Didcot Casuals
Didcot Casuals
FOOTBALL CLUB
In 2013, Didcot Casuals advertised for sessions for girls football called “mini miss kickers”
specifically for girls aged 5-11 as an introduction to football. My daughter wanted to play
and we both wanted to spend more time with each other so it seemed a perfect fit for us.
We were very lucky to meet Rob Roslyn, chairman of Didcot Casuals, who really made an
impression on us and it was clear that this club shared our values as a family.
We felt at home from the start. In 2014, when my son
had issues with the club he was playing for, we had to
decide whether he wanted to continue playing
football at all. Didcot Casuals didn’t have
a team at my son’s age group but gave
us the all the support we needed to
start one. In three months we had
a team of sixteen boys, many of
whom never played club football
before.
One of the challenges for
all grassroots football clubs is
volunteering for the club, above
and beyond the duties you have
for the team in which your child is a
member. People don’t have time these
days, parents are working longer, paid
less and many kids have complex family
relationships which put huge pressure on
parents juggling all those commitments. It’s no wonder
that many want to help but simply can’t.
The club committee was struggling for volunteers
to fill the positions and it left too much work for
our chairman to do, so I offered to become
club secretary to take on some of the
administration burden. At the same
time, and I’m still not quite sure
how it happened, but together with
another parent I ended up coaching
my daughter’s team too, so by 2015
I was fully immersed in the club, it
took up all my free time and I was
loving every minute of it.
Didcot is in a part of Oxfordshire
that has seen significant and rapid
population growth in the last five
years. The town and surrounding
villages have seen large housing
developments, together with new schools
and infrastructure, the area is unrecognisable
from ten years ago. The demand for football, at all levels,
ages and genders has grown. Over last two seasons we
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