MISSED THE BAND AND SCONES; GOT THE DNA

Where have I been today, when I should have been at the Carlecotes Church Garden party? I spent the day, a hot one, at the Balby Carr Academy, Doncaster, earning a few CPD hours to keep my FA coaching qualification up to date. It's been a good day watching Sheffield and Hallamshire FA coaches and guests put on several sessions using local youngsters from clubs located in the South Yorkshire region. Bit hot though.

One familiar looking coach was Sheffield FA's Graeme Carrick and when you look at him and listened to his north eastern tones, it was obvious that he was the brother of the more famous Michael, international footballer. Having worked at the Newcastle United Academy, he is now a regional coach for the North East and Yorkshire. He did a very nice session based around the FA DNA!

 
Gary Webb, who works at the Derby County Academy is originally from Reading FC, and worked with a good friend of mine, the wonderful football "eccentric" David Downes, who works at the Madjeski Stadium on behalf of the club's community programme. David has much Reading memorabilia from Elm Park in his garden, including a floodlight pylon, a row of stand seats and programmes to die for. His wife is very understanding.

It's a small world as I worked with David on behalf of the FA in Berkshire during the 1980s and of course Charterhouse School has had matches against David's Reading Youth XI, the John Madjeski Academy school team.

Gary Webb will also have come across Will Hughes, who once attended Repton School (near Derby). They were great rivals of Charterhouse and fixtures go back to 1904. In an ISFA Cup tie, Charterhouse played a Repton team that included the young teenager, Hughes. He was signed up by the Rams after GCSE's and made his mark while his school chums were facing A levels! We hope Will will have a healthier and more successful season in 2016-7.

The headline act was Peter Strugess, an FA National Development Coach, former head of Futsal England. He took two hours to impress on us and the young footballers (U9s) from Dronfield FC, who were "guniea pigs", how to "stay on the ball". It was a very inspiring session. Well done Peter. Here is a short clip from a previous session he lead.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vXXnVTqzRk

We also enjoyed Leanne Hall who is an ex-England International  goalkeeper and national coach. She worked with more young 'uns whose gloves seemed larger than them.