Hayfield Juniors
“ Since day one we ’ ve adopted the approach laid out by the FA ( Future Game and DNA ). It seemed the only sensible approach to take given that all coaches and committee members had no prior experience to running a club or coaching a team .
“ We have a philosophy that all players play . In our mini-soccer and 9v9 teams , players generally play an equal share of a league match . In our 11v11 teams all players will play at least a half of football , usually more . No player gets ‘ just 5 minutes at the end of a match ’.
“ We are absolutely a community club . Our ethos and approach to mixed
ability teams are the bedrock of our club . Without that we might have one or two teams instead of eleven .
“ Since its formation the club has been working with Hayfield Parish Council to secure a long lease on the pitches that our children play on . The land is owned by the local church . The negotiations have been long and protracted but we hope that in 2017 they reach a successful outcome .
“ Until we can secure a lease we ’ re unable to raise the capital we need to drain and level the pitches and build changing facilities and a car park . Without these facilities we will not be able to achieve our goal of running a sustainable senior team .
“ Apart from that everything is going to plan . We have over 140 children on our books this season and the most rewarding aspect of my role as Chairman is watching the players turn up week-in , week-out despite the weather conditions .
“ Once we ’ ve got a lease on our land we have the challenge of raising around half a million pounds to build the facilities we need . Once we ’ ve got the money the next big challenge will be building them !
“ Quite simply , our ambitions are to develop our facilities , set up a senior team and sustained junior development .”
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