Youth getting their chance at Newbuildings

THINGS are certainly on the up and changing for the better for Newbuildings United Football Club.

Over the years, like many junior football teams, youth football wasn't the main focus of priority, but that is all changing with the East Bank men.

Former first team boss Wesley Wallace has over the last few years started to focus on the youngsters from both sides of the community throughout the area and he believes the future looks bright for Newbuildings.

"I'm involved with everything; I was asked to come out of retirement and help Glenn Wallace out with the Reserve team and they gained promotion this year, but I have to admit I mostly worked with the youth side of the club," he said.

"We have up to around 70 weans at training throughout the week, ranging from 5-year-olds to 14-year-olds training at the ground on a Saturday, while from 16-year-old up they train with our Reserve and First team; because we are a small community club, we just want to start trying to feed our own club.

"This year we have signed a few good players from outside the village but it's a thing which hopefully in the long term future we won't need to do."

Wallace also hopes that running coaching sessions at St Columba's Primary School, in Newbuildings can also benefit the club and he admits that already seems to be case.

"Myself and Glenn are doing coaching in the two schools in Newbuildings and we have opened an avenue for the club, because there have been a couple of youngsters from St Columba's PS who have then come to the training at the weekend and played with our youth teams.

"We are trying to bring the club into both sides of the community, it's going to be a slow process but what we did one week, we brought five girls from Newbuildings PS and five from St Columba's PS and took them to a competition and I have to admit they just clicked straight away.

"That was as good to us this year as anything we have achieved, because as a club we want to widen things up and see where it takes us, because you have to do that if you want to progress.

"Things are certainly going well at the minute and the players who we are coaching at the weekend range from Ballymagorry to Artigarvan, we can't really hit Donemana, because they are trying to get something up and running in their own area; we are also getting a few more from the town and Strabane coming to the training."

Wallace is also reminding parents and players alike that it's not all about winning; it's about the taking part that matters and that's certainly the case whenever it comes to playing for the Newbuildings men's underage teams.

"We are trying to get the young kid who may be pushed away from other places, we want to give them the opportunity because they are only weans that is the way we are looking at it; now if the youngster does have the talent then we'll be looking to try and help it, we aren't going to go around saying 'we made this player'.

"My philosophy is if a youngster has a bit of ability we'll try and help him move forward, but if he has no ability then we'll try and help him forward; we are not picking and choosing."

Unlike most football clubs, Newbuildings are giving their young players a break over the summer, so that they are fighting fit for the start of next season.

"The last two years we ran a tournament, which brought teams in from Donegal and throughout the city, we had 16 teams from the likes of Foyle Harps to Cockhill Celtic and the fella who was running Buncrana Harps said to me 'did I ever imagine teams from Buncrana coming up to Newbuildings and playing in a football tournament' and I have to admit since then we have had a great relationship with those sides.

"We can go to Buncrana and vice-versa, they can come to us, so hopefully we can run that competition again this summer.

"Having said all that, come the end of June, we feel that youngsters need to take a break, because if they are in training week in, week out at their age we feel they should get the time to relax and be allowed to grow and get stronger, because whenever they come back at the end of August, they are all eager and want to learn more.

"Usually we give all the youngsters a break, because with families going away on holidays themselves and other things, so we just feel it's better that they don't come back to training until late August."

Wallace is the Under 10 manager who still hasn't tasted defeat this season and incredibly the boss wants his side to lose, just to see what reaction he gets from his players.

"They have played 12 games, won 11 and drew one, but I want to see how they react and how their parents react after a defeat, because they really don't learn anything until they are beaten," he added.

"Parents should definitely come and encourage their children but they shouldn't think that they are the be all and end all, because at the end of the day they are only kids.

"Having said all that I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the parents for their help and IFA coach Kevin Doherty, who is doing a great job at grassroots level for both the club and community."

Related topics: