Dave has been a member of Bolton Harriers for over 30 years. He has been a committee member and Head Coaching co-ordinator. He represented the club at all distances from 5k to Half Marathon in his younger days and was in the Army running team.
He is a qualified Personal Trainer, an Official Timekeeper and qualified Endurance Level Running Coach.
He now coaches the 11-18 year old Endurance Group. He is developing them to compete at Cross Country, Road Races and 800m plus Track Races.
Coaching achievements
- Rachel Bailey – Represented Greater Manchester in cross country and fell racing. Top 6 in Red Rose for 4 consecutive years. Now a rising star in the adult group.
- Jason Scaife – Ranked 7th nationally at U15 5K (August 2020). 2020 Bolton 5K 1st Under 20 and 5th overall.
- Ruby Erzan-Essien – 1st U 15G in South East Lancs Cross Country series 2019/20. 8th overall U 15G Red Rose Cross Country series 2019.
What the athletes parents say:
- Dave is very dedicated and puts a lot of time and effort in for the kids. He gets them all involved in Local, County and National events depending on their ability.
- He is highly experienced and has a good pedigree. His commitment stands out and has been there with his athletes at events nationwide.
- Very nurturing, very supportive and my son has improved massively in the last 12 months under Dave.
- He has coached my daughter from having very little experience and she has come on leaps and bounds. He has helped her enormously during a period of injury also. He gives his group additional training to do away from the club also and asks for feedback on it.
How Dave describes his role as a coach
Concentrating on getting the group to learn the basic skills of distance running and making sure they are happy and want to come back for more. I love receiving the basic raw material of an athlete and then moulding that athlete into the finished article. Athletics leaves no hiding place for an individual like team sport does. As long as I can see an individual has taken on board my advice, tried their best, then it doesn’t matter whether they win or finish last in a race. They all have different levels of ability.