Latest news with #Coyle
India Gazette
18 hours ago
- Sport
- India Gazette
Connor Shields, the lone bright spot in Chennaiyin FC's disappointing ISL campaign
New Delhi [India] June 22 (ANI): Chennaiyin FC's Indian Super League (ISL) 2024-25 campaign came to a disappointing end, with no playoff berth and a lowly 11th-place finish. Amid the frustration and fading hopes, one name stood out, Connor Shields, a rare bright spark in an otherwise forgettable season, as per the official website of ISL. The Scottish forward might now be leaving the club, but the mark he left on the league in the 2024-25 season will be remembered for a long time. In a team that struggled to stay afloat, Shields looked like a player operating on a different wavelength. Chennaiyin FC may not have had a season to remember, but Shields certainly did. For context, Chennaiyin FC finished sixth in the ISL 2023-24 season and made it to the playoffs. In 2024-25, they dropped to 11th. Fewer wins, fewer reasons to smile. They managed to score 34 goals in the league stage, eight more than they had in the previous league season. That attacking output had a lot to do with Shields working his socks off down the right. Shields took up an attacking role under head coach Owen Coyle and went on to become an effective creator-in-chief in the league, and the numbers prove it. He provided a league-high eight assists, more than anyone else in the ISL. He also created 76 chances, which wasn't just the best in the season, but the highest ever recorded by any player in a single ISL campaign. During the 2024-25 campaign, that was 21 more than the next best, Kerala Blasters FC's Adrian Luna, who is no stranger to dominating creativity charts himself. In a team that was ranked sixth for chances created overall, Shields was the creative core. Chennaiyin FC didn't dominate the ball (they ranked bottom for successful passes completed), but when the ball did reach him, Shields made it count. It's easy to see how his role change made a difference. In 2023-24, Coyle used Shields in various roles, and he adapted well. His work rate and confidence with the ball allowed him to grow into the side and he even came second only to Rafael Crivellaro for chances created (31) among Chennaiyin FC players. He made 761 touches, completed 29 key passes and was instrumental in transitions. Fast forward to 2024-25, and Coyle unlocked another dimension in him as a right winger. This gave Shields the freedom to exploit space, get behind defenders, to deliver, and the Scotsman did. He upped his key passes tally from 29 to 68. His successful dribbles jumped from 10 to 21, and his overall touches rose to 918, the second-highest in the entire Chennaiyin FC squad, in a team that rarely kept the ball. He wasn't just involved, he was central. The positional shift also added new layers to his game. His crossing, especially from set pieces, was among the most threatening in the league. Defenders knew what was coming, and they just couldn't stop it. For Coyle, Shields was close to irreplaceable. He played multiple roles across two seasons and thrived in everything. He tracked back, sprayed passes, ran into channels, delivered from dead-ball situations and popped up in key attacking areas. He also brought something that doesn't show up on stat sheets, which was reliability. Across the 2023-24 and 2024-25 campaigns, Chennaiyin FC never lost a game in which Shields scored or assisted. That's the kind of impact coaches dream of, one that would benefit any team. Even when goals didn't come, his effort rarely dropped, and fans noticed. In a season where things rarely clicked for Chennaiyin FC, the one thing they could bank on was Shields putting in a shift. Chennaiyin FC will now have to look at replacing someone who topped the assist charts, set a new record for chances created and outshone most attackers in the league; all in a side that finished 11th. Shields might not have won any silverware, but he did become a player that the club will remember for a long time. One who gave them hope when things were falling apart. One who showed up and stood out. His departure leaves a creative vacuum that will take some filling. For Chennaiyin FC, the challenge is now to build again. But for a moment, they had one of the best players in the league who gave them everything. (ANI)
Scottish Sun
7 days ago
- Sport
- Scottish Sun
My dad's a Scottish football cult hero who turned down Celtic job now I'm youngest British coach to get Uefa Pro Licence
He was a fan favourite at several Scottish clubs RISING STAR My dad's a Scottish football cult hero who turned down Celtic job now I'm youngest British coach to get Uefa Pro Licence Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) HIS dad is one of Scottish football's most popular cult heroes. Now he is making his own way in the football world as a coach - and has reached a mega milestone before anyone else. Sign up for the Celtic newsletter Sign up 3 Owen Coyle during his spell as Queen's Park boss Credit: PA 3 His son (second from left) is now following in his footsteps Credit: Kenny Ramsay Owen Coyle was a fan favourite at Dumbarton, Clydebank and Aidrieonians before making his mark in the top flight with Dundee United and Motherwell. Coyle also earned cult hero status at Bolton Wanderers and after hanging up his boots he became a manager, taking charge of Bolton after successful stints at St Johnstone and Burnley. The Republic of Ireland cap famously turned down his boyhood club Celtic in 2009 - because the Hoops came calling on the same day his Burnley side clinched promotion to the Premier League. Coyle has since gone on to manage elsewhere in England, the USA and in Scotland - but is currently coaching in India with Chennaiyin. His son, also called Owen, has just earned his Uefa Pro Licence - the highest level of coaching qualifications - at the age of 28. And he's been told that makes him the youngest person in Britain to hold those badges. He posted a picture of himself with his certificate on his Instagram account. And he said: "Delighted to share that I've officially graduated with my UEFA Pro Licence — the highest coaching diploma in football — after two challenging and rewarding years. "I began my coaching journey at 16, and 12 years on, I'm proud to have reached this milestone at 28. I'm told it makes me the youngest British coach to achieve the licence — something I'm grateful for and don't take lightly. "Thank you to the Scottish FA for their support throughout, to my peers for the insight and good company along the way, and to my family, friends, and colleagues who've backed me since day one. Celtic transfer special - Nygren in and Kyogo to return "Still plenty to learn — but a positive step forward." Coyle Jr is currently employed at Nottingham Forest as player pathway and loans manager. That's following a recent promotion from assistant player pathway and loans manager, a role he combined with working as one of the development coaches at the club. Coyle Jr joined Forest as a scout in 2023 after a spell working under his dad at Queen's Park as the club's B team manager, in which he also assisted his father with the senior team. Prior to that, he was the manager of the England Amputee national team and also worked as a youth coach at Oldham Athletic and a disability-inclusive coach at Blackpool. 3 Owen Coyle Jr on the training field with Queen's Park Credit: Willie Vass Keep up to date with ALL the latest news and transfers at the Scottish Sun football page
Chicago Tribune
14-06-2025
- Sport
- Chicago Tribune
Daniel Coyle delivers on mound, at plate as St. Laurence wins Class 3A state title. ‘Live for that type of stuff.'
The bat. The ball. St. Laurence baseball history. Daniel Coyle wanted it all in his hands. The junior infielder had not pitched in the playoffs. But he was sent to the mound Saturday with the first state championship in program history on the line. He wouldn't have had it any other way. 'I was a little bit nervous that they wouldn't give me it, but I wanted it so bad,' Coyle said. 'I wanted to finish it. I wanted to bring it home for coach Pete (Lotus) and coach Adam (Lotus).' Coyle then went out and delivered, earning the pitching win and providing the go-ahead RBI double in the sixth inning as the Vikings beat Benet 8-5 in the Class 3A state championship game at Duly Health and Care Field in Joliet. South Suburban College commit Enrique Villanueva added two RBIs for St. Laurence (37-5), while Adrian Perez, SSC recruit Ben Geary and Orlando Vazquez each went 2-for-4 with an RBI. It's the third team state championship across all sports for the Vikings, along with a Class 5A football title in 1976 and a Class AA state title in boys wrestling in the 1989-90 season. 'I couldn't picture it better myself,' Coyle said. 'I love it. I live for that type of stuff. 'It just feels good to bring one home finally.' Down 5-2 after three innings, Benet (27-13) rallied and forced a 5-5 tie in the fifth as Josh Gugora came through with an RBI double off Coyle. Coyle didn't have to wait long for redemption. In the top of the sixth, he came up with a runner on second and ripped an RBI double into left field. 'I knew I was going to do some damage,' Coyle said. 'He was leaving his slider up. I saw it up, I just pieced it. That's all I can do. It felt great. 'Having the bat in my hands in that situation, it's awesome.' Coyle allowed one run on three hits and struck out four over the final three innings. He hadn't pitched in the playoffs and hadn't thrown three innings in an outing since an April 29 win over St. Rita, but his coaches were confident Coyle was the one to make history happen. 'He's one of the toughest kids,' Pete Lotus said of Coyle. 'He's never afraid of the moment. We knew that when he was a freshman.' The Vikings added two insurance runs in the seventh on an RBI single from Villanueva and a sacrifice fly from Danny Donovan. In between, Donovan started a fantastic defensive sequence, making a strong throw from the warning track in right-center and hitting junior second baseman Mickey Lotus, who threw out Dominik Tomala at third on a would-be triple. St. Laurence previously had won four state trophies, including three under Pete Lotus, but had yet to grab the big one. Mickey Lotus, Pete's son, was around for some of the near misses. 'I've always wished,' Mickey said. 'I've always dreamed about playing in this game, especially after watching them obviously not succeed. It's so awesome that we're here.' The Vikings had just three seniors in their starting lineup. They came into the spring with several new faces in prominent roles and lost their ace, Louisville recruit Joe Olson, with a season-ending injury before the season began. Yet this was the St. Laurence team to finally break through. 'We said from the start that people might count us out, but we're not going to count ourselves out,' Pete Lotus said. 'We're just going to believe in each other. 'And I think that's what they did better than anyone was believe in each other.' Everyone certainly had faith Saturday in Coyle. 'He's always just been a dog,' Mickey Lotus said of Coyle. 'He's built for those moments. I was talking to him and he wanted the ball. 'He wanted it.'
The National
14-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The National
Nan Shepherd: Naked and Unashamed cements her place in literary canon
The play tells the story of Shepherd as an author, teacher, hillwalker and lover, and explores the 30-years-delay in the publication of her masterpiece The Living Mountain. Now in its second run in Pitlochry, I did not want to miss. Before entering the studio space, we were told the show was 'very clever' by staff and it had sold out the remainder of the performances. The thirst for knowledge about Shepherd has not been quenched since her appearance on Scotland's five-pound note in 2016. She has taken her rightful place among the great Scottish writers of her time, of whom she was friends with, and with that, becoming a posthumous celebrity. Holding the titular role, Susan Coyle effortlessly shifted as a child playing in the woods with her father, to a young woman teasing a married man, a middle-aged teacher relishing in the outdoors, and an old woman reflecting on her life's work, then later in her final days. Around and around, we were carried, spinning through time and Shepherd's life. Along the way, Adam Buksh joined her, embodying several men who played key roles in her life. He transformed into her father, her lover John Macmurray, an American journalist who tracked her down in 1976, and her mentor Neil Gunn. The periods of her life that were played out each helped capture a full-bodied picture of Shepherd. We saw her as a child in the Quarry Wood by her house in 1901, aged eight – which later inspired her first novel, by the same name, published in 1928 – playing with her father and learning about communication between trees. We were then transported to 1981, to see Nan grown and old, in a care home in Aberdeen slightly lost and confused. These two scenes bookend the play, with us returning to them again for the final two scenes. The play makes clear that Nan was closely attached the granite city, with the audience asked to fill in the evident gap: 'I was born in Aberdeen, I went to school in Aberdeen, and so I teach in …' when we meet her in 1938 in a classroom. Again, none of the staging has been moved, and Coyle doesn't change outfits at any point during the 90-minute production. Yet, it is an entirely different time, place and person in front of us. While embodying Shepherd as a teacher, Coyle asks audience members to read passages written by several authors which relate to Scotland and its literary renaissance of the 20th century. We also hear from Charles Murray, Hugh MacDiarmid, Rupert Brooke, James Joyce, and Thomas Hardy, The delivery of these passages by both Coyle and Buksh ensnared the audience and we were hooked on every word. Later, while going through old clippings with Robertson, a review written by Lewis Grassic Gibbon of The Quarry Wood is found, in which he savagely tears apart her work and her use of Scots language. READ MORE: 20 years, 7000 fans, one folk family: Skerryvore's castle show was for them Gibbon would go on to publish Sunset Song four years later, and we are told by Shepherd that his autobiographer said he never read Shepherd's novel. Robertson is aghast that as a student in the US, he was taught Sunset Song and told it was one of the greatest Scottish novels there had ever been but had never heard of Shepherd or her work which embodies the same world as Gibbon's but came first. Shepherd in 1976 notes her novel was written in Scotland, while his was written in England. The audience is left to make their own conclusion, as historians have been also. Instead of holding the audience in a grudge, we explore the deeper impact of what Shepherd was attempting to do at a time when the world was not built for a 'female feminist Scottish writer,' unmarried and uncovering the secrets ready to be shared by the great outdoors in ways that would rival and overtake any male counterpart. So harsh was this backlash, from Gibbon and others, she locked The Living Mountain away. This is the catalyst of the show, with the direction, sound, and writing using this moment to give the narrative a sense of release once the drawer is open. READ MORE: 'Show some respect': Scots hit out at Danish influencer for 'damaging' protected land The relationship between Shepherd and Gunn is also explored but not with conclusion. The journalist pries into whether love letters were exchanged between the two, who had decades-long written correspondence, but Shepherd remains steadfast that he was her mentor. Again, it's not clear whether the pair were intimately involved but both the writing and direction of the show allows the narrative to be explored without making any conclusions about Shepherd's life. The audience is left to read between the lines of all we know about Shepherd. An Aberdonian woman who wrote before her time, saw beyond her reality, and truly understood what the beauty and intricacies of Scotland's landscape and culture could give to this world if seen in its entirety. Her final moments are played out, with a final scene between Shepherd and her father bringing tears to many in the audience who closed the show with a standing ovation.
Chicago Tribune
07-06-2025
- Sport
- Chicago Tribune
Uncommitted Daniel Coyle delivers three big hits as St. Laurence rolls past Lemont. ‘Never give up.'
A varsity starter since he was a freshman at St. Laurence, junior infielder Daniel Coyle has been one of the Catholic League's most productive hitters throughout his career. But while several of the conference's stars have scholarship offers from major colleges, Coyle's recruiting so far has been quiet. That's just motivation for Coyle, who still has a point to prove. 'I love playing with that pressure on my back to keep going and show everyone what I can do,' Coyle said. 'I love when people doubt me, honestly. People see me and they're like, 'Oh, look at that short kid.' 'I'll prove you wrong any day.' Consider Coyle's point made on Saturday. He came up with three big hits, including an RBI double, and scored two runs as the host Vikings rolled to an 11-1 win over Lemont in six innings in the Class 3A St. Laurence Sectional championship game. Danny Donovan had a two-run double for the top-seeded Vikings (34-5). Adrian Perez went 2-for-3 with two runs and an RBI, Wisconsin-Stout recruit Connor Marino finished 2-for-4 with two runs and an RBI and South Suburban College commit Ben Geary was 2-for-3 with an RBI and a run. It's the first sectional title since 2021 and seventh overall for St. Laurence, which will take on Simeon (20-12-1) at 5 p.m. Monday in the Crestwood Supersectional at Ozinga Field. John Strzechowski allowed four hits and six walks but just one run over 4 1/3 innings to earn the win as he consistently pitched out of jams. 'As soon as the coaches gave me this game, I was so fired up,' Strzechowski said. 'The guys were fired up. I knew I've got the guys behind me to win a sectional championship with.' Oakton recruit Zach Corse went 2-for-3, while Missouri-St. Louis commit Matt Devoy reached base three times and scored on a sacrifice fly by Zane Schneider for second-seeded Lemont (30-8-1), which fell short of making it back to state after last season's runner-up finish. That run last spring included a 9-0 win over St. Laurence in a sectional semifinal, and the Vikings were certainly hungry for revenge Saturday. 'This felt great,' Coyle said. 'That hurt last year. I really thought we had a great team last year, but this year, we have an even better one. We're tough, we're gritty and we're going to do whatever it takes to win.' Those adjectives certainly apply to Coyle. Just ask St. Laurence coach Pete Lotus. 'He's played with my son, Mickey, since they were really young and I've seen Dan be the best player on the field since he was a really young kid,' Lotus said. 'Over the years, other kids have gotten bigger or a little more physical than him, but he's still the same player. 'He's one of if not the best player on the field every single day. I think he does carry that chip because some other guys might get more college looks than him. But he's a baseball player and we'll take him anywhere on the field.' St. Laurence scored four runs in the second inning and four more in the fifth. Coyle's RBI double in the fifth came right after Lemont had cut the deficit to 4-1. 'He never gives up,' Donovan said of Coyle. 'He's always working. He's the biggest leader on our team, I'd say. He gets all the guys going no matter what, even if he's playing bad. 'Today, he had big hits. He can do it all.' Coyle is hitting .324 with 39 runs, 16 stolen bases, three homers and 41 RBIs. Batting third in St. Laurence's order, he's certainly smaller than most people who bat in that spot. But that hasn't stopped him yet. 'I believe there's no one better than me,' Coyle said. 'When I get to the plate, all I'm thinking is 'This pitcher can not beat me.' I believe I'm the best one out there. 'Not cocky, but confident.'
