 'Late, Late Show' with him and I think Jason felt that he was so passionate about football also that it probably never crossed his mind.
"Jason mentioned a few things that he felt and I think that it was isolated in that moment as so on. One thing I took from it was embarrassment. It is embarrassing, and in that moment you don't want to be there. It's hard to take when it is being said to you and you don't know how to deal with it I suppose in that moment. You know how to deal with it when you get home and you try to forget about it okay.
"In that moment you don't know how to react to it, do you start scrapping with this lad? Do you just let him start saying what he wants or do you start slating him back in a different way, obviously not in a racist way, but do you start slating him back in a different type of way?
"Jason was saying that's what it was like when he was involved with Dublin that it was sledging. I never heard anything like that, but there would obviously be a few digs in games that you would be throwing at each other and different things. But when it comes down to racism it's a totally different ball game and I totally don't respect anybody that does it. I would have a serious problem with anyone who thinks it's oayk and that's my point on it really." Tweet
