St Albans Rangers football club was founded in 1985. Over these years more than 500 boys and 20 girls have enjoyed playing football for the club. In 2001, the club gained the FA Charter Standard Development Club Award, one of the first in the country to achieve this.
Our small-sided section continues to grow and our 11-a-side teams are a continuing credit to the club in the way they play the game. In May each year our U12s – U14s teams visit or host our twinned club FC Zelos in The Netherlands, and participate in tournaments and challenge matches, which is a fantastic experience young players. In 2006 a St Albans Rangers U18s team represented England in a Youth World Cup tournament in Worms, Germany just before the real event!
Our Community Football Programme was launched seven years ago for U6s and U7s, and these players have gone on to form the nucleus for the U10s and U11s teams. The club now has an active girls/young ladies section, playing league football. We have also been actively promoting girls (primary school) football, with a view to increasing the number of Girls teams playing league football.
St Albans Rangers FC has a club ethos of player and team development and, as such, does not participate in league football until U9s. It is vital that our young players have all the fundamental skills required to play all sports, and St Albans Rangers FC supports the concept of LTAD (Long Term Athlete Development) where the focus is on training the correct skills at an early age. It is this approach that fosters a good relationship between the players and coach, and is probably the underlying reason why more of our players stay with the club up to U18s, and beyond into Senior football.