Dundee academy chief Stephen Wright has hailed the club’s youth coaches for once more “going above and beyond” after embarking on a fundraising challenge to swim, run and cycle almost 900 miles this month.
Financial cutbacks across the club this summer saw a number of the Dark Blues’ academy staff begin giving up their time for free to keep the youth set-up going.
Now coaches Jamie Keith and Jamie McBrearty have set themselves – and the other coaches around the club – the challenge of covering the distance between Land’s End and John O’Groats, 874 miles in total, during November to support the academy.
At the time of writing they have already raised £3,730 of their £10,000 target which will go towards “supporting the academy as it continues to use the premier facilities in the city to aid development of the players”.
Fresh off his bike after adding to the total, former Rangers and Aberdeen man Wright said: “It was Jamie Keith and Jamie McBrearty who came up with the idea to do a bit of fundraising to help the academy.
“It is another example of our coaches going above and beyond for the club. Obviously they are all volunteering at the moment and to come up with this idea speaks volumes.
“We’ve also got some fan groups competing against us in the challenge organised by Alison McQueen at Dee Promotions which will be a good bit of fun.
“We’ll all muck in and raise some money to help the kids in our academy.”
He added: “Things have been going really well with the academy, we’re all back in and training three nights a week.
“Unfortunately after moving into Tier Three, the SFA cancelled the games recently so we’ve been playing locally against boys clubs which has been good for all involved. There are SFA games coming up, though, against Dundee United, Hibs and Hearts which will give our boys games.
“Everybody has been fantastic, parents have been very understanding and helped out wherever they could.
“The club have been great with the academy to keep everything going. Parents have stepped up, coaches are volunteering – everybody has been mucking in.”