Organisers of the second Weymouth FC Youth Soccer Development School sponsored by Westham Cycles and the Transport & General Workers Union, which was held at the Wessex Stadium on the 16th & 17th April, have hailed the event as a great success as over 180 children enjoyed quality coaching from Terras stars Matthew Hale and Jason Matthews and other FA coaches.
Group
Weymouth FC Youth players and guests of all age groups from 8 to 15 were represented and everybody who took part received a certificate of attendance. Additional to this award many trophies were awarded for categories such as best players, best goalkeepers, penalty shoot out kings and hot shots.
Goalkeepers
Weymouth FC Youth Secretary Bob Mowlem commented, “It gave me great pleasure to see so many of our youth players obviously enjoying themselves with many of the fun activities the coaches put on for them but I was also glad to see more technical coaching going on as I am a great believer in teaching young players the basics of the game before they progress onto the more difficult aspects. I would also like to take this opportunity on behalf of Weymouth FC Youth to thank Matthew, Jason and the coaches as well as Lisa Christopher and Sara Heatherington for their work in organising the event and making sure supervision of those taking part was of the highest quality”.
Under 11s
The clubs Football in the Community Officer Tim Davis added, “As well as outfield players we decided to have a day set aside for goalkeepers to have their own days session which we opened up to other youth clubs throughout the region and I am delighted to say amongst others players from Eagles, Cougars and Dorchester took the opportunity to join forces with our own clubs keepers. I believe they will all go back to their respective clubs as far better players after being coached by arguably the finest non-league goalkeeper in the Country Jason Matthews. This can only be good for local youth football. With the event being such a huge success plans are already afoot for the next Soccer Development School which will be bigger and better than this one. Further to this I can also reveal that Weymouth FC Youth is in the process of developing our own School of Excellence where the very best players in each of the age groups run by the club will invited to join and they will be afforded additional coaching of the highest quality to ensure they realise their potential.
Under 16s
The plan is also for these players to take part in friendly matches against Academy teams from football league teams and we have already received approaches from clubs eager to play us. The School of Excellence is one of the most exciting projects I have had the privilege to be involved with and if it as successful as we think it will be it will really put Weymouth FC at the forefront of youth soccer amongst non-league clubs. We will also not be forgetting the girls as they will also be incorporated in the plans and have their own School of Excellence as well. Initial feedback from the kids that we have asked about the idea has been extremely favourable and many have already stressed their intention to make sure they are allocated places. All in all Weymouth FC Youth is going from strength to strength and we intend to ensure this continues by making sure our product is of the highest possible quality which will in turn mean young players want to be associated with us”.
Trophy Winners
Matthew Hale, former Community Officer for Bristol City FC, said “I ran some large soccer schools for City but none as large and as successful as this. At Bristol, behaviour was a problem the children here were a credit to themselves and their parents. My coaches and I have really enjoyed the experience and hope to build on this for the future, its events like this that make you fell proud to be associated not just with Weymouth FC but with the town as a whole.”