|
|
 |
|
|
BRIEF HISTORY/CHARTER STANDARD |
Kirkburton JFC have come a long way since starting out in 1998. With teams playing in all age groups from U7 through to U15 in the Huddersfield Junior Football League and girls only teams playing in the West Riding Junior Girls League and with links to Kirkburton Senior club the junior set up offers outstanding opportunities to local youngsters wishing to play football in the correct environment.
The club began to find its feet in 2002 when, in conjunction with Kirkburton Middle School, a Football Foundation grant in excess of £432,000 was used to provide all weather pitch facilities, new changing facilities and an effective drainage system for the school fields where Kirkburton JFC play. Geoff Barnard from the club, and Andrew Parker, Headmaster at Kirkburton Middle, managed this project through to completion and the facilities became available for use in 2004.
The juniors really began to profit from this work and investment when Mick Troop was appointed Community Sports Development Officer by Kirkburton Middle School in 2005. Although based at Kirkburton he works extensively with all the Shelley Pyramid of schools predominately coaching football in Winter terms and cricket in Summer. As the post is partly funded by the Football Foundation their mandate was that he was to be closely involved with Kirkburton JFC.
Since Mick’s arrival the club has gone from strength to strength. The introduction of girls football training sessions and formation of competitive teams has proved particularly successful.The club now have 4 girls teams (at U13/U12/U11/U10) playing in the WRJGFL.
Another requirement of the Football Foundation was to establish a structured entry into mini soccer for children from the community at the U7 age group but such is the demand locally this has been revised to u6.
Kirkburton JFC now has approximately 200 registered players of which 25% are girls.
With the new teams, close links to the school, excellent facilities and a good local reputation everything was in place that would allow Kirkburton JFC to apply for the FA Charter Standard award – an award that allows a club to show that it has met FA recommended guidelines in areas such as providing qualified coaches, has a properly structured committee running the club, has a published constitution and is capable of taking child protection issues seriously.
After submitting an application through Sheffield and Hallamshire FA, to whom the club are affiliated, it was suggested that the club apply for the higher award of a Charter Standard Community club. This involved additional work which the club completed and duly submitted their application. At their first attempt, the club were awarded Charter Standard Community status last August.
Charter Standard Community status shows the club is actively involved in the local community. As a Charter Standard club all coaches have to gain the minimum coaching standard award of FA Level 1, be CRB checked and qualified first aiders. The introduction of new teams means parental involvement and it has been particularly pleasing that all new teams/groups have their own manager/coach who have passed this FA requirement level 1 coaching course-in fact the club has had over 12 passes in the last 18 months-1 member has also recently just passed his Level 2-congratulations Mark Taylor (u8). As a result of the growth and introduction of new faces the club now has a new Chairman, Secretary and Welfare Officer whose responsibility is to actively pursue Welfare issues so making the club environment as reassuring as possible for parents.
Many, many people have contributed to the growth of the juniors over the years-far too many to even contemplate naming-it is to all these ex coaches/managers/administrators and heavily involved parents that the current committee sends out its sincere thanks.
However, the two outstanding contributors to the growth have been Geoff Barnard, who initiated the original Football Foundation bid and followed it through step by step in conjunction with and approval of Kirkburton Middle School.
|
|
|
|
|
