Thomas "Tam" Courts (born 10 August 1981) is a Scottish

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 ...

coach and former player. As a player, he appeared in the

Scottish Football League The Scottish Football League (SFL) is a defunct league featuring professional and semi-professional football clubs mostly from Scotland.One club, Berwick Rangers, is based in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, which is located approximately 4&nbs ...

for

Livingston Livingston or Livingstonemay refer to: Businesses * Livingston Energy Flight, an Italian airline (2003–2010) * Livingston Compagnia Aerea, an Italian airline (2011–2014), also known as Livingston Airline * Livingston International, a North Am ...

Cowdenbeath Cowdenbeath () is a town and burgh in west Fife, Scotland. It is north-east of Dunfermline and north of the capital, Edinburgh. The town grew up around the extensive coalfields of the area and became a police burgh in 1890. According to a 20 ...

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 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 ...

in 2020 to work in their youth academy, he was their head coach during the 2021–22 season. Tam is currently looking to get back into football management, stating on Tay FM, 5 March 2025, that he's got unfinished business in the SPFL and that he would love a crack at managing in England.

Playing career

Courts began his professional career at

and made his first team debut in February 1999 against Clyde in a

Scottish Football League Second Division The Scottish Football League Second Division was the third tier of the Scottish football league system between 1975 and 2013. History The Second Division was created in 1975, as part of a wider reconstruction of the Scottish Football League (SFL ...

game. With Livingston promoted as champions that year, Courts made four league appearances in the

First Division 1st Division or First Division may refer to: Military Airborne divisions *1st Parachute Division (Germany) *1st Airborne Division (United Kingdom) * 1st Airmobile Division (Ukraine) * 1st Guards Airborne Division Armoured divisions *1st Armoure ...

the following season before departing for a loan spell at

. 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.

Coaching career

Kelty Hearts

After the sacking of Willie Newbigging in October 2013, Courts was appointed player-manager of Kelty Hearts at the age of 32. 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 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

Kelty Kelty (Scottish Gaelic: Cailtidh) is a former coal mining village located in Fife, Scotland. Lying in the heart of the old mining heartlands of Fife, it is situated on the Fife/ Kinross-shire boundary and has a population of around 6,000 re ...

went onto win the title again in

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

before joining the

East of Scotland Football League The East of Scotland Football League (EoSFL) is a senior association football, football league based in the east and south-east of Scotland. The league sits at levels 6–9 on the Scottish football league system, acting as a feeder to the Lowlan ...

. Kelty won the East of Scotland League in

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

under Courts and were promoted to the

Lowland League The Scottish Lowland Football League (SLFL, commonly known as the Lowland League) and the Park’s Motor Group Scottish Lowland League for sponsorship reasons is a senior football league based in central and southern Scotland. The league sits a ...

, the fifth tier of the

Scottish football league system The Scottish football league system is a series of generally connected leagues for Scottish football clubs. The Scottish system is more complicated than many other national league systems, consisting of several completely separate systems or 'gr ...

, where they competed for the first time during the 2018–19 season. 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.

Dundee United

Courts joined

in February 2020 as head of tactical performance in the club's youth academy. In December 2020 he was put in temporary charge of the club's first team when manager

Micky Mellon Michael Joseph Mellon (born 18 March 1972) is a Scottish professional football coach and former player who is the manager of club Oldham Athletic. As a player, he was a midfielder for clubs including Bristol City, West Bromwich Albion, Blackp ...

and his coaching staff had to self-isolate during the COVID-19 pandemic, overseeing a 2-0 defeat against Livingston. In June 2021 Courts was appointed as the club's head coach following the departure of Mellon. Courts guided United to a fourth-place finish, and European qualification, in the

2021–22 Scottish Premiership The 2021–22 Scottish Premiership (known as the cinch Premiership for sponsorship reasons) was the ninth season of the Scottish Premiership, the highest division of Scottish football, and the 125th edition overall of the top national league co ...

. He was linked with Croatian club

HNK Rijeka Hrvatski nogometni klub Rijeka (), commonly referred to as HNK Rijeka, is a Croatian professional association football club from the city of Rijeka. HNK Rijeka competes in Croatia's top division, Croatian First Football League, Supersport HNL, o ...

in June 2022 and soon afterwards left United by mutual consent, as he had expressed his "desire to explore other options".

Budapest Honvéd

After his departure from Dundee United, Courts signed a two-year deal to become the new manager of

Budapest Honvéd Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

. In an interview with Hungarian Nemzeti Sport, he said that the first match he saw in a stadium was between Celtic and Honvéd. He also added that the fact that Chris Docherty was appointed as the sports director of Honvéd contributed to his decision to accept the offer of Honvéd. On 21 August 2022, Courts-led Honvéd won for the first time in the

2022-23 Nemzeti Bajnokság I The symbol , known in Unicode as hyphen-minus, is the form of hyphen most commonly used in digital documents. On most keyboards, it is the only character that resembles a minus sign or a dash, so it is also used for these. The name ''hyphen-min ...

season by beating

Vasas SC Vasas SC () is a Hungarian sports club based in Budapest. Members of the ''Hungarian Union of Iron Workers'' founded the club as ''Vas- és Fémmunkások Sport Clubja'', the "Sport Club of Iron and Metal Workers", on 16 March 1911. The club ...

2-1 at

Illovszky Rudolf Stadion Illovszky Rudolf Stadion is a multi-use stadium in Angyalföld, Budapest, Hungary. It is used mostly for football (soccer), football matches and is the home stadium of Vasas SC. The stadium holds 5,054 people. History Planning On 8 December 201 ...

. Although his team defeated

Zalaegerszegi TE Zalaegerszegi Torna Egylet Football Club (), commonly known as Zalaegerszegi TE, Zalaegerszeg or ZTE, is a Hungary, Hungarian professional association football, football club based in Zalaegerszeg. Zalaegerszeg has won one Hungarian League title ...

at the

ZTE Arena ZTE Arena is a stadium in Zalaegerszeg, Hungary. It is currently used mostly for football (soccer), football matches and is the home stadium of Zalaegerszegi TE. The stadium is able to hold 11,200 people. History On 26 March 2017 the renovated ...

on 22 October 2022 on the 12th match day of the season, Courts left the club by mutual consent on 24 October 2022. He then took an extended period away from management while completing his

UEFA Pro Licence The UEFA coaching licences are documents testifying credentials of manager (association football), managers/ coach (sport), coaches among members of UEFA. The governing body for association football, football in Europe mandates several licences, e ...

qualification.

Managerial record

Honours

Player

; Cowdenbeath *

Scottish Third Division The Scottish Football League Third Division was the fourth tier of the Scottish football league system between 1994 and 2013. History The Scottish football league system had operated with three divisions in the Scottish Football League (SFL) fro ...

: Promotion 2000–01

Manager

; Kelty Hearts *

East of Scotland League The East of Scotland Football League (EoSFL) is a senior football league based in the east and south-east of Scotland. The league sits at levels 6–9 on the Scottish football league system, acting as a feeder to the Lowland Football League. Fo ...

: 2017–18 *King Cup: 2017–18 * East Junior Super League: 2014–15, 2016–17

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Courts, Tam 1981 births Living people Footballers from Kirkcaldy Scottish men's 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 Men's association football central defenders Scottish football managers Scottish Football League players Scottish Junior Football Association players Scotland men's junior international footballers Kelty Hearts F.C. managers Scottish Junior Football Association managers Dundee United F.C. managers Scottish Professional Football League managers Expatriate football managers in Hungary Scottish expatriate football managers Scottish expatriate sportspeople in Hungary Budapest Honvéd FC managers Nemzeti Bajnokság I managers 21st-century Scottish sportsmen