Caithness United ready to kick on after first 25 years
The new chairman of Caithness United is determined to play his part in ensuring the club continues to help young footballers from the far north reach the highest level they can in the game.
Steve Bain says he is looking to build on the strong foundations provided by his predecessor, Alan Turner, who was chairman throughout the first 25 years and remains involved as a committee member.
Caithness United was founded in 1999 to help develop young players from the county by introducing them to a higher level of opponents more frequently. Over the years, the club’s dedicated coaches have given hundreds of youths the opportunity to fulfil their potential.
Steve has been coaching at Caithness United for more than 10 years, across two separate spells, and had been vice-chair for a few years.
“I certainly feel honoured to have been asked to fulfil the role of chairman of Caithness United,” he said. “But I can’t deny that it has also all been a bit daunting, given the excellent job that Alan Turner has done since Caithness United began in 1999.
“Over 25 years on from a group idea to where Caithness United is today – a three-age-group club that is well respected throughout the Highlands – Alan can have nothing but pride when he looks back over his time as chairman.
“Over that period Caithness United has provided a platform for hundreds of youths to showcase the talents that we possess up here.
“Football is a really big deal in Caithness – it creates massive interest. You can see that by the amount of youth and adult football that’s played here throughout the year.
“We as a club will be striving to provide a high level of coaching to allow our players to develop as best they can, while also enjoying the experience too, then see where that takes them – be that at a county league club, the North Caledonian League, the Highland League or even beyond that. There are pathways now to all of those with the talent.
“It was great to see that Wick Academy’s squad in a recent match against Rothes consisted entirely of players who at one time had come through Caithness United. The main aim of Caithness United from its inception was to help players to achieve the goal of playing for Wick Academy and, if possible, at levels higher than the Highland League.
“Given our location, I think it’s very important that we are able to continue to feed players into the first team. It’s the future.”
Steve added: “I’d like to think that the strong foundations that Alan Turner built up over his 25-year stint as chairman will serve me well, and the support of the excellent committee we have at the club will make the transition into the role a lot easier.
“Alan has said he will retain an active role on our committee too, so he will be available to advise and help me when required – which is obviously great news.
“I’ll be looking to keep the club going forward on a similar path as it is at present. If it isn’t broken then there’s no need to fix it!”
Caithness United has three age groups – under-12s (playing in a festival format), under-14s (competing in the Moray Youth Development League) and under-16s (Highland Youth League).
The club’s 25th anniversary presentation evening took place last June in Wick’s Norseman Hotel. Guest speaker was Wick Academy defender Owen Harrold, who came through the ranks at Caithness United.
Those attending heard that over the past season the under-14s and their coaches had travelled more than 2500 miles, going as far as Elgin and Inverness, while the under-16s’ road trips amounted to over 1900 miles, including games in Nairn, Fort William and Inverness.
The under-12s had attended multiple festivals as far away as Inverness, including midweek events in Alness.
Boys who progress to under-18 level play as Wick Academy in SHFL Under 18 North. The under-18s are top of their league with maximum points so far this season.
Alan Turner and another stalwart from the early days of Caithness United, Malcolm Clasper, shared some memories of how the club developed in a recent recording for Wick Voices, the online oral history project of the Wick Society.
Malcolm was the club’s first secretary, serving in that role for 10 years, and has been honorary president since.
In the half-hour interview, Alan looked back to when he was a Wick Academy committee member and how the club benefited from “fantastic” sponsorship from local businesses during its first five years in the Highland League.
“Gradually that went down, and the thought in the committee was that we should have more input from youth football,” he pointed out. “And the only way to do that was to get them early so that they could build up through the system and hopefully go into the first-team squad or go further with their football experience. That’s how it started.
“Youth football in Caithness was quite strong in terms of East End, Swifts, Pentland, that sort of thing, but what we wanted to do was get them up to a slightly higher level so that they could progress into the Highland League and beyond.”
Obstacles were encountered in the early years, with other clubs being unwilling to travel to the far north. “In the first year, 2000, we couldn’t get a game from anybody,” Malcolm recalled.
Eventually, Caithness United became part of region-wide leagues and began playing competitively on a regular basis against teams from across the north of Scotland.
Malcolm said: “We want to see Wick Academy having a Caithness team, whether it be a lot of Wick players or a lot of Thurso players, or rural players. We would like to see that as being the focus and I believe they can do that.
“The system is there now. It was never there before, and I think that’s what we’ve got to be proud of. We’ve done it for the youth, to achieve the level that they are capable of.”
He added: “I think the club’s success follows on the good leadership Alan gave us.”
Alan and Malcolm also spoke about former Caithness United boys that have gone to play professionally, notably Gary Mackay-Steven.
Alan added: “The coaches are really dedicated and they deserve all the praise that they get.”
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