The Club
The club was formed in 1995 by a group of dads who thought that there should be an alternative to the clubs already running in the area- a club where all players are welcome regardless of ability.
Giffnock Soccer Centre now provides the largest number of teams to the East Renfrewshire Soccer Development Association and the club strives ensures that all coaches obtain SFA coaching certificates, and many possess more than the recommended minimum. To further our coaches development we are looking to establish internal coaching sessions to help develop coaching techniques and to allow for exchange of ideas.
The club's goal is to be recognised as the biggest and best club in the country. Also aiming to be internationally recognised for our charity work, ethos and standard of coaching.
Awards
The club is now the largest in the country, with more than 900 players and over 150 volunteer coaches, and was also awarded the Scottish FA's 'Best Community Club' award in October 2013.
The club has always been keen to meet the Scottish FA Quality Mark awards and was awarded the Community Club standard in 2012. The club also received the Legacy Award, the highest, in December 2014.
Club Treasurer and Coach, Bernie Airlie, was awarded Best Volunteer in the SFA West Region in 2013. Furthermore, coaches Stewart Daniels, Murray Donaghey and Development Officer George Milliken all received awards on the 7th December for Best Volunteer, Best Young Coach and Best Young Persons Coach, respectively, in East Renfrewshire's Sports Awards 2013.
Ethos
The club's ethos is that every player is welcome, regardless of ability, and offers football from P1 to our senior Giffnock SC Amateurs side. The club offers boys the chance to play in teams, who compete in the local leagues, and for those who do not make the cut we run the Soccer Centre where any player from P1-S4 can attend and receive coaching from Scottish FA certified coaches and small-sided games- these players then aim to trial for our teams twice a year.
We also offer a similar pathway for girls at the club- all girls are welcome to attend training and those available will be selected for matches on weekends. Our girls section has only been up and running for a couple of years but is growing steadily. We are currently looking to establish a senior Giffnock SC Ladies team.
We have also expanded the club further this season by offering football to players with Additional Sporting Needs and this session is integrated as part of our Soccer Centre program on Saturdays 1030-1130am.
Positive Coaching
We were the first club in Scotland to participate in the Positive Coaching Scotland program and strongly advocate the approach of Sport for All. At Giffnock SC we promote football as an enjoyable way to learn essential skills such as
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Giffnock SC and PCS challenges the win at all costs mentality and focuses instead on effort, learning, psychological development, building confidence and developing responsible citizens. These positive attitudes are modelled by coaches and parents with the benefit for all young people involved.
Recent Developments and club growth
The club has grown from around 600 players just over three years ago to over 900, this has been in part because of our extensive programs such s Girls, ASN and Amateur football.
The club is run by an elected committee form coaches at the club. The main committee is supported by sub-committees made up of coaches and parents. It is down to the hard work of all those involved that the club has expanded over the past few years.
The current Chair of Giffnock SC is Joe McKerns. Joe coaches at the 1996 and Ability groups as well as manages the affairs of the club as a whole. Joe has been a major driving force in the club's expansion with the acquisition of Norwood Playing Fields and the development of the club's own 3G pitch at St Ninian's High School. Joe was also one of the cyclists on the Giffnock SC 'Cycle Denmark' event in 2013 which helped raise over £12,000 for the Johari Foundation (the club's charitable partner for many years)
Bernard Airlie was the Chair before Joe and has continued much of his great work since becoming Treasurer. Bernie also heads the Girls section of the club and covers most of the admin within the club. In 2013, Bernie was recognised for his excellent work when he was awarded the Scottish FA West's Volunteer of the Year.
In 2012, the club appointed its first ever Football Development Officer, George Milliken, who had previously been a coach at the club. George has overseen a revamp and development of the club's Soccer Centre program which has grown and seen around a fifth of players progressing to teams in his first year. George is currently working on the development of coaching within the club which involves running in-services for coaches and also recruitment of new coaches- a very successful art of this has seen 15 1996 players become qualified SFA coaches in the past year.
Facilities
The club has just seen work begin on its very own 3G pitch at St Ninian's High School and has also taken on the Norwood Playing Fields in Pollok Park. The club is overseeing a major redevelopment of Norwood with the help of Scottish Water, which will see all the grass parks renovated to the highest standard and the club has been raising funds to completely renovate the old pavilion there.
Charity work
The club has always supported good causes but this was initially done by each age group. AS the club has grown, there has been a concerted effort to do this on a club-wide scale. The club has always donated its old kits and boots to the Johari Foundation which educates young boys in the slums of Kenya. In 2012, Jim Wright, Joe McKerns and Stewart Daniels began their 'Cycle Denmark' campaign which they hoped to raise enough money to send a group of boys to school for a year- this ended up raising almost double the target, eventually £12,000 for the charity.
The club took over the Great Scottish Junior run in 2012 with about 100 participants form the junior sections of the club and raised thousands of pounds for the club. In 2013, the club managed to outdo itself and had over 200 runners take part and
raise money for the Teenage Cancer Trust- the chosen charity for the club after one of our 1998 players Jay Groundland was treated for cancer last year. The club hopes to raise even more funds over the following year.
Football Festival
In 2012, after attending their Danish counterparts Albertslund AF's Minolta Cup for the past 6 years, Giffnock SC ran its own International Football Festival. The festival was a huge success and welcomed clubs from all over the UK and also Albertslund AF from Denmark. The festival, sponsored SecuriGroup and others, also ran in 2013 and was even bigger, with more teams taking part from P2-U17s.
For 2014, the Development Officer and Chair recently visited
the Town Twinning Conference in Borken, Germany to raise the profile of the club, hoping to draw in even more clubs from across Europe to the International Festival.