Atholl Henderson (born 7 October 1957) is a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

former professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

player and coach. After retiring from the playing side, he became a coach who introduced thousands of children to football in various roles. He played for five clubs in a nine-year career:

St Johnstone St Johnstone Football Club is a professional association football club in Perth, Scotland. The team competes in the , the second division of Scottish football. The club's name is derived from St John's Toun (or Saint Johnstoun)—an old name o ...

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...

Dunfermline Athletic Dunfermline Athletic Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in the city of Dunfermline, Fife. Founded in 1885, the club currently compete in the after winning the 2022–23 Scottish League One title. Dunfermline play at ...

and

Brechin City Brechin City Football Club is a Scottish football club based in the townDespite the name of the football club, Brechin is not an official city. Brechin was historically known as a city because it has a cathedral. of Brechin in Angus. The club w ...

Playing career

St Johnstone

While studying at

Perth Academy Perth Academy is a state comprehensive secondary school in Perth, Scotland. It was founded in 1696. The institution is a non-denominational one. The school occupies ground on the side of a hill in the Viewlands area of Perth, and is within the P ...

, in his home city, Henderson signed for

, who were then based at

Muirton Park Muirton Park was the second of three football stadiums the football club St Johnstone from Perth, Scotland, have occupied in their history. It was preceded by the Recreation Grounds (1885–1924) and succeeded by McDiarmid Park (1989&ndas ...

and managed by

Willie Ormond William Esplin Ormond (23 February 1927 – 4 May 1984) was a Scottish football player and manager. As a player, Ormond was well known as one of Hibernian's Famous Five forward line, winning three league championships in the late 1940s and ...

, on a schoolboy form on 28 December 1971. He left school in 1974 and went full-time with ''Saints'' for two seasons. The club went part-time at the end of his second season, at which point he was released.

Celtic

Henderson was training with

Rangers A ranger is typically someone in a law enforcement or military/paramilitary role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called "ranging" or "scouting". The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with prot ...

in 1976 when he was approached by their

Old Firm The Old Firm is a collective name for the Scottish football clubs Celtic and Rangers, which are both based in Glasgow. The two clubs are the most successful and popular in Scotland, and the rivalry between them has become deeply embedded i ...

rivals

, after John Clark put the wheels in motion. He played "a few games" for them, but suffered an injury in April that kept him out for about eighteen months.

Forfar Athletic

After a brief, uneventful stint with

, Henderson signed for Forfar Athletic in 1977. He made 37 league appearances and scored nine goals in three years.

Brechin City

He joined

in 1979, and in four years he made 83 league appearances and found the net fourteen times. He retired from playing at the end of his contract in 1983.

Coaching career

Henderson's first official community post occurred in 1992, but he had already been coaching under St Johnstone manager Alex Rennie around 1984, holding popular Saturday-morning coaching sessions on the all-weather pitches at

McDiarmid Park McDiarmid Park is a stadium in Perth, Scotland, Perth, Scotland, used mainly for association football. It has been the home ground of Scottish Premiership side St Johnstone F.C., St Johnstone since its opening in 1989. The stadium has an All-seat ...

. He later began Soccer Sevens games on Perth's

North Inch North Inch is a large public park in Perth, Scotland, Perth, Scotland. About in size, it is one of two "Inches" in Perth, the other being the smaller, 31-hectare South Inch, located half a mile across the city. The inches were granted to the ci ...

on Sunday mornings. In 1992, he applied to become a coach at several clubs, including St Johnstone, but he had success with their

Tayside Tayside () was one of the nine regions used for local government in Scotland from 16 May 1975 to 31 March 1996. The region was named after the River Tay. History Tayside region was created in 1975 under the Local Government (Scotland) Act ...

rivals

Dundee United Dundee United Football Club is a Scotland, Scottish professional association football, football club based in the city of Dundee. Formed in 1909, originally as Dundee Hibernian, the club changed to the present name in 1923. United are nickname ...

. He remained at

Tannadice Tannadice Park, officially known as The CalForth Construction Arena for sponsorship reasons, is a football stadium in Dundee, Scotland. It is the home ground of Dundee United F.C., who have played at Tannadice since the club was founded as Du ...

for two-and-a-half years. The opportunity to return to Perth came in 1994, and he joined

Paul Sturrock Paul Whitehead Sturrock (born 10 October 1956) is a Scottish former football coach and former player. As a player, Sturrock spent his entire senior career with Dundee United, making more than five hundred appearances between 1974 and 1989. He w ...

's backroom staff as both a coach and a community officer. In 2016, former

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

international Danny Griffin, who Henderson brought through the youth ranks at St Johnstone, was appointed to the board of the community trust. In December 2021, Henderson retired, after exactly fifty years in the game, with his final role being chief executive of St Johnstone's Community Trust,"Atholl Henderson Retires"
– Saints in the Community which became a

registered charity A charitable organization or charity is an organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being (e.g. educational, Religion, religious or other activities serving the public interest or common good). The legal definitio ...

in 2016. In 2020, the club won the

Scottish Football Association The Scottish Football Association (; also known as the Scottish FA and the SFA) is the governing body of football in Scotland and has the ultimate responsibility for the control and development of football in Scotland. Members of the SFA incl ...

's "Best Professional Club in the Community" award."Community champion Atholl Henderson retires but leaves lasting St Johnstone legacy"
– '' Daily Record'', 29 December 2021

References

External links

Atholl Henderson
– Neil Brown's football statistics
"Atholl Henderson Retires - Interview"
– The St Johnstone Community Trust,

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, 11 January 2022 {{DEFAULTSORT:Henderson, Atholl Living people 1957 births Scottish men's footballers St Johnstone F.C. players Celtic F.C. players Dunfermline Athletic F.C. players Forfar Athletic F.C. players Brechin City F.C. players Scottish Premier League players Scottish Football League players St Johnstone F.C. non-playing staff Men's association football forwards