Tam Courts

Thomas "Tam" Courts (born 10 August 1981) is a Scottish football coach and former player who is currently head of tactical performance at Dundee United's youth academy.

Tam Courts
Personal information
Date of birth (1981-08-10) 10 August 1981
Place of birth Kirkcaldy, Scotland
Position(s) Central defender
Club information
Current team
 Dundee United
(academy head of tactical performance)
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
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 01:30, 12 October 2018

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.

In 2017 Courts was caught driving while intoxicated, he was given a fine for this incident.

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 eventual release by Livingston in 2002. A further spell in the SFL 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.[1]

Coaching career

After the sacking of Willie Newbigging in October 2013, Courts was appointed player-manager of Kelty Hearts at the age of 32.[2]

Since becoming player-manager at Kelty Hearts, Courts 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.[3]

Kelty won the East of Scotland League in 2018 under Courts[4] 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.[5]

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.[6]

Courts joined Dundee United in February 2020 as head of tactical performance in the club's youth academy.[7] 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,[8] overseeing a 2-0 defeat against Livingston.[9]

References
  1. Campbell, Scott. "Junior Scotland's squad". The Scottish Sun Juniors. Facebook. Retrieved 28 October 2013.
  2. https://www.centralfifetimes.com/sport/13549180.tam-courts-takes-over-at-kelty/
  3. "Kelty Hearts join EoS League as they follow SPFL dream". Retrieved 2018-09-16.
  4. "KELTY HEARTS WIN PROMOTION TO LOWLAND LEAGUE". Pars Review. Retrieved 2018-09-16.
  5. "The only way is up for Kelty!". The Bolton News. Retrieved 2018-09-16.
  6. "Kelty Hearts Football Club on Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved 2018-10-12.
  7. Williams, Ieuan (14 February 2020). "Former Kelty Hearts boss Thomas Courts lands United role". Dunfermline Press. Retrieved 3 December 2020.
  8. 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.
  9. 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.
  • Tam Courts at Soccerbase
  • Tam Courts at Post War English & Scottish Football League A–Z Player's Database
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