Maidenbower Colts - Club of the Year

Club of the Year: Maidenbower Colts

The FA and McDonald's Grassroots Football Awards

We are delighted to announce that Maidenbower Colts has won our Grassroots Club of the Year Award as part of The FA and McDonald's Grassroots Football Awards.

The awards aim to recognise and reward volunteers, match officials, clubs and leagues across the county who have made a difference to grassroots football in their local community.

Coming out of lockdown the club established a Club Mental Health First Aider (qualified), partnered with Youth Sports Nutrition to provide educational workshops throughout the year to help payers get back into healthy nutritional habits. Also, direct access to a sports nutritionist for Players and families. 

With no preseason allowed they did two things; firstly, a 5k & 10 ball dribble challenge to get players exercising with a ball at their feet - medals for all. Secondly, Forza ball Mastery Academy: paid and facilitated externally run online ball mastery sessions to give players confidence again, increase fitness and get back into training habits after lockdowns.

Colts were acutely aware of the detrimental impact of the lockdowns was having. They were concerned the players may lack confidence to come back to football, had fallen into bad habits or just had drifted, so their 'Whole Club and 'Football Family' theme was focused on these things. 

They’ve shown they are more than just a football club and certainly more than what happens on the pitch. Colts care about players wellbeing, health, and sense of worth. Either through helping them get re-motivated out of lockdown, focused on what it is they want to achieve (Player /Assistant Coach / Referee) or giving them support to make decisions on careers. 

Their digital presence has really helped connect with the high school aged players and they’ve seen engagement keep growing. It’s a great and current way to keep them connected to the club and importantly see what the rest of the club is doing. 

A genuine desire to improve the club, enhance and add real tangible value to our football family's experience of grassroots family. For some, outside of school, they are the child's only structure - they take that responsibility extremely seriously. 

They established a new post on the elected committee of Club Development Officer - to grow the club, manage retention and recruitment of players, drive off-pitch initiatives, link them to local professional clubs (Crawley Town/Brighton & Hove Albion/Crystal Palace) and keep the club moving forwards with the players interest and well-being at the heart of everything they do. 

To find out more about The FA and McDonald's Grassroots Football Awards please contact:

Awards
E: Awards@SussexFA.com

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