O V E R A L L S
Name: Location: Herd size: Hobby:
O F F
Andy Bevan Herefordshire 130 cows Football coach
Andy Bevan: “Football wins when it comes to dividing up my spare time”
Team trainer text Darcie Victor-Trott
H
e started with just three young footballers but, today, dairy producer and UEFA licensed football coach Andy Bevan runs the regional talent centre for the Junior Premier League – one of only six in the UK – for 106 junior players. He also coaches a local headline-making team. Westfield Football Club’s first team was the lowest-ranked team to get through to the first round of this year’s FA Cup competition. “That was a phenomenal success for the club. It was a goal that we’d set, as part of a three-year plan, and we achieved it in the first year,” says Andy. It was a great achievement for the team and for Andy who, after a harrowing experience at the Hillsborough disaster in 1989, had been out of the game for more than 15 years. He quit his semi-profession career with local football leagues, including the club he now coaches, to focus on his family. It was only in 2005 that Andy put his football boots back on and decided to start training a team – this time much closer to home and on a small area of unused farmland, which has now grown into a full pitch, complete with lights and changing rooms and offices. This is where his juniors train throughout the season. Extra-early starts, to milk his 130-cow herd, free up time in the evening for Andy to coach. Training takes up four nights each week: “But it’s worth it. The end product is a smile on my face and a great sense of respect between myself and the players.” The juniors are aged between six and 16 years and, during the past decade, Andy has seen players move up into the premier league and play bigger games. “But the results don’t matter, it’s the players’ individual performances and their enjoyment of the sport that’s important. To watch them grow and develop into outstanding young players is very rewarding.” Less rewarding are the injuries. But they’re not all down to the sport. “On the morning of my FA cup television interview, I got my arm stuck under a cow. When I finally got to the interview, that’s all the journalist wanted to talk about – the cows and not the football. Injuries are part of farming and football – they’re both very physical activities.” Andy admits to spending more physical and emotional energy on ‘the beautiful game’. “Cows or coaching – football usually wins when it comes to dividing up my extra time. And there’s a lot more to come from the RTC and the team in 2017.” Andy is expecting great things during the next 12 months. “I think our team’s performance is going to be magnificent – we just keep on getting better. And there are a few other exciting opportunities on the horizon. Certainly plenty to keep me – and the players – motivated.”
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19-01-17 16:55