Wright man for the job

There has been steady progress over the last two years and if we maintain our high standards and keep going in the same direction we will definitely see fruition ..

Stephen Wright is now in his third season as Head of Youth Development at Dunfermline Athletic. He started at Rangers as a coach on the Community side of the club and after a few years joined the Academy set up at Rangers under George Adams. He worked with youths at U13, U14 and U15 level.

"The lads who are now playing first team football for Rangers are the kids I worked with for three years from under 13 - Gregg Wylde, Kyle Hutton who is on loan, Jamie Ness, Danny Wilson who has gone to Liverpool and Grant Adam the goalkeeper. It was an excellent grounding for me working in the Rangers academy. George Adams left to go to Ross County and now Jim Sinclair is in charge of the youth set up. It's fantastic to see them develop and progress into the Rangers first team. I am hoping that I can do exactly the same with the younger age groups here and get them into Dunfermline's first team in the years to come."

Things were slightly different at the Dunfermline Athletic youth department than they were at Murray Park and initially Stephen had to do a lot of the ground work himself to try and progress the West Fife club further.

"First of all we need to meet the performance criteria; coaches need to be qualified, our facilities have to be up to standard and tick all the right boxes for the SFA. Now we are trying to raise the profile of the youth department and raise standards in terms of players, coaches, scouts and facilities. There has been steady progress over the last two years and if we maintain our high standards and keep going in the same direction we will definitely see fruition."

Identification of young talent relies on building relationships with all the local football clubs and inviting players in to train with Dunfermline Athletic, starting as young as 8 and 9 years old.

"When we identify potential players, it is important that we provide high quality training and a beneficial environment for these players to ensure they enjoy the experience when they come in to train. We need everyone's support to achieve what we are trying to do here. I know we are advancing well at this level under the quality tution of Dougie Coulston who works closely with the younger age groups. I want the kids in the local area to come and train at Dunfermline Athletic first as I know there are kids in the area who train at Rangers, Celtic, Hearts and Hibs. It is up to me to ensure that we make a good first impression."

"We have are two coaches at each level from U11 up to U17 level. These coaches are qualified to a minimum of Level 4 standard, rising to Youth Licence and Children's Licence, we have qualified goalkeeping coaches and Robert Kielty heads up the sports science programme. Paul Gallacher and John Potter are also working with the players and teams which is fantastic for the kids to see current first team members passing on their knowledge. Support coaches help out as well to make the whole system a rather large operation".

Stephen emphasises that the basics must be right or else the club will lose out on the best players to other clubs.