To mark Volunteers’ Week 2026, we are celebrating some of the volunteers that make clubs across the JD Cymru Leagues tick on a daily basis.
Volunteers are the unsung heroes of Welsh football – clubs and leagues would not run without them. Getting involved with your local club is also hugely rewarding for individuals and can lead to plenty of memorable experiences.
Today, we find out more about Daley Chapman, who got involved with volunteering at Barry Town United and is now the full-time General Manager at the JD Cymru Premier club.
How did you first get involved with volunteering at your club?
I’ve been around Jenner Park and Barry Town United for about nine years now. In fact, I jumped the fence for my first game because I couldn’t afford to get into the ground (I’m sure it was only about £3 as well!) but I was desperate to watch live football.
For the first five years, I was simply a fan, travelling up and down the country following the Yellow Blue Army. Then COVID hit and access to stadiums became very limited. I volunteered as a steward. I’ve never seen so many stewards at an empty ground, but I was one of them!
Around the same time, I decided on a whim to start doing my own live match updates in the Barry Town United Supporters Facebook group. They certainly weren’t professional – they were written for a very specific audience and involved plenty of humour – but people seemed to enjoy them and I kept doing them.
Following COVID, I was still at university and became a little distant from the club. When I came back properly at the end of my first year, I felt like I didn’t really belong anywhere in the ground. So I sat on the halfway line and started chatting to the people I now sit beside every game in my current role.
That season, we got relegated, and heading into the Cymru South campaign, I was asked if I wanted to become the club’s volunteer Media and Commercial Officer. It was a role I absolutely loved – perhaps helped by the fact we won three trophies that season! I enjoyed everything from interviews and match updates to social media content and working alongside Rhys [Skinner], our photographer at the time, and Hannah [Chesterfield]. We had a brilliant team and were able to capture and share some incredible memories from a very special season.
What roles/responsibilities have you had while volunteering at your club?
I started as the volunteer Media and Commercial Officer, helping on matchdays and in my spare time with social media, player sponsorship and commercial activities.
Over time, I developed a real interest in the operations and logistics side of football and was asked to shadow David Cole as Assistant Secretary. I did that for around six months, learning from someone who was exceptionally good at his job. The challenge was that it’s difficult to take ownership of a role when you’re shadowing somebody as experienced as David.
I was then given the opportunity to become Head of Operations for the Academy while continuing to work alongside David. Looking back, that was probably the best thing that could have happened to me. I was able to take everything I was learning and apply it directly within the Academy.
In June 2025, David announced his retirement – much to the delight of his wife, Lyn! – and I became Club Secretary as a volunteer while also working full-time as a teacher.
Anyone involved in Welsh football will tell you that roles like Club Secretary are essentially full-time jobs on their own, so balancing that with teaching was exhausting at times. But when you love the club, you find a way to make it work.
When my teaching contract ended in August 2025, I decided to explore a different career path. I gave myself until Christmas to find something outside education before returning to teaching if nothing materialised.
By November, I had accepted a role as Head of Year 7 at a school in Ebbw Vale, due to start in January. At the start of December, I suggested to the club that I could step in as Interim General Manager while they recruited permanently, simply to ensure the club didn’t lose momentum.
I expected somebody else to be appointed. Then came one of the funniest conversations. On New Year’s Eve at Briton Ferry, Beccy from Haverfordwest and Nick from the FAW asked me about my new teaching role and when I was started etc. I told them I wasn’t entirely sure what I was doing yet because I had a big decision to make.
The reason? On 30th December, the club had offered me the General Manager position full-time. Six days before I was due to start my new teaching job, I had a huge choice to make.
After a lot of conversations and a lot of deliberation, I finally called my new Headteacher on New Year’s Day. Anyone in education will tell you this is probably the biggest sin imaginable – withdrawing just days before you’re due to start.
His response has stayed with me ever since. He simply asked, “Is this what you want?”. I told him it was. He replied, “Then go and do it. Give it everything you’ve got. If it doesn’t work out, I’ll find you a job here.”
That level of support meant the world to me. Seven months later, I’m the General Manager and Club Secretary of Barry Town United, looking out over Jenner Park every day from what I get to call my office. What a view.
What are the best experiences you have had while volunteering at your club?
I’ve seen us win three trophies, gain promotion from the Cymru South and experience some incredible moments along the way.
I’ve helped navigate transfer windows, managerial changes, player announcements and just about every challenge football can throw at a club.
One of my proudest moments was helping lead the operations and logistics behind the club’s first top-flight trophy in 23 years at the 2026 Nathaniel MG Cup. Before the final, Daniel Spilsbury spent time explaining to Jacob (from TNS) and me exactly what needed to happen if we won.
I’ll be honest – I wasn’t really listening. Not because I didn’t think we could win, but because I couldn’t believe I was expected to remember all of that while watching a football match and pacing around the DragonBet Stadium doing eight nervous laps during the game! Yes, I also can’t believe I counted them all. You could argue that happened in my paid role, but I would never have been there without the volunteer opportunities that came before it.
Another huge moment was helping the club achieve its (and my first) Tier 1 and UEFA Licence in April. I certainly don’t envy David for the amount of work that goes into that process. With his support and guidance, alongside the incredible work Emily does behind the scenes, we managed to achieve it.
The best part? Finding out while driving on a random Wednesday when I thought the results were coming on Thursday. Looking back, I’m very grateful for that because otherwise I’d have spent the whole of Wednesday worrying!
What is the most rewarding thing about volunteering for your club?
I could talk about football, trophies and achievements all day, but for me the real reward is the people.
It’s the family you build along the way. It’s the people you meet, the friendships you make, the losses you share, and the volunteers who turn up week after week, whatever the weather, to keep Barry Town United moving forward.
We have an incredible group of volunteers who organise and run events throughout the year – big matches, Halloween parties, fireworks nights, presentation evenings, Christmas events and our Share a Smile campaign. Many of them have children who have grown up around the club.
Whenever we’re planning events, I often find myself asking, “What are we going to do with our lot?” – referring to the Barry Town kids. The funny thing is, I’m not directly related to any of them. But that’s what football clubs do. They create families.
These are the people you lean on. The people you trust. The people who tell you the truth when you need to hear it. The people who keep you grounded, make you laugh and occasionally drive you slightly mad. That’s the family. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.
What would your message be to anyone considering volunteering at a Cymru Leagues club?
Do it. That’s really the message. If you’ve ever felt like you have nowhere to go, weekends to fill, nobody to talk to, nobody to celebrate with, nobody to shout at, nobody to share the highs and lows with, then your local football club might just be the place for you.
I started out as a teacher, a career I genuinely loved but the education system is broken. So I eventually found myself wanting something different and now I can honestly say that I run a football club full-time. And who doesn’t want to say that?
Volunteering gave me opportunities, friendships, skills and experiences that I never imagined I’d have. It gave me a second family and ultimately a career. Reach out to your local club. You never know where it might take you.
