One Of Our Own | David Speirs Moyola Park

David Spears have been involved with mu and I for about 10 years give or take um first of all his youth um coach and youth chairman but probably the last three four years as as Club chairman it's got a long history absolutely it's you know at the end of this decade we'll be we'll be in our 150th year one of the founding members of football in Northern Ireland and Ireland essentially um so there's there's a there's a lot of history there um there's also a big responsibility to keep that going uh it's ultimately an institution and and local football and in many regards and it's um it's but with that comes big opportunities I have about going on 400 kids at the club that train every week um at M Meadow and all our venues around Moler Council area and in the past 2 3 years we've installed a a girls section within that and also then a disability section as well so it has it has a huge impact in the community it brings people from different communities together essentially at our club from different schools and different backgrounds and it's um it's something that is a club that we have a a major focus on is is bringing players through our system our club and and essentially get them into our first team that's one of the main drivers behind the ours and ours that the volunteers and coaches put in every week at the club I've known Kenny for 30 plus years since I was a boy playing football and he was coaching me and and um you know probably an element of why I'm chairman and even sitting here is because of of the of the what Kenny had had had taught me as a as a boy you know um bringing him back to the club was is a major coup for us and while results recently haven't been great in terms of of of performances and results on the pitch performances have been good and and uh Kenny will will certainly take us in the right direction again and his ethos in terms of playing football and his ability to bring youth players through and and and Elevate them to another level is is one of the key factors in having a mat the club because he can see the he can see the catchment area that that mua is within he sees the talent that comes through that area and and we want to be in a position to to take advantage of that and and drive our whole Club forward I think this this this season essentially is is a case of um regrouping and trying to trying to finish as high up the table as we can I think from there then it's a case of of are we going to be in a position to maybe challenge next year and get ourselves up to that next step which ultimately is the championship um and and from there then anything can happen you know uh we're ambitious there's no doubt about it and uh while we do that there's there's obviously going to be a major emphasis on on continuing to allow young people to thrive at the club and and to bring them through and for example this year already we've had six of our under 18 players that have featured competitively for the first team and all of those boys are 16 years of age you know where those boys can go in 2 3 four years time is entirely up to themselves but what we'll do is provide a platform for them to to do that and hopefully that's in the championship or or Beyond so yeah you know the Ambitions are over the next few years to continue to push on it means a lot it's um all my kidss play at the club and um it it it means an awful lot to go down over the bridge and and look across and see the flood lights on and and maybe 100 kids in the on the pitch at the one time you know and you know the facility itself is is probably in use six seven days of the week now every week we're in the process of of getting that upgrad it and getting a new plane surface down and and new flood lights and the impact that that'll have within not just Store Club but the the the local community is going to be huge you know so for me it's um it means an awful lot but it's it's far from a finished project it's it's something that we continue to want to develop and to grow and to take to the highest level we possibly can