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What we did in the Summer Holidays

Last summer was a very active one for the FC United Community Team.

We started off with a two day soccer school for primary school aged children at the Ten Acre Lane facility in Newton Heath. The soccer school was run by Karl and David Chadwick and was free to the kids.

Volunteer coach Phil Schofield then kicked off a programme of training sessions at the Mosses Centre in Bury with some sessions being delivered by Karl and Tom Winnington, a student at Loreto College in Hulme.

Phil also did great work running sessions in Collyhurst on Sunday afternoons and Whitemoss Youth Centre on Tuesday nights. Collyhurst is an area that has not had much in the way of organised football activities in the past and Phil’s sessions delivered in conjunction with Manchester Council Sports Development team and National Children’s Homes attracted a loyal band of youngsters. The sessions at Whitemoss were similarly well attended and the club is now looking for funding to allow these to continue all year round.

There was a great turnout from a number of volunteers to the Guinness Northern Counties Housing Association showcase designed to promote football training sessions in Cheetham Hill. Abraham Moss Warriors Junior Football club turned up in numbers and at one point there must have been over one hundred people playing football on the fields. As a result a lot of kids signed up for the summer sessions which were delivered mainly by Karl and David Chadwick.

Karl and David also helped out with some sessions run by Manchester Council’s Sports Development team in Newton Heath and Harpurhey respectively. The Sports development team then asked whether we could help deliver some training sessions for a group of Chinese youngsters visiting Manchester. These sessions took place at Denmark Road in Moss Side.

We rounded off the summer with a football school at Cedar Park Youth Club in Ashton under Lyne. This summer school gave a chance for Tom Winnington and another young coach, Danny Sudbury, to consolidate their coaching skills following their successful completion of a FA Level One Coaching course run at MANCAT.

We now have a strong team of community coaches and we are looking for more opportunities for running sessions during the school holidays. If you are involved in a youth club, junior football club or similar organisation which is interested in having FC United coaches come down to support a holiday scheme, please contact robinpye@fc-utd.co.uk.

Similarly, if you are interested in being a volunteer FC United coach, whether you have a coaching qualification or not, please contact Robin.



First Posted ~ 17:58 Fri 12 Sep 2008
News ID ~ 1816
Last Updated ~ 01:52 Tue 16 Feb 2021