A FOOTIE focused Barry dad has been named as a Welsh Community Coach of the Year for his work with almost 350 players.

Island Marine coach and club chairman, Richard Belby was recently honoured by the Football Association of Wales (FAW) for his role in working with youngsters aged from under six to under 18 and their families.

The dad-of-three, to Emily, Tim and Grace, will now move forward to be in with a chance of claiming the overall FAW national title next month.

Richard, 45, manager of Forest Products timber yard in Cowbridge, joined the club seven years ago.

The teams play at Maslin Park with Barry Island Sports and social club being home to the teams’ social side.

The football club, formed in 1993, currently has 270 youngsters including girls up until the age of 12.

There are 40 senior players and another 17 in the South Wales Youth League.

Former Colcot junior and Barry Comprehensive pupil, Richard was delighted that Island Marine had nominated him.

On hearing that he’d won, Richard said: “I thought who am I going to have to tell off from the club? I was absolutely chuffed. I was overwhelmed by it. The fact that people had gone to the trouble of nominating me and as a coach when you do coach children especially it’s nice to get a bit of a reward back that you’ve done something good

“Every year I’ve coached the under sixes; I get a couple of dads involved and get them on their leaders course, get them CRB checked , get them to do a first aid course and after 12 months hand it over to them. I’ve been doing that for seven years now. I’ve coached the majority of children in the club at some point.”

As chairman, Richard is also responsible for social events such as a club picnic at Porthkerry Park, charity events, quiz and race nights, penalty shoot-outs, and presentation evenings.

He credits the club to his “brilliant committee” - secretary Sian Blackmore; welfare officer Sally Bloomfield; senior team representative and First Choice for Mortgages sponsor, Martin Byrne; mini team representatives, Dave Phillips and Mark Frayne; advertising and website designer, Neil Owens and social secretary, Tony Ware.

Richard added: “We make sure as a club we have mixed ability. We’re not after the next Ronaldo. Having the club and having the clubhouse is half of it – half it is football and the other half is the social side. We like to make sure we instil that in the children – the social part is a very important part. To me there’s nothing better than getting a kid who can hardly kick a ball and by the time I’ve finished coaching him he can kick a ball, he can tackle, he can pass. For me that’s more rewarding than having a kid who’s absolutely fantastic and may lose him to the likes of Cardiff City because he’s that good.”

He added: “I just enjoy it. It means I can stay a bit younger; have some fun with them. As for the chairman side of it – I got in there by default really because no-one else would do it and I enjoy that. It is hard work, but the committee I’ve got behind me do a lot of hard work.

“I’ve made quite a lot of new friends through the football; not just on the committee but a lot of the parents as well.”

The club now needs more children for the U12s team and is interested to hear from anyone who would like to support them.

For details, visit http://islandmarinefc.btck.co.uk or find them on Facebook.