We are delighted to announce that Harry Schuetze of Eastbourne Borough has won our Young Volunteer of the Year Award as part of England Football’s Grassroots Football Awards.

This Award look to recognise to a volunteer under the age of 25, who is dedicated to helping make grassroots football enjoyable for everyone.
Harry, 17, has been a volunteer coach for the past eight years at Eastbourne Borough FC.

Every Saturday he helps set up the pitch and training equipment at 8.20am, ready for the first of the three-hour long community sessions at 9am.

Harry’s first session is coaching our ‘Sports Stars’ Squad (boys aged 3-5), then at 10am he helps coach the ‘Saturday Soccer School’ Squad (year 1 boys) and then finally at 11am he works with our ‘Spirit of Football’ Disability Squad.

His compassion and consideration especially towards our disability players is a particularly outstanding feature of this young man.

The impact that Harry has made on countless young children that have come through our youth pathway at Eastbourne Borough has been immense, with many coming up and thanking him.

Harry is also now especially skilled and experienced at working with special educational needs (SEN) children, having done so for the past eight years, which for a teenager is extremely rare.

Finally, Harry stands out because he has put up with a very demanding Head Coach for eight years that, through his own mental health challenges, has not always been a joy to be around - and he has not moaned once.

He is a ball of positivity and laughter, with a deep core through him of hard work and determination. 

Harry is not only a hero to Tim Brown, who nominated him, but a hero for lots of children in Eastbourne!

To find out more about the England Football Grassroots Awards please contact:

Awards
E: Awards@SussexFA.com