If you were to type the words ‘Livingston’ and ‘Da Vinci’ into an internet search engine this week, you would get details of a hotel based in the West Lothian area but from today, a similar request should bring up details of a sunnier locale.
The progress that the Lions have made under the guidance of Chairman Gordon McDougall over the past two years has been seen in Gary Bollan’s first team side winning back to back IRN-BRU SFL Championships. Success under the guidance of Head of Youth, Brian Welsh, at youth level has also been seen with SFL Youth Division and SFL Youth League Cup successes at both Under 17 and Under 19 age levels and the club can now also boast of a place on the prestigious European Community funded Life Long Learning programme, ‘The Leonardo da Vinci Coaching Initiative’.
The Lions will join Third Division Queen’s Park, who are now becoming da Vinci veterans, in representing the SFL on the programme while Scotland will be shivering in January.
Livingston’s youngsters will be heading south and west for the Algarve next month with Welsh saying: “We are heading to the Brown’s Sports Resort in Portugal from 8th January to 21st January for a training camp that will also see us take on a couple of local Portuguesel sides in games as well.
“The club had applied in the past but this is the first time in my spell here that we have gone for it and I am delighted that the hard work put into the application has been successful.”
It was no tick box exercise to get accepted with Welsh explaining: “We put together a really comprehensive file on what we were looking to achieve and sent it off to the SFA at Hampden. A few other clubs from the SPL and the SFL applied as well so it was great to hear we had been successful and we are really looking forward to it.”
The success of winning a trip to Portugal is a far cry from the scenario that McDougall, Bollan and Welsh found when they moved into West Lothian just less than two and a half years ago with the Head of Youth saying: “When we came in, we only had six Under-19 players left at the club and the teams underneath that from Under-13 level upwards were decimated as well.
“We put squads together quickly and have seen success since with back to back SFL Youth Division wins at Under-19 level and cup success at Under-17 level. We did a lot to bring players in and treat them right and a lot of credit for that has to go to our scout, Jim McArthur. He is still the only scout that we have and he has done really well for us.”
A party of 20 will swap Scotland for Portugal with 18 players, who are all on Modern Apprenticeship programmes, making the trip as well as Welsh, who will be assisted by coach Neil Hastings, who is just a year older than the players who will be making the trip.
Welsh said: “Neil was one of the original six youngsters we had at the club when we came in and he was in the first team squad on a few occasions during the past couple of seasons. We encourage a lot of our youth players to get involved in coaching and we recognised that Neil had a real talent for it.
“I gave him a job in charge of coaching in our community programmes and he now also takes our Under-13 side on his own. He is no longer registered as a player for us but he has a good future ahead of him as a coach if he wants it.”
It will be no holiday for the coaches or the players with Welsh saying: “Our schedule has been pretty well planned out with some days seeing three training sessions taking place. All of our training sessions and games that we play will be videoed which is something we do not have at home so I will also be spending a lot of my time analysing what I see during our time out there.”
One of the established principles that the da Vinci programme works towards is that visiting football clubs embrace the local culture and Livingston’s youngsters will have an excellent insight into life in the Algarve area.
Welsh explained: “We will be investing heavily in the cultural education element of the programme. We will visit the town of Sagres as well as taking in Sagres Point, which is usually regarded as the south westernmost tip of Europe. There is a museum there which we will be going to see as well.
“Another excursion will see us visit a cork farm and learn about the importance of cork to that area of Portugal and we will also have a fairly exciting Jeep safari that will take the players and me around the Algarve.”
The drive behind the programme is to develop the youngsters as both players and people with Welsh saying: “This is about helping the players to grow from a youth team environment to a full-time first team set-up. Some of the players have never been away from home for a match and bearing in mind that is what full-timers have to do frequently, I would like to think this trip is preparing them for life as a professional footballer.
“They will get a break from League games and we are treating it like a mini pre-season in really good conditions. When you consider that we have been indoors for over a week now due to the ice on our astroturf pitch, going out and playing on grass will be great. We have been doing a lot of Futsal indoors recently but we want to be playing football.”
Welsh has every reason for ensuring his men are well prepared for 2012 as he explained: “We have reached the SFA Youth Cup Semi-Finals for the past two seasons and have the chance to do it again as we play Dundee United in the Quarter Finals.”
One thing that could change the make-up of the travelling party is elevation to Bollan’s first team squad for First Division games with Welsh saying: “It is a bit of a double edged sword for the boys in that if they drop out the trip, it is because they are doing so well that Gary wants them for League games which, of course, would be a great achievement.”
Welsh, of course, used to be Bollan’s assistant however, he now concentrates solely on developing the next wave of Livingston talent as he explained: “I have been a Manager at Cowdenbeath and was also the assistant here but I do not enjoy first team management as much as I enjoy the youth role. I was delighted when Scott Paterson came in as assistant to Gary and they have done really well since.”
One of the Livingston players will be on his best behaviour throughout as Welsh’s son, Michael, is part of the Under-19 squad and dad will be able to keep tabs on how his boy is progressing much easier than he can on other son Daniel who left the Braidwood Motor Company Stadium club for even further west than Portugal when he moved to America last year.
Welsh said: “Michael will be treated just the same as any other player during our time away and he is looking forward to it. Daniel is now based in Baltimore in Maryland on a Soccer Scholarship. He could have stayed at the club but he is doing really well over there and in fact, a team from Israel were very keen to have a look at him.
"I have been over there a few times to see him and he is enjoying life and will probably not be too jealous of us going to Portugal.”
Welsh is determined that acceptance on the da Vinci programme is another indicator that the club is yet again a Centre of Excellence for youth players.
He said: “We are winning trophies at youth level but that is not the be all and end all of developing players. We work them hard, firstly as football players, and then on the work they do about the club.
“There is a lot of emphasis on technical development at Livingston and when you consider that Mark McNulty, Kyle Jacobs, Stefan Scougall, Ross Gray and Darren Jamieson have all come through the youth system to first team level in the past couple of years, everyone is looking forward to seeing the next wave of players.”
Chairman Gordon McDougall added: “When you consider what this club lost a few years ago in terms of young talent and then the struggle we had to get back into SFA Youth Programmes, we have made remarkable strides in a short period of time.
“I am really pleased that we have secured a place on the da Vince programme and I am sure it is something that this club will benefit from in years to come.”
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