Leigh Galdo – a Herbie man through and through!

 
Leigh Galdo is quite rightly held in high esteem in the sports-mad village of Herbrandston, where he has been a football player and team manager for many years – and PembrokeshireSport.co.uk was delighted to bump into a former pupil and great friend – but this time as a junior rugby coach at the County Age Group Finals, but more of that later.
 
It was great to chat around that particular touchline about our shared love of sport and the fact that it came as no surprise how much he has been involved because the Galdo family has been well-known in the village because his father Modesto was similarly involved and first took Leigh to watch him play for Herbie as a four-year-old and encouraged him to kick a ball around and later watch dad Kick players around the pitch!
 
“Football was to live and breathe in the Galdo household,” admitted Leigh with a typical chuckle, “and many hours were spent up the field day and night with cousins Adam, AJ and the lads of the village competing over the round ball. We lived to get to Saturday each week”
 

An early start to being involved

 
And it wasn’t long before he was doing just that because by the time he was eight years old he joined the likes of Adrian Jenkins and Ollie West playing for the club’s junior teams, starting out as a full back under the guidance of Tony Davey.
 
“Other very talented youngsters were soon involved, like Carlo and Nico Giannuzzi, Matthew Price, Adam Davies and Andy Howells and we later                                                                                                                                                               had a very strong youth team in the Wiltshire Youth Cup, where we reached 4 finals in the space of 5 years, lost to Pembroke Borough in 1996/97 and beat Tenby and Pennar Robins (after a replay) then losing to Solva in my final game of eligibility was a real tough one to swallow.
 
“We also won the under 16 Cup beating St Clears at Monkton Lane to see us off into Snr football – Early years in Snr football were spent playing in the 2^nd team alongside characters such as Andrew Bennett, Denny Riley, Nigel Lewis & Stevie Diamonds. Men who taught me…. let’s call it the dark arts! As fitness improved, I gradually started playing further up the pitch and developed an appetite for the attacking side of the game.



 

Battling hard pays off

 
“If I’m honest the season that gave me most satisfaction as a player was a relegation scrap, which probably tells you something about me”, It was under a then young manager Steve Batty, we had had an influx of youth to the already bottom half of the table team in Division 1 and were struggling truth be told, but we really stuck together that year and managed to avoid ‘The Dreaded Drop’ in the final game as cousin Adam Galdo fired a goal in from near half way, the scenes at the garage end where unforgettable!
 
“It was a do or die situation and we celebrated as if we had won silverware – and I was delighted on a personal basis because we were without a regular striker and I was pushed up front almost every Saturday and I managed to make a nuisance of myself and actually come away with the top goal scorer award as well as most committed player Something that meant a lot to me as I’ve always prided myself on my commitment.
 

A return to rugby with friends at ‘The Mariners’

 
“I had played in a very good Milford Haven School team where Nathan ‘Gully’ Williams was the star of the show amongst other very good players and characters like Billy Marchant, Gregg Murdoch, Stephen King and Craig Eva –We had an amazing youth run under Steve Joseph and some of my fondest sporting memories are traveling to the likes of Ponty, Bridgend and Llanelli with the boys! A kick-off returned for a try at Dunvant 7s tournament one of my personal highlight memories. Great days and a real love for the rugby family developed.
 
“When senior sport rolled around both codes were played on Saturday so inevitably the village lad in me had to choose football” but in his mid-20s he was persuaded to join Milford Haven RFC as a pacy winger and return to play at The Obs.
“Dean Hadley was an excellent coach and very good to me when returning, as was Alan McClelland when he took over the following season, “Macky would have you ready to run through a brick wall every week!” I played alongside some real characters like Jamie Parr, Lee Riley, Dan Devine, Matthew Doncaster and David Round, once again some really fond memories on the rugby field.
 

Football came calling….

 
It was Phil Marchant who convinced me to come back out the village to play as his centre midfielder and later Phil Frank who convinced me coaching was in my future. After taking over from the latter Phil as 1^st team manager at the age of 29 There was immediate success as a manager winning the 2^nd Division with players such as Craig Nicholson, Simon Mathias, Daniel Munn, Daniel Armstrong, Marc Gelona & Scott Reid. Following promotion Shane Walsh returned to the team the next season, & finishing 5^th in the first Division the clubs highest ever league standing in Pembrokeshire is something I take great pride in. With children now arriving sport had to take a back seat for a while……but only a short while and a return would be inevitable!



 

Family matters . . . and a return to action

 
“I did so with total support from my wife Sian, who was a keen hockey player in her day and has always been the best and loudest touchline supporter  – and we are very proud of our children Logan and daughter Eva (12) who loves dance and not only trains regularly with Finola Findlay at FF Dancers, usually four times a week, but also travels once a month to the Legacy Dance Co in Liverpool for specialist coaching.
 
“Then there’s Logan, who is very keen on both football & rugby, where he started at Milford Haven RFC in the tag format of the game and is now playing under 10s – where I coach him alongside Jamie Parr, we reached the final of the county under 10s this past season which was an amazing achievement considering we have seen such little uptake for rugby at our age group in Milford a worrying trend in the sport for sure.
 
It was Logan that actually channelled me back into coaching and after years with no Mini or Jr set up out in Herbie I decided it was time to reignite what Tony Davey had started all those years ago when I was a youngster, and here we are today with a full mini and junior set up thriving in the village once again. One of my biggest pride and joys is couching these mini teams it’s a real pleasure to pass on your knowledge to developing children in sport. I take my hat off to anyone who’s giving their all as a coach, it’s not easy but it is worth it!
 
I’m now back in the 1^st team job after being convinced to return as a coach by Stu Macdonald a couple years back. We had a short but great run together and maybe some would say underachieved as a team but we will always have that night at the meadow winning the 2^nd Division Cup AET we stayed in the fight that night and struck a last-minute blow to take home the silverware and the village went wild!
 
Leigh is now running the team alongside childhood best mate Timmy Roberts and is really starting to appreciate the finer things in the gam.
“It wouldn’t be possible either without the help of some club stalwarts like Andy Williams and Gary Davies. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention those two guys who have helped me along the way. I will be forever grateful for their support.”
 
Finally, Leigh told us,
“Sport is the safest place to fail, I live by the rules of ‘fail’ often and continue to learn on the path to success! It’s really not about the medals and trophies that you lift but the relationships you build and the memories you make…Get out there and have a go!"
 
We can only add that is good advice from a real sports lover and genuine sportsman in every sense of the word!