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Article courtesy of GH Media
Saturdays are set aside for Dan McElderry the rugby player and Sundays are for Dan McElderry the Baptist minister and he loves the balance that both of these passions bring to his life.
Tomorrow the 28-year-old Aberdeen Grammar Rugby stand-off will be looking to help his team build on last weekend’s impressive win at Arnold Clark National Three leaders Preston Lodge when they host Lasswade at Rubislaw.
And then on Sunday his focus will be on serving the needs of his parishioners at Hillview Community Church in Cults and Kintore Community Church in Kintore.
“The contrast between playing rugby and being a pastor is quite fun,” he said.
“During the week I will be writing sermons, running youth groups or playing scrabble with elderly ladies with rugby training some evenings and then, when Saturday comes, I’m trying to avoid nasty back-rowers on the pitch!
“Then every Saturday on the bus home from away games or at home after Rubislaw matches I’m running through the next day’s sermon in my head, wondering what I’m going to share about Jesus with those who will be attending.
“Whether at church or on the field though, I get confidence knowing I am doing what God has made me to do. I struggle mentally with the challenge of performing on the field sometimes so it is a big comfort to me knowing that God loves me when I play well and when I play poorly.”
McElderry should not worry too much about playing poorly thought because over the last two- and a-bit seasons since he joined Aberdeen Grammar he has been a consistent performer.
Six days ago at the Pennypit, he started on the bench, but was soon on when Mike Mair broke his nose and went on to contribute 15 points with the boot in a 35-33 bonus point triumph that put them fourth in the 10-team standings.
“Within a minute of me coming on PL scored a try,” he explained.
“Previously we might have panicked having to change our lineup so soon into a game and conceding a try, but we are a lot more composed and confident as a team now. We got ourselves down into their half, put the pressure on and kept the scoreboard ticking.
The second half was crazy. We scored a penalty and then a few tries quite quickly, but then had a poor 15 minutes to go behind. I had a penalty to take the lead with nearly 10 minutes to go and put it wide, but thankfully I got another opportunity a couple of minutes later and scored it. Then it was a case of holding on.
“I love goal kicking, it has always been my favourite thing to do in rugby and I’m glad it made a big difference in us getting the win this time.
“The season has been generally positive and the results against Preston Lodge tell the story. We started our campaign losing 62-10 to them then the win we had last weekend was fully deserved so that shows how the team has grown in a few short months.
“Lasswade are up next who also beat us heavily at the start of the season 45-15 so this weekend gives us another opportunity to prove how good we are now.”
McElderry grew up in Peterborough until he was 11 and then moved to Northern Ireland.
He had played rugby in his youth, but stopped when he moved to Aberdeen for university in 2015 and only returned to it properly in 2023.
“I had been thinking about getting back into rugby for years, but was unsure how to go about it and starting a sport again and joining a new team aged 25 felt a little scary,” he explained.
“I wanted to give it a go though and one of my friends is a rugby coach so I asked him which team I should join and he suggested Aberdeen Grammar so I headed along and loved it.
“Everyone has made me feel welcome at the club and I enjoy it here.”
* A version of this article first appeared in The Press and Journal on Friday 5th Dec *