Dungannon United Youth were formed as Dungannon Swifts Juniors in August 1984 when a half a dozen local lads, all of them sweating profusely as they had just finished a game of football in the local play-park. From this, we organised a match with the well renowned Armagh Boys Club and after our first victory Dungannon Swifts under 12s entered the Mid-Ulster Juvenile League where we went from strength to strength. After a number of seasons we were fielding teams at 3 different age groups but a lack of training and playing facilities drove me to try and find our own base. After almost a year of searching Dungannon Swifts Juniors was offered the local council's 6 acre site at Black Lane, Dungannon. We acquired a 50 year lease on this piece of ground giving a guarantee that we would spend a minimum of £200,000 developing it. This was quite an undertaking as we had little funds in the bank and we were finding it difficult to get grant support. So after taking advice from people we trusted, we changed our name to Dungannon United Youth and registered as a youth organisation. With our first grant of £46,000 we laid a new playing pitch and erected fencing around it. Over the last 8 years we have developed the facility further and have now spent almost £800,000 on the complex. These include our own clubrooms, changing rooms and boardroom plus the last stage saw us open our own indoor synthetic grass facility which has been invaluable throughout the winter months. We now have soccer coaching for children from 5 years upwards and the talent that we have unearthed over the last number of years has without doubt benefited Dungannon Swifts senior team. It has also gave many many young children the opportunity not only to stay fit but to improve their soccer skills and quite a few have made it to cross-channel clubs where they have earned a good living playing the game that we all love.
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