Jack Ross is a well known figure thanks to a football career that began (and almost ended) at Dundee over 20 years ago and has seen playing stops at Camelon Juniors, Clyde, Hartlepool United, Falkirk, St. Mirren, Hamilton Academical and Dunfermline Athletic as well as playing for the Scotland B side.
As well as his on the field exploits Jack built a reputation as one of the game’s champions in terms of writing about it using new media and also representing the views of players via his role in the Communication side of things with their union, PFA Scotland.
Ross is now a regular at the side of the pitch in his role as assistant manager to Ian Murray at resurgent Dumbarton, however a slightly lesser profile role as a Children’s Author has resulted in Ross’ second book recently published.
Ross playing career started in disappointment as he was released as a teenager from Dens Park and from there he opted for Heriot Watt University where he secured a degree in Economics.
Neither football or economics sit directly in the path of becoming an author and especially an author of children’s books and the 36 year old was asked how the books came about and he said: “I was a late entrant to University due to various circumstances and although I did an Economics Degree I would have preferred to do Law or English Literacy.”
“After I had secured my Economics Degree I got back into football at a senior level with Clyde and I started writing a diary for BBC Scotland when I was there in 2003. After that I moved onto writing a Blog for the BBC that was published on the internet. I enjoyed writing as I have always liked to be creative and started making notes about books over the years.”
So why children’s books Ross was asked and he said: “I had a love of football and I always enjoyed the Community side of the job. Throughout my career I had carried out work at schools and seen the positive impact that it had. I also seen what the Show Racism the Red Cross Card projects had achieved and I decided to build on the positive messages that I had seen given out.”
Ross added: “Based on all my experiences I had I decided to write books that would highlight the positive impact that football can have on lives. I had set myself the target of getting them all written before I finished playing but an injury changed that time-scale.”
“I wrote these books but they are not just about football or for football fans. They focus on what the behaviours that are needed to be successful in football can do positively off the park. I would say they are a bit like the Mr Men series of books in that they are all about different characters but they follow a very similar template to each other.”
As opposed to Mr Angry and Mr Tickle, Ross’ characters have monikers such as Alfie – The Adventurous Winger and Calum – The Courageous Keeper and he added: “The books are about players that play in certain positions and have certain attributes. The thrust is that the players bring these attributes off the pitch and into school with them. They use these attributes to handle different types of problems at school by using the attributes they use at football.”
“Alfie is a really adventurous player on the park and tries out different things but when they change the school lunch menu to being healthier he is not so adaptable. Callum is a very brave goalkeeper who uses that bravery to tackle bullying.”
Ross added:” They are similar books but very different in terms of the attributes and behaviours they focus on. I believe in them in terms of getting over the messages I hoped they would.”
Alfie was published last autumn and now it is Calum that is available with Ross saying: “Feedback so far has been really good. There are another 4 written but not published yet and there others to come.”
“They are short stories and are designed for children aged 4-8, who are just getting into football, but they can be used by older groups.”
Ross was certainly creative in his writing as he explained: “The players all play for Hodge Hill who are named that way as they are a combination of two addresses that I used to live it. They also have ‘neutral’ colours as opposed to those of my former teams.”
“One of the hardest things was picking a team name and also the player’s names but I got there. Through time I would like to issue books that are more bespoke using club strips and club signage to enable them not only to be sold at Club Shops but be used in Community programmes.”
More team specific books are in discussion with Ross saying: “I have spoken in depth to one club about them already but it is a case of small steps. They are getting used already in a project in primary schools in Inverclyde and with a programme called Key Fitness so team ones is a next logical step”
“As I said small steps but small progressive steps.”
The books written so far are
- Alfie – The Adventurous Winger – published autumn 2012
- Calum – The courageous Keeper – available now
- Danny – The determined defender – to be published
- Chris – The confident striker – to be published
- Ellie – The energetic Attacker – to be published
- William – The Welcoming Captain – to be published
More details can be found at topclasskids.co.uk.
As for football and Dumbarton Ross was pleased to talk about progress at the Sons after last season’s Play-Off winners endured a disappointing opening to the season. A first win in the First Division did not come until November when they defeated Cowdenbeath 1-0 under the interim control of Ross who stepped in after previous manager Alan Adamson had left the club.
Former Hibs, Rangers, Norwich and Scotland player Murray was appointed to try and recover a campaign that had seen Dumbarton in bottom place since week 2 and results have been transformed.
Four wins in five games, including successes against title chasing Morton and Partick Thistle, has lifted the Sons to eighth and Jack looked to explain the transformation.
“Not an awful lot has changed apart from the results,” said Ross before adding “I was heavily involved in the training before and that has remained fairly consistent but Ian has brought in his own ideas.”
“He has brought in a slightly different approach on the park but a very different approach off it. He has a blueprint for how he believes a club should be run and for example, he has brought in a Sports Scientist and ideas like that. To be fair, the Board have backed him and supplied what he has asked for.”
One good result has led to another with Ross adding: “What has changed is that the confidence factor is incredibly high due to the results we have had. Self-belief is oozing out of the players now after enduring a pretty tough time.
“By and large, it is the same team with only Scott Smith coming in on loan from Hibs and Marc McCusker joining us after a good few months out of the game.”
A close bond is forming between the duo with Ross adding: “Ian has his own ideas from his playing days and to be honest, we have hit it off as a pairing and we have a good relationship already. We were team-mates last week in a reserve game as well so we have a relationship at a few levels.
“Ian has a stated objective to be a player as well although mind you, if we keep winning games, he may well not be able to force himself into the side. Having him as a player would give us another option as we enter the second half of the season.”
Now fully over a knee injury, could Ross also be tempted to get his boots dirty on first team duty? He said: “I may still get involved should there be an emergency as well. You cannot beat playing and who knows, I may yet return onto the pitch for a first team game.”
One of the highlights in Ross' playing career was reaching The Co-operative Insurance Cup Final played in March, 2010 with St. Mirren and, of course, the Paisley side won through to another Hampden showdown last Sunday with their 3-2 success over Celtic.
Ross’ day at Hampden was to end in disappointment as a nine man Rangers team beat his side 1-0 and he is hoping that the St. Mirren fans enjoy this day more.
“I am really pleased for St. Mirren after their win last Sunday. Especially for Graham Carey, who played in the last Cup Final back in 2010,” said Ross before adding, “He is probably the only link with the existing squad.
“When you think back to the opportunity we had that day and never took it, it is great for St. Mirren that they are back in a Cup Final so quickly. They have never won the League Cup and it would be great if they did but they face a tricky game against Hearts.”
Ross added: “To beat Celtic in any competition is a great achievement and to beat them in a Semi-Final at Hampden is terrific but to do it deservedly by scoring three goals is beyond that. It is great for the supporters to be heading back to a Cup Final and I delighted for the club although I do not know too many of the players these days such is the turnaround in football.
“Perhaps, I will be writing a book about a Cup Final hero after that game.”
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