A star of the past met a star of the future today when Airdrie legend Bryan Prunty and rising star Lewis Gracie got together to launch Airdrieonians FC's "Bryan Prunty Easter Training Camp". 

 

Proud Airdrieonian Prunty, who scored 40 goals in 143 appearances for the Diamonds over two seasons,  is still scoring goals for Lowland League side East Kilbride in the latest chapter of a career which also saw the striker turn out for Celtic and Aberdeen. But it was his spells at the Diamonds which remain Prunts' favourite times in football, and in particular his special relationship with the young fans at the club, including the Airdrie Aces.

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16-year-old Lewis has run the Community Trust programme since the start of the season, including the Young Diamonds and Pre-School Classes, and also the October and February Camps, and is a firm favourite with the youngsters. And while he is looking forward to working and learning from Bryan, he also hopes to show a thing or two of his own which he has learned from his two training spells with Portugese giants Benfica!

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Lewis and Bryan will also be joined by other stars of the past and present, including ex-captain Stephen Docherty, who turned out 122 times for the Diamonds and scored six times in the process. Doc has been a familiar face back at Excelsior Stadium since his retiral, citing his time with the Diamonds as his favourite in football.

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The camp is being run in conjunction with Box Soccer, which is taking the UK by storm. Designed around the "stages of technical development", Box Soccer's eight coaching categories cover all aspects of technical development from basic co-ordination, ball fluency, audio & visual reaction skills through to detailed understanding of position specific scenarios and the related roles within the team. The camp will be taken by a mixture of Box Soccer coaches and the aforementioned Airdrie stars. 

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The camps will run from 9:30am – 3:00pm on April 2 - 6 and April 9 - 13. The cost is £60 for a full week, or £15 per day. All kids who attend for one whole week will receive a free ticket for the Airdrie vs Albion Rovers Monklands derby on April 14. Booking and payment in advance is advised. Airdrie strips will also be available to buy for a special discounted rate of £10 in advance!

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More details will be released and announced next week, but in the meantime, please contact douglas.allsop@airdriefc.com for further details.