Tam Courts
Personal information | |||
---|---|---|---|
Date of birth | 10 August 1981 | ||
Place of birth | Kirkcaldy, Scotland | ||
Position(s) | Central defender | ||
Club information | |||
Current team | Dundee United (head coach) | ||
Youth career | |||
Milton Green | |||
Senior career* | |||
Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
1998–2002 | Livingston | 5 | (0) |
2000–2001 | → Cowdenbeath (loan) | 25 | (1) |
2002–2004 | Kelty Hearts | ||
2004–2006 | Hill of Beath Hawthorn | ||
2006–2007 | East Fife | 26 | (0) |
2007 | → Hill of Beath Hawthorn (loan) | ||
2007–2018 | Kelty Hearts | ||
Total | 56 | (1) | |
Teams managed | |||
2013–2018 | Kelty Hearts | ||
2021– | Dundee United | ||
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 01:30, 12 October 2018 |
Thomas "Tam" Courts (born 10 August 1981) is a Scottish football coach and former player who is currently the head coach of Scottish Premiership club Dundee United.
As a player, he appeared in the Scottish Football League for Livingston, Cowdenbeath and East Fife. After a previous spell at the club from 2002 to 2004, he rejoined Kelty Hearts as a player in 2007 and went on to be their player-manager from 2013 until 2018. After joining Dundee United in 2020 to work in their youth academy, he was promoted to first team head coach in 2021.
Playing career[]
Courts began his professional career at Livingston and made his first team debut in February 1999 against Clyde in a Scottish Football League Second Division game. With Livingston promoted as champions that year, Courts made four league appearances in the First Division the following season before departing for a loan spell at Cowdenbeath.
Courts dropped into Junior football with local Fife sides Kelty Hearts and Hill of Beath Hawthorn after his release by Livingston in 2002. A further spell in senior football with East Fife in 2006–07 ended with Courts being loaned back to Hill of Beath before joining Kelty for a second time in late 2007.
Courts has also played for the Scotland Junior international team and captained the squad in the 2013 Umbro Quadrangular Trophy in the Republic of Ireland.[citation needed]
Coaching career[]
After the sacking of Willie Newbigging in October 2013, Courts was appointed player-manager of Kelty Hearts at the age of 32.[1] He saved the club from relegation before winning the East Region Super League title for the first time in the club's history in 2015. Kelty went onto win the title again in 2017 before joining the East of Scotland Football League.[2]
Kelty won the East of Scotland League in 2018 under Courts[3] and were promoted to the Lowland League, the fifth tier of the Scottish football league system, where they competed for the first time during the 2018–19 season.[4]
Courts retired from playing to focus on managing Kelty Hearts in the Lowland League, however he resigned his position as manager on the 11 October 2018, which the club reluctantly accepted.[5]
Courts joined Dundee United in February 2020 as head of tactical performance in the club's youth academy.[6] In December 2020 he was put in temporary charge of the club's first team when manager Micky Mellon and his coaching staff had to self-isolate during the COVID-19 pandemic,[7] overseeing a 2-0 defeat against Livingston.[8] In June 2021 Courts was appointed as the club's head coach following the departure of Mellon.[9]
Managerial record[]
- As of match played 5 February 2022
Team | Nat | From | To | Record | Ref. | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
G | W | D | L | Win % | |||||
Kelty Hearts | 2 October 2013 | 11 October 2018 | 192 | 128 | 27 | 37 | 66.67 | [10][11][12][13][14][15] | |
Dundee United | June 2021 | Present | 32 | 13 | 7 | 12 | 40.63 | ||
Total | 224 | 141 | 34 | 49 | 62.95 | — |
Honours[]
Player[]
- Cowdenbeath
Manager[]
- Kelly Hearts
- East of Scotland League: 2017–18[17]
- King Cup: 2017–18[18]
- East Junior Super League: 2014–15,[17] 2016–17[17]
References[]
- ^ "Tam Courts takes over at Kelty".
- ^ "Kelty Hearts join EoS League as they follow SPFL dream". Retrieved 2018-09-16.
- ^ "KELTY HEARTS WIN PROMOTION TO LOWLAND LEAGUE". Pars Review. Retrieved 2018-09-16.
- ^ "The only way is up for Kelty!". The Bolton News. Retrieved 2018-09-16.
- ^ "Kelty Hearts Football Club on Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved 2018-10-12.
- ^ Williams, Ieuan (14 February 2020). "Former Kelty Hearts boss Thomas Courts lands United role". Dunfermline Press. Retrieved 3 December 2020.
- ^ Roache, Ian (3 December 2020). "Dundee United's Thomas Courts opens up on dramatic 'promotion' as entire first-team coaching staff self-isolate after positive Covid-19 tests". The Courier. Dundee. Retrieved 3 December 2020.
- ^ Roache, Ian (12 December 2020). "Dundee United striker Lawrence Shankland has not let club's pandemic problem bother him". The Courier. Dundee. Retrieved 12 December 2020.
- ^ "Dundee United appoint Courts as manager". BBC Sport. Retrieved 7 June 2021.
- ^ http://keltyhearts-co-uk.stackstaging.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/season-13-14.jpg
- ^ http://keltyhearts-co-uk.stackstaging.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/season-14-15.jpg
- ^ http://keltyhearts-co-uk.stackstaging.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/season-15-16.jpg
- ^ http://keltyhearts-co-uk.stackstaging.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/season-16-17.jpg
- ^ http://keltyhearts-co-uk.stackstaging.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/season-17-18.jpg
- ^ http://keltyhearts-co-uk.stackstaging.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/season-18-19.jpg
- ^ "MATCH PREVIEW - KELTY (A)". Cowdenbeath FV. 6 July 2018.
- ^ a b c "Leaving Kelty was a Big Decision". Central Fife Times. Retrieved 30 January 2022.
- ^ "Kelty Seek New Boss". Central Fife Times. Retrieved 30 January 2022.
External links[]
- Tam Courts at Soccerbase
- Tam Courts at Post War English & Scottish Football League A–Z Player's Database
- 1981 births
- Living people
- Footballers from Kirkcaldy
- Scottish footballers
- Livingston F.C. players
- Cowdenbeath F.C. players
- Kelty Hearts F.C. players
- Hill of Beath Hawthorn F.C. players
- East Fife F.C. players
- Association football central defenders
- Scottish football managers
- Scottish Football League players
- Scottish Junior Football Association players
- Scotland junior international footballers
- Kelty Hearts F.C. managers
- Scottish Junior Football Association managers
- Dundee United F.C. managers
- Scottish Professional Football League managers