A FATHER and son team are set to inspire the next generation of stars as lead coaches at Dunfermline Tennis Club.

Alan Russell, a two-time winner of Tennis Scotland’s Coach of the Year accolade, returned to the club in November as their joint head coach.

It was a position he was set to hold alongside Alessia Palmieri, who also has coaching commitments at Fossoway Tennis Club in Crook of Devon, but she has, subsequently, decided not to take up the joint head coach role.

That has led the club to bring in Alan’s son Mike, a lifelong member and who has built up experience working abroad with Mark Warner and Neilson Active Holidays as a tennis coach, as well as with David Lloyd Health Club in Dundee, where he has most recently been working as their racquets manager.

He will take up the position of assistant head coach and junior programme lead and, speaking to Press Sport, he is enthused about the challenge ahead.

“I think it’s maybe been three years since I was last fully involved with the club,” he said.

“I was at the club for my whole life before that and, in the last three years, I’ve gained a lot of experience with different types of jobs still to do with tennis coaching. For example, Mark Warner and Neilson were both abroad in Greece for three months each, and the second time I was out there as head coach, I absolutely loved it.

“But, at the same time, I want to have my own programme where I can develop juniors and help develop the club.

“I got too good an opportunity to turn down, for the David Lloyd’s racquets manager job, which has been for just under 18 months. We’ve got the junior programme from roughly 30 kids to just about 110. I think I’m ready to move back.

“Being involved in the head of the junior programme at Dunfermline is pretty much my dream job. It was something I would always have wanted to end up.

“I didn’t think it would happen this soon, but it genuinely is my dream job, so I’m absolutely delighted with how things have turned out.”

Alan, who also coaches at Brucehaven Tennis Club in Limekilns, said of his return to Dunfermline: “It’s now what I’d planned, but I couldn’t resist the challenge.

“It’s strange now but it’s a bit like a drug, a good one! I had planned to take things a bit easier but all I needed was a little break, and lockdown gave me that.”

A statement from the club added: “Since our announcement in November on the appointment of our two new Head Coaches, Alessia Palmieri has decided not to take up the joint position alongside Alan Russell, in order to focus on her existing coaching commitments.

“She will, however, stay on as a member of our coaching team to help promote girls’ tennis activities.”