?WE talk about it for 20 minutes and then we decide I was right? ? late football manager Brian Clough on how he dealt with players who disagreed with him. Being head of a large, modern secondary school demands slightly different management techniques from those employed by straight-talking Cloughie. Fortunately for Okehampton College, their new principal is former professional footballer Daryll Chapman, who may have crossed paths with the great man as a young player but takes a very different approach. Daryll, 42, played for manager John Newton at Derby County in the early 80s, about a decade after Clough had brought the league championship to the club for the first time. Daryll played in the reserve team under Newton but was unable to break into the first team and when a new manager, Clough?s former deputy Peter Taylor, was appointed, he decided to move on and signed with Crewe Alexandra. A leg injury effectively ended Daryll?s chances of a top flight career. After going to PE College and training to became a teacher, he quickly rose through the ranks and has now gone on to be given his first headship, while still in his early 40s. Daryll was confirmed as head of Okehampton College following a demanding selection process at the end of March. ?I feel very privileged to have got the job. The staff, student and parental support during the interview process was amazing. I had not expected that,? he said. Daryll said he was also fortunate to have spent 14 months in charge of the school as acting principal after Chris Powell was seconded to Tavistock College as interim principal. Following the sudden death of Chris Powell last autumn, Daryll won praise for the sensitive way he guided the school through a difficult period, and was an overwhelmingly popular choice to continue the good work Mr Powell had achieved. Daryll said he would aim to implement the college?s vision for the future which he and Chris Powell had worked very closely on. ?The vision for the college is one I helped formulate with Chris Powell and other people and we are striving to improve the standards for everyone. ?I am not about to change direction; it is about making sure that when challenges arise, we anticipate them and meet them.? He said he and his predecessor had possessed a ?shared vision and shared purpose? but that vision would evolve and be ?tweaked? to a certain extent, as circumstances demanded. Daryll said Chris Powell, for whom he was ?full of admiration?, was a great loss to the college and wider community. As well as learning a great deal from Chris, Daryll also singled out his experience as a deputy head at a school in Aylesbury, which was on special measures, as having taught him a lot about leadership. Daryll said he thought there was something very special about Okehampton College. ?I am not a person who would be looking for headship wherever. I wasn?t prepared to go to any school. There was only one school I wanted to be head at, and that happens to be this one,? he said. Daryll has three children: a son, a daughter who is in year eight at the college, and a two-year-old daughter who takes up much of his free time at present. His eldest daughter attended Okehampton because he knew the college provided a good education. ?I tend to say, ?If its not good enough for my own daughter, it is not good enough for anyone?s kids?,? he said. Daryll moved to the Okehampton area in 2001, and says he really enjoys living just outside the town. ?It is a great place to live, and we enjoy being involved in the community.? Daryll said he was ?very family orientated? ? last summer the Chapman clan completed large chunks of the Tarka Trail on bicycles which had made for a fun summer. With a background as a PE teacher ? he has also taught science ? Daryll said he still really enjoyed sports, though today he is less likely to be spotted on the football and rugby field, preferring to play golf. He is a member of Ashbury Golf Club but says he has been so busy recently he has little chance to get many rounds in. The school?s recent positive Ofsted report had been very pleasing to him. ?This is what gives me the confidence we are on the right lines. Losing that tag of ?satisfactory? was so important to me, because we aren?t just a satisfactory school, we are a good school, but we will not get complacent. We know where we need to go and what we need to do.? Daryll said his next key aim was to increase the range of vocational options available to students through a dedicated vocational centre at the college. He also hopes this could be opened up to the wider community for evening classes and adult learning. Daryll said he wanted younger students to be able to get taster session for vocational courses ? the initial courses he wants to be able to offer are health and beauty, wet and dry construction and motor vehicles. Daryll said he believed staff and students had worked together to ensure a good working atmosphere at the college and respect was central to this. ?Respect doesn?t come with a title, it comes with the way you handle yourself with the youngsters. ?I believe if you give youngsters more responsibility then they are likely to respond in a more responsible way.? Daryll said he was fortunate to lead such a good staff, who also shared his aim of continuing to take the college forward. ?A cohesive, strong supportive staff room doesn?t half make a difference,? he said. ?We have a solid platform on which to build for the future.? Daryll had already decided his future lay in education rather than football, when he suffered a broken leg while playing in the first year of his teacher training course. ?I made the decision I wanted to go into teaching. There is so much uncertainty in the game, especially when you go through a change of manager,? he explained. However, after recovering from the injury, Daryll continued to play semi-professional football while teaching. His own schooling though, was at a grammar school which he describes as ?a rugby school through and through?. Has Daryll ever stopped to wonder what might have been had he got his big break in the game at an earlier age, as stars of today like Theo Walcott or Wayne Rooney have? And would he swap all the success he has had in his chosen career just to have scored the winning goal for the Rams in the FA Cup Final? ?Obviously, you do have dreams, but now I feel strongly this role is for me, so I would not swap it. ?The truth is, I probably wasn?t quite good enough to really make it at the top level. ?For some boys growing up all they want to do is play professional football. It wasn?t like that for me. Football was a bonus.?
