Following the promotion of Alan Howarth to assistant 1st team coach, we are happy to announce that Will Goodier will be taking on the role of 2nd team player-coach.
Will has been an excellent servant to Hoppers over the years and made his 1st team debut in the 2023-24 season. 1st Team Assistant Coach, Alan Howarth, said “Will is a top fella! He is a product of our mini-juniors, a knee-high to Grasshopper, and is Mr reliable. He has been the 2nd Team Captain for the past two seasons and needed no time at all to think about taking this role on. He a popular guy within the team who will lead by example off the pitch as much as he does on it.”
Supporting Will in the role will be Josh Ryan. Josh has been offered a role in the Fire Service and, due to the training that accompanies this, he will be unable to play for the majority of the season. It is great that Josh has offered to help out in this role, as it means he will stay involved with the club whilst he isn’t playing. Josh said “I’m really excited to be helping out with the coaching and running of the second team. We want to build on an excellent last season, and challenge for the league title again this year.” Josh already has significant amounts of coaching experience from his time at UCLan, where he coached the women’s’ team.
Head Coach Dan Orwin said “The 2nd Team is extremely important to us at Hoppers. We need a strong 2nd Team, with players who are genuinely pushing for 1st Team places, and we have had this for the past two seasons. Al has done a great job in making the 2’s competitive again in the NOWIRUL Halbro Premier League, and we are made up that Josh and Will are taking over this role. Both are great lads, and they will do a great job. This role will help to keep Josh involved with us whilst he is unable to play, and we look forward to working with and supporting them both.”
