User:Cr1010/sandbox

Craig Richards (Football Coach) was born in St Asaph in October 10th 1982.

As a youngster he played for Mochdre, before going on to play a season for Old Colwyn. After hitting the age of 18 he went on to play Sunday League for local pub team Castle Inn Llysfaen, He also helped coach a new Llysfaen under 17s. After a few years away from football Craig signed for local Saturday league team Park F.C this lasted from mid September till January before the team folded, But on Debut Richards played center back and helped the team to their first win of the season a 3-0 in against St George.

In 2006 Richards started his own Colwyn Bay Royals F.C in a local fustal league. the first game they won 11-0. After this they went on to play very well but ended the league season 2nd but won the Cup 1-0 in the final. the 2nd season saw the royals do the league and cup double while their 3rd season saw them win the league but only make the semi finals of the cup. In between this the team competed in 2 U.K. Championships finishing 8th twice.

Shortly after this Richards went to sign for his Uncle at Betws Yn Rhos F.C. he was used as a bit part player and was injured or unavailable quite a lot. in 2008 Richards was given the chance to Manage Betws Yn Rhos after his Uncle had fallen ill, Craig took up the reigns but did not realize the task of the job, The club were in debt and had lost 3 main players from a already very small squad, Craig had to promote under 17 players straight into the squad as well as bringing in players he knew from his Sunday league days.His pre season saw very mixed results beating Bro Cernyw 3-2 away ,losing to Llandudno junction reserves away 4-2 ,losing to Mochdre sports at home 7-1 and beating the Bee Inn 17-2 away before a remarkable 4-3 win away against Glan Conwy Reserves. As the season started the Betws team still played with mixed results due to player availability good wins against Y Glannu 7-1 at home, Cerrig 3-2 away, Wepre Rangers 4-3 away, Rhos utd 5-0 away in a local derby game Richards left the role shortly after a very poor 7-1 result at Caerwys away as his league record stood at played 10 won 5 lost 5 no draws.

After this he too a break before going back to his Royals team in 2012 taking them to runners up in the league on goal difference, the season after he took over 2 teams who both finished in the top 6 of the 16 team league.

In 2016 Richards as asked to help out local Junior club Llysfaen under 7s, At the time towards the end of 2015/16 season the under 7s only had 4 players and the club its self only had under 10s and 7s left, Recruiting hard the under 7s found enough players to finish the season. The summer came and Richards was approached to do a new under 9s team in Llysfaen he did leaving the now under 8s to do so.

He took over a team of players who had not played for teams before and those that had had only been on the bench for most of their time at clubs ,Richards lost every game that season telling the kids not to worry about the 40 minutes to an hour games it is all practice for the tournament season at the end of the year knowing the 10 minute format suited his players fitness and concentration levels a lot more,

Off the pitch he must of done something right as at one point he had enough players to put out 2 teams for the second half of the season making sure more kids got more game time, In the January OF 2017 Richards aw an advert for Cwpan y Bobl tournament to be played in Llandudno,He told the club it would be great if the club could get a Dads team to play in it they got 2 Dads teams in the competition and finished 7th and 6th in the 7 team competition. He also asked for any Mum's to try out the surprising response shocked him as he managed to get a mums team to play, He called them Llysfaen Lionesses and they only had one team to play unfortunately for them it was Welsh Premier team Llandudno ladies and although they lost they stayed together to form a proper team. Richards now ran the 2 under 9s and the Ladies team as well as sitting his Leaders and C Certificate with the Welsh FA which he passed both from January to June.

In the tournament season for the under 9s they picked up some very good results a 0-0 with Mochdre B at the Colwyn Bay tournament was followed by a painful 1-0 defeat against Penrhyn Bay in the same tournament. a week later they played Coed Poeth from Wrexham at Llandudno Tournament and got another good 0-0.in the Llysfean tournament the under 9s played both teams the Lions which as the league players and the Tigers who the kids that signed up after Christmas they played a 4 team tournament against Henllan A and Henllan B the Lions drew all 3 games and lost the semi final 2-1 to Henllan B while the Tigers dew 2 games losing 1 and then losing the semi final to Henllan A. the week after that saw the squad go to Llanfair PG and pick up a 1-0 win in the opening game against the Hosts unfortunately they did not play very well for the rest of the tournament and failed to make the knock out stages. In the last tournament of the season they played in the very long Penrhyn Bay tournament and after a few heavy defeats they played Pentre Pumas a team that had beaten Llysfaen under 9s 14-1 at the beginning of pre season. Llysfaen played very good pressing game and won 1-0 making the record of games for tournament season played 29 won 2 drew 5 lost 24 for a 1st year team they can be very proud of their efforts.

In the mean time Richards had been approached by Colwyn Bay Academy FC to take over the under 11s for the following season which he did trying to juggle the 2 roles and his job was impossible though and he left Llysfaen in October 2017 as coach but had already been made club president by then a role which he made his own when he took 26 kids and 23 parents on a day trip to Blackburn Rovers the kids got to train with Blackburn staff and watch the game ,10 lucky kids got to walk players out while the remaining 16 got to wave flags they all took penalties at half time and Blackburn even finished the day with a 3-0 win over Portsmouth even with 10 men. Richards also started hi 10TEN Football Coaching business as he looks to commit to a new project to get his UEFA B