A passion for grass roots football and a commitment to share his knowledge with others has taken Dave Peacock from Northern League and police representative football to the St George’s Park National Football Centre in Burton Upon Trent, the 330 acre FA facility. The latest stop is a four week Tenerife holiday combined with an exchange of ideas and training techniques at CD Marino on the Los Cristianos and Playa de Las Americas border.
A youthful 60 year old, Dave has been a regular visitor to Tenerife but watching an August 2015 CD Marino game opened up new opportunities. “I got talking to Steven Gillespie from the club, his two sons have come through the youth set up and he surprised me by pointing out the seniors had just signed Bradley Mills from the Academy of my home town club Middlesborough. I remembered Bradley from regional coaching schools but he knew me as PC Peacock then, I had 30 years in the force.”
Goalkeeper Dave played for Southam and Whitby Town and also represented the police at England and GB level before taking up the flag to officiate at football league games. “I covered games within a two hour radius mainly in the lower divisions but worked some bigger FA Cup games at Manchester City’s Maine Road and a Sky pre season tournament at Middlesborough’s Riverside featuring Benfica, Newcastle, Middlesborough, and Atletico Madrid.”
Coaching his 8 year old sons team led him on another path and he is now and FA Coach Educator and Tutor, helping to guide people through their badges, he is also a mentor and assessor of referees. Dave is well qualified to give a view on the current state of goalkeeping. “These days it’s more 60% feet and 40% hands, they have much more to do in terms of starting off team moves and distributing the ball.” Although he has only seen a few games in Tenerife he has already spotted a few differences in referees. “They don’t seem to interact as much with players, I was always a talker and liked a bit of banter with the players.” CD Marino has a huge youth development programme and Dave is keen to pass on some of his experience to the young players while he is here. “Marino have made me welcome and it’s a great chance to swap ideas, I still feel I am always learning and I love all aspects of the game.” It may be the start of further links with UK football, several clubs have shown an interest in sending youth teams to enrich their growth with that special Tenerife contribution.