Friendlies and kids school holidays

Friendlies are a great way to prepare for the season.  You can take so much from them, especially when the format of the game changes.  The problems arise when the school holidays are just before the start of the new season!  Our 1st and only friendly so far was back in July, just before the kids broke up.  Then the school holidays hit and I lost half of the team.  Don't see this as me complaining because I was also one of those that took a break for a couple of weeks.  I just don't know how other teams manage it.

Over the last few weeks, I received numerous texts, phone calls and emails asking for friendlies but I've had to turn them down.  We have only been managing 6-7 at training to getting at least 9 together for a match on a Sunday is definitely a no-no.  Do these other teams have considerably larger squads than us?  Surely not as we are only allowed a certain number of players in the squad.  Do other kids not go on holiday?  Maybe, or they don't all go at the same time.

We have 14 players, of which 3 or 4 have been unavailable all summer.  That leaves us with 10-11.  Factor in others going away and we are struggling to get a team for the whole summer holidays.

What I do know is come September, I will have a squad of players eager to play.  It may take us a couple of games to get going but they'll learn quickly.

Excitement of Fixture Release Day

The day the new seasons fixtures are released have always been exciting.  Who is our first game against?  Who are we playing over the Christmas period?  Are we at home or away for the final day?  This season is no different for me, other than it's not Sheffield United's fixtures I'm looking at, it's Ecclesall Rangers U11s.

Up until the last Friday, I hadn't realised the Championship, League 1 and League 2 seasons were starting on the Saturday!  Since starting coaching, my interest in the professional game has dwindled.  Not completely, but enough to not worry about it during the close season.  My focus has totally changed to the part of the game I really enjoy.

Today, the fixtures for the SDJSL were released and I did the same as always, first game, Christmas period and last game.  Then after that it was "Are we playing during school holidays?".  Professional clubs don't have to go through this!  It's always a struggle to get a team together at these times.  Many of my team go and visit family or take holidays leaving us with the bear bones.  So these will be the dates I'll be trying to rearrange.

It may be sad, but I still get the buzz of excitement on the day the fixtures are released.  Next week we get to go through it again when we find out our cup opponents!

Finding a Sponsor

Finding a sponsor for a football team is always hard, especially in the current financial climate.  Thankfully, we were lucky enough to have a parent sponsor our 1st season at U8s.  3 years on and 1 kit handed from the age group above, this year we really needed to start looking for a new kit sponsor.

There are many websites with advise on how to go about finding a sponsor, local businesses, asking parents, etc.  Thankfully, this year Twitter came to the rescue!  It's not often you get a business asking to sponsor a grassroots team but we were lucky to find just that.  Milestone CDM Ltd posted to our league to see if there was any teams interested in the S11 area of Sheffield.  This was back in March and after a busy end to the season and a post-season break, things have started moving.

I met Michael in June and his enthusiasm for putting something back into the local community is commendable.

So the new kit has been ordered with Euro Soccer Company and will hopefully be with us for the start the season.

Mock up of kit

A big thanks to Michael and the guys at Milestone CDM Ltd for their support.