David Healy, MBE joins Thousands of Young People for a day of Football Coaching in Cookstown
On Saturday 14th June, 2008 thousands of young people from all across the Province joined Northern Ireland and Premier League striker, David Healy at the Mid Ulster Sports Arena in Cookstown for the ‘David Healy Fitba Day’.
Organisers of the football coaching event, the Ulster-Scots Agency and Cookstown District Council are delighted by the success of Saturday’s event.
This was David Healy’s first outing since being appointed an MBE for services to football and the community in the Queen's Birthday Honours list. New Sports Minister, Gregory Campbell also made his first public appearance at the football coaching day in Cookstown.
Young people travelled from all over Ulster to the one day free sporting event in where they received first class tuition from over 70 top football coaches, including some from Rangers and Celtic Football Clubs. Twenty young people and eight football coaches from each of the famous clubs also made the journey over from Scotland to take part in the day. On the day the young people were also given an opportunity to learn more about heritage, culture and language of Ulster-Scots.
George Patton, Chief Executive at the Ulster-Scots Agency said, “We are absolutely delighted with the outcome of this year’s David Healy Fitba Day. It was fantastic to see so many young people, girls and boys, enjoying themselves on the day and to see so many smiling faces when they got to meet their hero David Healy. The Mid Ulster Sports Arena was a perfect venue for the football coaching day – it is a highly adaptable and user friendly facility.”
George continues “We would like to commend Cookstown District Council for all their help and support in organising this major event, the staff and officials from the Council have been great to work with on this project. Finally, we would like to thank the ‘main man’ David Healy for agreeing to become involved in our football coaching day and for making it so memorable for all those who came along on Saturday”. |
