SWPL Focus On: Hutchison Vale

Catherine Etoe’s Focus On profile of Hutchison Vale, the Edinburgh club whose manager Ian McDonald arrived to give a few coaching tips and stayed. Now 35 and in his second full season, having retired from the men’s game with a back injury at 28 after playing for Hibernian as a youngster, he says it began as a favour. Pre-season involves gruelling climbs up the steps of the city’s landmarks, which captain Anna Donald jokes she can never see the same way again. Donald, 37, a civil servant and mother of two in her twelfth season, credits coaching, sports psychology and conditioning with putting everyone on an improvement curve. Midfielder Tracy Donachie, who holds an MSc in performance psychology, runs the weekly session. Teenager Christie Kerr, daughter of Shelley, is the youngest.