McConnell brought in as fitness coach

Whatever fate awaits Carrick Rangers in the new season, Gary Haveron is adamant fitness won’t be any kind of concern for his new-look squad.
Nathan McConnell.Nathan McConnell.
Nathan McConnell.

“We have been very happy with out pre-season work thus far and already it’s becoming clear that we will be at least as fit as any other squad in the league,” assured the Taylor’s Avenue manager, who credits the new man in charge for that.

“We have brought in Nathan McConnell as fitness coach and he is terrific,” he said. “As a player he had a great work ethic and I know that this aspect of our play will certainly not be a problem.

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“Nathan is a teacher at Ashfield Boys, specialising in RE and a couple of other subjects, but he’s cutting his teeth in fitness coaching and he’s a natural, probably because of his own approach to playing the game.

“The guys are loving pre-season because I like to deal with the ball aspect of training and include plenty of that, while we do a fair bit of other work and like to try something different when possible.

“Last weekend, for example, we went to Woodburn Dam for a physical session and it was a whole new experience for all the lads. We were working with logs and ropes and all sorts of things.

“My assistant, Steven Mills, led the session and did really well. The whole thing went down really well and now the players are all looking forward to the first pre-season games.”

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He added: “This Saturday is a busy day for us because we will be fielding two teams for games against Queen’s (1 pm) and Sport & Leisure (3pm) - both away from home. The squad will be split into two units of 14 of 15. I am not a great fan of playing two different teams in each half of a game and this will be a great way to give everybody a good workout on the same day.

“Next week the Dunmurry Rec game has been switched to Thursday and game against Crusaders is on the Saturday,” added the enthusiastic Haveron.

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