For many years Bangor RFC had no Youth Section, players from our vibrant Mini Section would finish P7 rugby and move on to school rugby, other clubs or just drift away from the game entirely.

Looking back this seems crazy, but it took the foresight of a few key individual typically led by Jonny Watson and Danny Curran to recognise this, but it was Davy Coey who was given the task of trying to build a Youth Section from the ground up. A huge job, but fast forward to now, we have a bustling Youth Section, big squads at U12, U14 and U16, and an U18s to run for the first time in the coming season. We intend this is going to be a key pillar of the Club’s success for many years to come. A player can now don the Blue and Gold shirt aged 5 and stay at the Club until they retire.

Davy’s work building this key section of our Club up to now cannot be praised enough. He has made it happen with his leadership, personality and character, values and hard work. He has built a team of coaches and volunteers to support him, and has instilled a Bangor culture in to these young players, in addition to no small measure of technical and tactical skills.

As you can tell, we are big fans of Davy Coey! However, sadly all things come to an end eventually, and Davy has announced his decision to step back from the commitment of leading the section he has built, in to the future. It has taken a huge amount of work so far, and Davy has earned the opportunity to spend more time with his young grandchildren.

We are sad to see him step back, but there is good news which softens the blow. Stephen ‘Monty’ Montgomery has worked closely with Davy in the Youth Section and at Bangor Academy and he will step up to take over the Youth Section, as well as chairing a new Mini and Youth Committee which will play a part in building on the foundations built by Davy. Monty’s first decision in post couldn’t have been a better one, as he persuaded Davy to stay on in his role as U12 Coach. We are also delighted that Mark Tinman and Davy Henderson will continue in their roles with the U14s and U16s, with the U18 coaching and management as well as the remainder of the coaching teams announced over the next few months.

The new Mini and Youth Committee will be chaired by Monty, but is a vital part of the Club Development Plan moving forward, and both Director of Rugby, Tom Rock, and Club President, will play an active role on the committee. More details on the committee will be publicised over the next week, but the intent is to create a well resourced group of volunteers who can develop the outstanding work of our Mini and Youth sections to date. It’s important to state that Stu McCartan has been indispensable in his role as Mini’s Convenor, and will continue in that role, but we believe that with a strong committee behind them, Stu and Monty will benefit from more structured support, and will be better able to continue the upward trajectory started by the work of Davy Coey and others.

Director of Rugby, Tom Rock, praised Davy Coey and spoke of the importance of his work in building the Youth Section, and how vital that was in his planning for the future of rugby at the Club; “When I spoke to the Club about joining two years ago, one of the biggest selling points was the Club’s vision for a successful 1st XV at the head of vibrant community Club, that was built on the foundation of the Mini and Youth conveyor belt of players which they had made the decision to invest in developing a few years before. I didn’t meet Davy until I had joined the Club, but when I did it was immediately apparent how much of the success of the Youth Section was down to him. He should take huge pride in what he has built, and we have no intention of doing anything but grabbing the opportunity he has given the Club and build on his great work. The Mini and Youth Committee will be key to this, and we will push out more information on this over the next week or two as we look to build a team around Monty and Stu that can help them to build on all of the work to date.”

A final thank you to Davy Coey, and we look forward to watching you continue your work with our Under 12s.