Wise Men Choose Duffy as Northern Star!

Date published: 30 September 2011

Bolton Community Rugby League Coach John Duffy has been crowned 'Northern Star' at the 2011 Championship/Championship 1 Awards Dinner.

The award is a recognition of the outstanding community work John does within his full time role with the Bolton, Bury and Rochdale Rugby League Development Group as Bolton Community Rugby League Coach and also in a voluntary capacity with Ashton Bears.

John has ran a 28 team Bolton Secondary School Competition in 2010/11 showing a great amount of drive and determination to get the festivals up and running.

He coached the Bolton School year 8 team to the final of the first ever independant schools Rugby League competition and also won (with the same team) the NW Emerging Schools Competiton, ensuring a Bolton school reached the Carnegie Champion Schools Competition for the first time. A secondary school 'Academy' programme has also been launched with John and his Leigh team mates ensuring the elite players in Bolton receive extra coaching.

John has also supported girls teams at Westhoughton, Rivington and Blackrod, St Catherines and Smithills to enter RFL touch rugby competitions and helped to start a new under 8s team at Westhoughton through an in school coaching programme and half term camps at the club. John has also had the 'honour' of having primary school teachers re-name one of the cups the 'John Duffy Cup' in recogntion of all of his hard work. He also coached the Bolton Street Games team to victory at the NW Street Games festival .

Outside of his day job, John has been a leading influence in the re-surgence of Ashton Bears, supporting them through the Clubmark process and starting 3 junior teams, as well as coaching Scotland Exiles under 18s and Scotland u18s.

Ryan Bradley, Community Rugby League Manager for Bolton, Bury and Rochdale commented 'John is a fantastic bloke and you wont find a single person with anything other than praise for the work he does. He goes above and beyond the call of duty every single day of the week- how many other coaches do you know that collect bottles of wine from hospitality matches at the end of games and give them out to the teachers on Monday mornings!'

The Bolton CRLC post is set to continue, as Bolton Council have invested financially in the post, securing employment until the end of the current RFL Community Game strategy (March 2013).