THE cricket season kicked off with Milford (Ju Ju) Waldron prepared to play an entirely new role to the one he played last year.

The 38-year-old has recorded a unique and perhaps rare achievement of having served in the capacity of assistant coach within a span of six months with different teams that won the Premier Division titles ? Southampton Rangers in cricket and Dandy Town in soccer.

He's been a long-serving manager, trainer and assistant coach at Dandy Town and after helping that club's cricket team Western Stars win numerous titles, Waldron only last spring decided to seek further cricket experience outside of St. John's field and headed for Southampton Oval.

The move produced dividends as he helped lead them to their first Premier Division title in a few years.

With that achievement under his belt Waldron then decided to return home for the football season and there he helped Dandy Town regain prominence, assisting coach Devarr Boyles in leading them to the Premier Division title last month.

He assures that he is back at St. John's Road to stay.

Although he has returned he said he will not be working with Western Stars' senior cricket team this season, but rather coaching the juniors to help build what he hopes will one day be a formidable junior programme.

His one-year cricket absence from the club is something which he believes will add more knowledge to his coaching experience and consequently add much to the club's junior development programme.

"I just went to the Rangers last year as an experimental thing. You may say just to test the waters away from home. It was just a one term thing and I feel that I am better off for it. But now I am back to my real home and raring to get the youngsters organised for the summer," he said.

"Being involved with the two title winning teams within a short period was particularly satisfying, but I can't say which one satisfied me the most. What I can say is that this was my first full year affiliated with the senior soccer team and by working basically with a nucleus of young players I will admit that it was a harder challenge.

"Additionally, working with coach Devarr Boyles was quite an enjoyable experience. We formed a very good team and I am looking forward to continuing working with him and the squad in the future. However my immediate goal now is to build a solid youth cricket programme and going even further than that by helping to work on a good, decent junior programme island-wide for our cricket."

A long-time lover of both sports, Waldron has been more involved in cricket than football having spent a great deal of time working alongside of current coach Arnold Manders and his brother Andre. He recalls having joined the pair in taking a youth team to Barbados years ago, a trip that inspired him to lend as much support to the development of players whenever he got the chance.

Now he is looking forward to making a contribution in that area.

Waldron attributed much of the success to the response that he and the coaches had received from the players assembled for the two championship quests.

"I just get a pleasure seeing players rewarded for their hard work and this was the case at both Southampton Rangers and Dandy Town. My motto for football and cricket is "No guts, no glory."

It looks like more Bermuda clubs will need coaches like Waldron to spice up their programmes.