My son Cobain loved football when he was very small. ‘Football’ was one of his first words. He even said it before he said ‘mum’. He was always kicking a ball about. As a Football loving dad this made me very happy and proud. Then between the ages of about 2 and 4 something changed and he just went off it. Naturally I was devastated but accepted the fact that not all kids like football. Then all of a sudden he started getting back into it again. I used to take him along to my football games and he watched and played on the sidelines and we practiced at home. I thought it was time to get him playing at a club, he was 4 years old. Despite running my own football club for 3 years I knew very little about youth football. However I knew my friend Neil Keen ran a kids football team so I contacted him. Neil told me that his team was for slightly older kids and that clubs wouldn’t take kids on until they were 5 anyway . He also said that things weren’t going as he’d have liked at his current club and he was going to quit. I’d seen Neil coaching kids before. The sessions I’d seen looked rammed full of small kids and all of them seemed to be having lots of fun. The fact he was stopping seemed a real shame. My club HT Dons were an adult side and we had recently achieved FA charter standard. I asked Neil if he’d like to bring his youth team over to the Dons. I think he thought I was joking at first. I know our reputation as a club was a bit of a joke in most people’s eyes. From an outsiders point of view I can see why. Results had been poor and we’d struggled at the bottom of the table in each of our seasons. There is though, a lot more to our club than mere results. Once Neil realised I was serious we chatted about how it would work and then BANG! it was all systems go!
We sorted out a pitch at Starcross and everything else that the team required. Neil organised a tournament at Starcross and the Starcross Dons Under 9s made their debut. They went on to win it of course! With Neil’s son Blake scoring in the final. The club’s first ever bit of silverware! A large group of the Dons adult team came to cheer on the youth side and all of us were taken back by just how good this team were. They were an absolute credit to Neil and his coaching team of Greg and Dave. It was a truly memorable day and we also managed to raise money for the youth set up. We went on to register the team in the Devon and Exeter league
We weren’t done there! I’d contacted Neil about my son playing in the first place. Neil, who’s youngest son Fletcher is friends with Cobain wanted to start ‘mini kickers’ sessions for younger kids. As most clubs weren’t taking on kids until they were 5 we could offer sessions to kids even younger. Originally we planned for this to happen the following season but Neil put the feelers out and it showed the need for this was immediate. I had always said I would never coach youth football it was just something that Id never felt comfortable with. I think a lot of amateur football mangers start by coaching at youth level and follow their teams through. I’d done things all the wrong way round as usual and gone straight into managing at adult level. However , Having seen Neil coaching his team plus the fact that I wanted my lad to play, it was time I got involved. We Named them the ‘Dinky Dons’. I coached at these sessions alongside Jack Downey who plays for the Dons with Neil and Greg’s guidance initially. Jack had already completed an FA level 1 coaching course and I enrolled on one too. This was a huge help to me. I strongly recommend this to anyone getting into coaching. It has helped me not only in coaching the kids but the adults as well. The Dinky Dons had their first session last summer outside at Starcross. The response was phenomenal. It was so good to see so many local kids turn up to our sessions. On Thursday night’s through the summer the adults, the U9s and the Dinkys all trained together. With all the parents as well it meant that there could be up to 50 people at a time involved with football on Starcross playing field. I would pick up Cobain from school on a Thursday and all of a sudden I had all these kids (most of whom I didn’t know at the time) talking about our club and yelling ‘UP THE DONS’ at me! As the chairman of the club this made me immensely proud.
As the nights drew in Neil took his team over to Teignmouth 4G Pitch to train under floodlights. Jack and I took the Dinky Dons to Dawlish leisure centre to train indoors. We had enlisted Gabriel Osbourne as a coach. Gabe played for ‘the other’ Starcross team the Generals. His son Rupert was a constant at Dinkys. The indoor sessions were manic but lots of fun and between the 3 of us we coached the kids and watch them develop
Neil pointed out to me that the FA were trying to encourage more girls to play football and were offering a scheme to grassroots clubs like ours. After a very brief conversation we decided we’d go for that too. Neil found out again that there was lots of interest for this. We enlisted Miss Tomlinson as a coach and both her and Neil have now attended FA training and are ready to launch the training centre when the current crisis is lifted.
The Dinkys that were in school year 1 would go on to become the U7s next season and we would enter them into the league. However there was one boy, Josh who was in the year above and would be ineligible. Josh had been to pretty much every Dinkys session and I felt awful that we couldn’t offer him a path into football with the Dons. I asked Neil about the chances of running an U8s as well as U7s and U10s next season and as with everything else we put it in place. Lucas and Jack wright , (again both Dons players) were selected as coaches. Lucas was due to start his level 1 course in May. Training began in March and 10 new players turned up to train with the under 7’s.
So in just 9 months I’d seen my football club grow from one adult team to a club with:
Dinky Dons (3-5 years)
U7s
U8s
Wildcats (girls 5-11)
Adults
As you have probably gathered by now Neil as head of youth football works tirelessly to a achieve all this. Myself and Neil are backed by a fantastic committee: Simon (secretary) , Mike (treasurer and pitches) Claire (welfare officer) and Greg (Youth). It’s a pleasure working with these people and as you can see We don’t mess around in getting things done. I also love the fact that so many of the lads I have played football with for years have been not only supportive of the youth setup but have got fully involved and even have become coaches. The future looks very bright for our club
This ‘blog’ that Neil asked me to write has gone on for far too long but there is a reason and I best get to the point. As you know we are all under strict instructions to stay at home at the moment. Football at all levels is on hold. I just wanted to remind everybody how far we’ve come already and to not forget that. I don’t know how long these restrictions will be in place but I do know they will not last forever. In the meantime Mum’s , Dad’s , Carers please have a kickabout in the garden with your kids, take a Football on your daily walk, watch football with them, Draw pictures of Mikey (our mascot) do anything to keep football and the Dons in their thoughts. As soon as we are able we will fly out of the traps and get everything right back on track like it should be, that I can assure you. I say the following all the time but it has never had as much feeling as it does now….
UP THE DONS!
