Fareham Heathens RFC stalwart Dave Wheaton is chairman, head coach and a player – not bad for a 53-year-old!

And now the club stalwart has added chairman to the list of positions he's held during his spell at the club.

Grassroots rugby may not have been played competitively since March following the coronavirus, but that did not stop a Heathens shake-up in September.

One of several changes saw Wheaton take on the role of chairman as he bids to move things forward at the Hampshire League club.

As things stand, he will also remain the club's first-team head coach as well as continuing to play where possible - all at the ripe age of 53!

It's an incredible juggling act Wheaton looks set to play when competitive rugby action is finally allowed to return, although one he is relishing.

‘We’re trying to get the club moving forwards because we have been stagnated for quite some time,' he remarked.

‘Unfortunately, the coronavirus hasn’t helped, it’s impacted everybody - all the great plans that we had and the decisions we were going to make have been curtailed somewhat because of the Covid.

‘I could well be all of those rolled into one (a player, head coach and chairman).

‘I’ve been at that rugby club for 21 years now.

‘I’ve just gone from different positions within the club from first-team skipper, management, coaching, head coaching and now chairman. It’s good to be busy.

‘At the moment, yes, it’s absolutely fine (mixing the roles).

'The coaching, the playing and the training, that keeps me fit, I’m 53 and I want to stay fit and active as long as I can.

‘The chairman with the meetings - because of the Covid, it’s all been emails and Zoom - well, I’m in an office at work anyway so I can fit that in.

‘It’s working at the moment but time will tell.

‘Obviously, as the club progresses, which I’m hoping it will do, to take on all those positions - (if) it doesn’t work then it will be when things need to be looked at.'

Wheaton admitted time constraints prevented him from assuming the chairman role previously.

However, the initial lockdown earlier this year allowed him plenty of thinking time of ways to push to bring happier times to a club who were relegated from the Hampshire Premier Division after the curtailment of 2019/20.

Heathens lost 15 of their 20 league games and were second bottom - six points behind Eastleigh 2nds with four games left - when the season was ended early in March.

Fareham suffered some heavy losses along the way - trounced 68-0 and 45-10 by champions Petersfield, 71-12 at Alresford, 58-17 at Alton and 39-0 at Millbrook.

Now Wheaton is hoping his experience of running his own business can help bring more organisation and success to the club.

‘What’s been happening in the past, I’ve always been involved with the club, last season we had a very bad season,' said Wheaton.

‘We lost a lot to injuries and a lot to overseas and I was trying to concentrate on throwing everything into league survival and it just wasn’t to be in the end.

‘Although things needed doing at the club, I was so preoccupied I just didn’t have the time.

‘In the lockdown break, I started thinking it was about time we turned the club around and started to put things into place.

‘We can get better players and start getting out of the league we are in and progressing.

‘The Covid is a blip, we’re still actively looking to get this club moving.

‘We’ve got a fantastic bunch of people on the committee and newly-appointed members to the committee to help drive the club and it’s great.

‘I run my own business anyway, which I’ve been doing for 18 years.

‘I just want to bring that organisation, it seems to have lost a bit of a way with organisation at the club.

‘What we had before was too much work for not enough people, but now we’ve got a lot more people just concentrating on one role.

‘Obviously as a chairman you’re overseeing it all, so I’m busier than I’ve ever been but we’ve got people in the right place.'