Sport North East ISSUE 01 | Page 8

Whitley Bay FOLLOW US ONLINE TWITTER.COM/SPORTNEMAG Whitley Bay SPORTING CLUB Established in 2015, Whitley Bay Sporting Club is committed to providing players of all ages with a safe and enjoyable environment in which to play the game. Sport NE Magazine recently caught up with Robert Nixon to find out more about the good work they’ve been doing lately. Atmosphere He told us, “I hope that the atmosphere is positive across our player and parental community. The club committee put a huge collective effort to make this club the best it can. As a sporting club we also encourage our members to participate in sports and activities away from football. In the last twelve months we have introduced Strength and Conditioning sessions as well as recently introducing kids Muay Thai classes (kickboxing). We also have a link with the Central Exchange in North Shields who create a range of exciting opportunities for people of all ages to explore, learn, develop and grow.” 2018 “2018 was a really exciting and successful year for the club. Working with Whitley Bay High School to help them develop a second 3G pitch, we were able to launch eight new teams as well as bring in over 25 new coaches to the club, working across many different teams. We also worked with NE Hearts for Gold to fund free screen testing for our older players for any cardiac issues. In June, we held a 24hr football charity event, raising over £6k. All money raised was split between the Whitley Bay High School to help towards floodlights for their new pitch and CHUF (Children’s Heart Unit Fund) who were instrumental in saving one of our younger players life. We also ran a Young leaders programme where we put 22 of our U16 squad through their Junior Sports Leader II qualification not only to help them achieve a nationally recognised qualification, but so we can identify possible coaches of the future.” 2019 “As we do not have our own site, we are very reliant on utilising the facilities of local schools and other sporting clubs. This restricts our ability to grow, but we continue to look at what facilities we can use in order to progress the club. Our short-term aim is to introduce a reserve senior team to give a soft(er) landing into senior football with a crop of talented youngers coming through our older junior teams. We are also looking to expand our gender specific girls teams with the intention of having at least one girls team in each age group.” Youth “Youth development is extremely important to the club. At the start of this season, we created five new teams at Under 7, with every player coming through our own development centre which is very popular with at least 70 attending every week. These players are the future of the club and along with their normal 90 min training session and scheduled game, we have put on an additional futsal session to encourage the development of these players.” “I first got involved in Whitley Bay Sporting Club when my nephew was playing for one of the junior Football teams, CDL ended up sponsoring the team kit for his team which has gone on for two years now. My son Sam Birkett joined last summer and plays for the U11 Yellows. The club is local to us and has some great coaches who handle themselves very well and make all the children feel comfortable and encourage them to have fun and enjoy their football in a relaxed friendly environment. There is a great atmosphere around the club and I can only say how much of a positive experience the club is for the children playing. From all of us here at CDL we would like to wish everyone associated with the club all the very best and keep up the great work!” Darrel Birkett 8 Issue 01