Historty
08 Sep 2009

In the 1969-70 football season John Perry Junior School became Primary School Champions of Dagenham. At the time I was chairman of John Perry School Parent/Teacher Association and a Home-Beat officer for that area of Dagenham. My eldest son Stephen was the vice captain of the John Perry School football team.

At the end of the School year several parents had shown an interest in keeping the team together by forming our own football club. I arranged to meet the boys for a training session at Leys Park, Ballards Road. I asked the boys what name they wanted to call the new club, they were undecided. I reminded them that the England team were competing in the World Cup in Mexico playing in the ‘Aztec Stadium’. The boys all agreed that ‘Aztec’ would be the name of their club, so the first Aztec team was the John Perry school side.

The Parents formed a committee. The first team manager was Al Chapman and I became the Club Secretary. The club badge was adopted of a two headed snake which was based on a priceless piece of Aztec jewellery in the British Museum.

“The two headed snake can strike in two directions at once”

At first we could not find a home ground, pitches for junior football on Sundays in the Dagenham area were few and far between. The league allowed us to play all our matches away. Despite this handicap Aztec finished their first season in the top half of the league table. In the next few seasons we managed to obtain a pitch at Hainault Recreation Ground and another near South Woodford. More teams were formed each year, needing more pitches. Some of our home matches were played at Wanstead Flats, Hackney Marshes or Oldchurch Park. At the time School pitches unavailable for Sunday Football.

Obtaining training facilities was not easy either. We arranged use of Park School Dagenham (now demolished), but officially we were forbidden to kick balls about in the hall! I was allowed to attend training sessions in Police time (in uniform). I received support from my boss, Chief Inspector Williams who stressed to the local council that a large percentage of crime locally was committed by youngsters for whom little was provided in the way of sporting facilities. An action group was set up which possibly influenced the increasing use of Parsloes Park for the Barking Youth Saturday League, and the development of Manor Road Sports Centre, where we regularly held five-a-side competitions and social functions.

With Saturday teams in the Barking Youth League and Sunday teams competing in the Hornchurch Echo League we soon had up to eight teams. Quite often no referee was assigned and the home team manager had to officiate. To have more authority and knowledge I took a referee course.

I finally resigned from the club in 1988 after eighteen years, but I have kept in touch with Aztec ever since.

Thanks to Dave for this interesting piece on how the club started.
The Aztec Club Committee