The “Sporting Snippets Hall of Fame” The Spiers family has for decades occupied a prominent position in the sporting life of the local Borough - and far beyond!! Linsey, whose early footballing experiences were with Castle Gardens Primary, 3rd Ards Boys Brigade and Movilla High, graduated to the more senior ranks at Ards Rangers when his father George was 1st team manager at Drome Park. From there Linsey went on to gain playing experience with the likes of Tudor Rangers, Greenwell Star, Abbey Villa, Tower Tiblisa and Saintfield United. A knee injury ended his serious playing career, but the grounding he had had from the coaching skills of people like Bobby Murphy, Jimmy Miskelly and Davy Rainey pointed him in a new direction. His sharp communication skills, his readiness to learn and his ability to present his thinking in a concise and understandable form made him an ideal addition to the coaching staff at Ards Youth. In 2005 he moved from the Ards Youth set-up to help Alex Murphy recreate a Youth section at Drome Park. His dedication, infectious enthusiasm and dogged determination quickly built up an extensive, well-designed Youth Division at Drome Park and, under his leadership, within a period of seven years Ards Rangers Juniors had advanced to a Club which had teams competing at Under 9 level right up to sides in the Under 17 category. At that particular time Linsey was very much at the helm as the Rangers Juniors took over the responsibility of operating the highly-successful School of Soccer event which had in 1991 been established by Ards Blues as the first of its kind in the Ards Borough. With the additional organisational skills of his wife Nicky very much in evidence, Linsey established strong links between the Rangers Juniors and English League side Crewe Alexandra and, not only did Dario Gradi twice come to Newtownards during those halcyon years, but a party from the Rangers Juniors travelled on a number of occasions to Gresty Road. After spells of management at Ards Rangers 3rds and Greenwell Star 2nds, Linsey has acquired the mantle of club manager at Down Area Premiership North Down, and continues to be a beneficial influence on the local junior soccer scene. Certainly the name of Linsey Spiers is very worthy of a position on the “Sporting Snippets HALL OF FAME” and it our privilege to welcome him on board.
Posted on: Fri, 16 Jan 2015 06:18:25 +0000
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