U-8's Team History
21 Oct 2009

Santiago Colts FC Under-8’s (2009-10)

History:

The core of the team assembled around the Summer of 2007 and apart from short Winter & Summer breaks they have been consistently and reliably turning up week after week.
The team started when the Manager of an older team at another local club held an additional session afterwards for this age group due to having a son of that age himself.
After a few months, the older team folded, leaving the younger group with no formal club attachment or qualified coach. Paul Doherty stepped in to initially just keep the weekly training sessions going, then shortly afterwards took his Level One Coaching Badge. A supportive family (wife Marguerite and daughter Rian) did all they could to assist Paul, particularly in the first few months while he settled in.
A first class group of parents obviously helps a great deal too and one of them, Ian started taking an active role and after a few months the natural progression was to get formally involved. Ian also took his F.A. coaching badge promptly and has been instrumental in helping to bring a good group of players together to a position where we are looking like a football team which is extremely well-organised and difficult to beat. Apart from taking on much of the administrative side, Ian was also responsible for producing the fabulous "Welcome Certificates" we presented to the boys at the first club presentation night in 2008 and this has been adopted by the club for other members in other teams.

It was only in the Spring/Summer of 2008 that we approached three local clubs after deciding that we should not "go it alone" as a team. We found that all of them impressed us with their principals in terms of their commitment to children but we felt that Santiago stood out in this area and was truly run as a football club for the kids in the community in every respect. As there is also a big connection with St James School our decision wasn't difficult and we have since commented in discussions that we are in no doubt that this was one of our best decisions to date.
The players have risen to every footballing challenge that we have thrown at them and as coaches we feel that they are (at the time of updating this on 21st October 2009) well ahead of where we thought they would be.
Brian Taylor is doing a great job as Parent Rep for the team and a full team of fundraisers in Nuala, Val, Sallyann and Marguerite who have already put in some hard work to help bring additional cash into the club as a whole.

One of the club philosophies is that we NEVER turn children away from our club.
From the end of 2008 we had 2 players attending training every week who were not involved in the match-playing squad.
By the Summer of 2009 we had to make a decision – would we run with extra players in the following season (diluting each player’s match-play time) OR do we build a new squad to allow more players to enjoy more match football ?
With some further enquiries already coming in from interested parents we made the decision to create the “A” team. This is currently also coached by Paul & Ian with John Merchant doing a fine job as Parent Rep.
One of the key benefits of having the additional team as early as Under-8’s is that we can ensure that the team is not in danger of folding at U-11 age when matches become 11-a-side and squads need to be at least 15 players.
A further benefit is that as we progress towards that date, we can ensure that the children are playing at the right competitive level for them to develop at their own pace, without pressure, and of course have the fun they have come to the football club for.

Our original team are competing the top flight in the Central Warwickshire Youth Football League and whilst results can not be published at this age group, they are performing magnificently against what are considered the best teams of their age group in the Birmingham County area.
The “A” team are competing in a newly formed Division and are also doing us very proud, playing some great football and have very quickly understood what positional play is all about after only being given a very short time to learn the fundamentals of the game before being thrown into competitive action.