Festive Greetings The Directors, Officers, Council Members and staff would like to wish you and your families a very Happy Christmas and a successful and prosperous New Year. We would also like to take this opportunity to thank you for the work you have done during the year in our beautiful game. Many of you work tirelessly for little or no reward for the goodness of the game for which we are very grateful. Thanks are also sent to all our working partners who have helped us deliver our football development projects and to everyone involved in helping us develop grassroots football in Westmorland. We all look forward to continuing our good links in 2014. WESTMORLAND COUNTY FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION LIMITED KEAVE Christmas Edition 2013 Youth Development Review 2013 saw the introduction of Trophy Events in the Kent Valley Junior Football League, supported by Westmorland County FA, with an Under 7 and Under 8 Trophy Event being held at Dallam School 3G pitch with 16 teams participating. This Trophy Event was played, on a frosty morning when other games on grass pitches would have been cancelled, saw 16 teams come together and around 100 parents watch the entertainment on each of the 4 pitches. The event was played with a great atmosphere and many of the young players enjoying themselves on the artificial pitch and without ending up covered in mud. Customer Perception Survey The Customer Perception Survey for the July to October 2013 period gave some fantastic results with 85% of respondents thinking The FA and Westmorland County FA were doing a good or better job developing and supporting grassroots football. 79% thought The FA s Respect programme was improving behaviour in grassroots football. Thanks to everyone for your support look out for the next questionnaire on our website. Trophy events which are part of The FA Youth Development Review, are played over 2 weekends with teams playing group matches in the first week then a knockout based on results in the first week, being played in week two. The Youth Development Review was implemented to develop young people in football, from one not fraught with huge jumps and structured progression to one that makes it easier for team managers to work with children and recognises that sometimes the guidelines need to be more flexible to enable participation. The next trophy event will be held in the New Year.
Coach Education During 2013 Westmorland County FA have delivered a range of courses and in-service training events to support volunteers who give up their time in the development of players and the game as a whole in Westmorland. The Level 1 Award in Coaching Football was delivered at the Westmorland County FA Headquarters and at Dallam School with 45 Coaches successfully completing the award and a Level 2 running in August with 14 coaches taking part. Listed below are the courses currently planned for 2014 (further courses will be added throughout the year visit www.westmorlandfa.com for more information February 2014 Emergency Aid Course Safeguarding Children Workshop Monday 3 February 6:30pm - 9:30pm Monday 10 February 6:30pm - 9:30pm Westmorland County FA Headquarters Charter Standard 20 Non-Charter Standard 25 25 May 2014 Level 1 Award in Coaching Football Saturday 10 May Sunday 11 May Sunday 18 May Westmorland County FA Headquarters Charter Standard 95 Non-Charter Standard 145 June 2014 CPD In-service Training - Transition 5v5-7v7-9v9-11v11 FA Youth Award Module 1- Developing the Environment Wednesday 18 June 6pm 9pm Thursday 19 June 6pm - 9pm Friday 20 June Saturday 21 June Sunday 22 June Venue TBC Westmorland County FA Headquarters Free (worth 3 hours CPD) Charter Standard 45 Non-Charter Standard 55
South Lakes Girls League This year we have launched a new South Lakes Girls League format. The format has been received fantastically by all the clubs actively working within girls football. The format incorporates a flexible approach to monthly festivals, held at a central venue, and hosted by either the clubs themselves or Westmorland County FA. This success is thanks to the fabulous group of dedicated and enthusiastic coaches that continue to support local grassroots girls football, despite the weather and the occasional management headache. Because of the work we have put in, we now relish in the opportunity to see the girls we coach, playing, enjoying and coming back to football! We look forward to continuing our work with the South Lakes Girls League in 2014, the future is bright and the patience is paying off, well done to everyone involved so far! Cup Competitions Fortunately good weather before Christmas resulted in all senior County FA cup competitions reaching the quarter final and youth cups to semi final stages. Good luck to all teams remaining in competitions. Representative Matches Invitation Trophy winners, Appleby FC represented the County in the Association of Northern Counties Senior Competition and were unlucky to lose 2 0 against East Riding FA. Both goals came in the last few minutes of the game, the first a lucky header from a corner and the second as Appleby pushed forward for an equaliser. Thanks to Appleby FC for their outstanding performance in the game. The Under 18 side have put up some good performances and only silly mistakes have cost them dearly resulting in defeats at the hands of West Riding FA 7 1 (The FA County Youth Cup) and 5 1 (in the Association of Northern Counties) and East Riding FA ( 3 0). We look forward to games against Lancashire FA, Cumberland FA, North Riding FA and Sheffield & Hallamshire FA in the New Year. Good Luck. Westmorland County FA Girls Player Development Centre The Girl s Player Development Centre has started its third season. The centre is now an established component of the Girls Player Pathway. Identifying a clear pathway is a fantastic achievement for the future of girls football in Westmorland. The coaching team is really happy with the group of girls we have playing at the Centre. We have seen some fantastic performance developments so far this season, and the girls are showing great promise as they improve every time they play. We are looking forward to what the rest of the season has to offer.
Referee Respect Marking Scheme The 2013-14 Referee s Respect Marking scheme has continued on last season s success within the Westmorland Association Football League, Kent Valley Junior Football League and Westmorland and Furness Under 18s Football League. The aim of the scheme is to improve the standards of behaviour, both on and off the field, and reduce the number of instances of dissent and foul and abusive language within football matches played in the county. The scheme aims to achieve this goal by asking the match referee to complete a report on the teams involved in each game and a mark on a scale of 1-100 (100 being the highest). Here are the League tables (as at 12 December 2013) Westmorland Football League Kent Valley Junior League Westmorland & Furness U18 1 Dent 1 Swarthmoor U12 1 Corinthians 2 Braithwaite 2 Kirkby Stephen U11 2 Endmoor 3 Shap 3 Ibis United U14 3 Kendal County 4 Appleby 4 Kendal United U14 4 Ulverston Rangers 5 Wetheriggs United Res 5 Milnthorpe Town U11 5 Askam 6 Carleton Bank 6 Wattsfield U16 7 Ibis 7 Ibis Athletic U15 8 Kendal Celtic Res 8 Swarthmoor U11 9 Lunesdale United 9 Kendal United Rockets U11 10 Appleby Res 10 Wattsfield U11 Have you got what it takes? Are you up for the challenge? Why not become a Referee? Our next Referee s Course commences on 12 February 2013 Visit our website for more details and to book a place Futsal League Is your New Year s Resolution to get a bit fitter and work off the Christmas excess? If so then Futsal could be the game for you!!! Whether you have played the game before or would like to try out this EXCITING, FAST PACED format of the traditional 5-A-SIDE game for the first time, players of all abilities are welcome to come along and join in the sessions. The Futsal League starts on Monday 20 January 2014 and will run for 7 weeks. If you are interested in entering a team(s) please complete the entry form available on our website and return with 10 Registration Fee to our office. For further information please contact Daniel.Ferguson@WestmorlandFA.com or phone Dan on 07944033337 Member Services As the new FA IT Systems come on-line in the next few months, it essential that all Leagues, Clubs and Referees register and familiarise themselves with the existing Member Services, as this will become the main source of communication from the County FA.
Community Coach visits St George s Park Community Coach, Lauren Downham visited St George s Park for the Womens and Girl s National Networking meeting on the 10 and 11 December. The meeting involved all County FA s and organised by FA representatives Rachel Pavlou and Polly Flides. The meeting gave Lauren the opportunity to meet some fantastic inspirational people and gain extra knowledge required to become an innovative member of the women s and girl s development team. Lauren enjoyed the two days and can t wait to put her new knowledge into practice. Her personal highlight was having dinner with Jill Scott, England international and Manchester City player. Funding Opportunities We are pleased to announce that the Football Foundation s funding partners - the Premier League, The FA and the Government (through Sport England) will be investing 102 million over the next three years into a new fund to be managed by the Football Foundation. This new Fund will be called the Premier League & The FA Facilities Fund and will replace the previous Football Foundation Grass Roots Facilities Fund. The Fund will be managed by the Football Foundation and will be open to football clubs, schools, councils and local sports associations to support the development of new or refurbish local football facilities. Applications that are already within the system will continue to be processed as normal. The Foundation will start to accept applications and EOIs for the new Fund with effect from Monday 20 January 2014. In the meantime applicants can register their interest by submitting a Registration of Interest Form, which can be found at: www.footballfoundation.org.uk/funding-schemes. For more information on developing your facilities at your club please contact Dan Ferguson, Football Development Officer on 01539 730946 or email Daniel.Ferguson@WestmorlandFA.com Westmorland County FA working in local primary schools Having started my very first academic year as a Community Coach, it is safe to say I have learnt lots and enjoyed every minute. As a County FA we work with 10 schools regularly, and truly value the strong positive relationship we are building together. I have a number of special highlights from all the schools I work with, such as the Festival of Sport at Ravenstonedale primary, the dodge-ball and handball tournament at Langdale primary and the multiskills development at Dent primary. In truth, all the schools we visit are fantastic! We are acknowledging the future educational changes that will take effect in 2014 and I look forward to working with the teachers to maintain the success of the lessons we deliver.
The FA Tesco Skills Programme The FA Tesco Skills Programme has arrived in Westmorland. The FA Tesco Skills is a unique football coaching programme that gives 5 11 year olds the opportunity to get active, learn new football skills and enjoy the game. We have been providing high quality football coaching for children since 2007 and have to date provided over 4 million child places on the programme, aiming to reach 4.7 million children by 2014. The FA Tesco Skills is a nationwide initiative run by The Football Association and funded by Sport England and Tesco. We provide after-school football coaching, charter standard club coaching, holiday coaching and we also work within primary schools providing specialist football coaching. Our aim is to develop better and more technically gifted football players but also to give every child the opportunity to be the best that they can be. The FA Tesco Skills is based on a unique FA coaching model that helps children of all abilities to grow, develop their skills and to reach their potential. The FA four corner model encompasses four key attributes that are vital for any developing young footballer: Physical, Technical, Psychological and Social elements, helping children to develop more than just their football skills we ll help them to gain confidence, build self-esteem, learn to work as team and improve their decision making. Skills coaching in schools A primary part of The FA Tesco Skills is to provide primary schools with free, specialist, high quality football coaching and support for teachers within PE lessons. Our coaches will typically work with a primary school once every week for the duration of half a term, providing specialist, age-appropriate coaching which is in line with the National Curriculum and is entirely free of charge. Our teaching resources support our delivery in schools, they are afpe accredited and can be downloaded from our website www.thefa.com/tescoskills. Skills coaching after school This is the only part of the programme that The FA Tesco Skills charge for with our after school coaching costing 2.00 per session. Our current after school coaching takes place on a Tuesday evening inside the main sports hall at Dallam School in Milnthorpe. Sessions for 5-7 year olds run from 5pm to 6pm. Sessions for 8-11 year olds run from 6pm to 7pm. Please book on-line as there are limited places available. Skills coaching in charter standard clubs As well as delivering to schools over a half term period we also work alongside grassroots football clubs. Our role is to work alongside the coach/coaches and support and help them in their coaching sessions as well as working with the children. This is free of charge and we ideally work with clubs between 4 and 6 weeks. Skills coaching in the school holidays Our free holiday coaching courses run every school holiday. We deliver coaching days between 10am and 3pm in different venues around the county. This is a great opportunity for children to build friendships as well as improving their football skills on our fun days. If you have any questions or queries then please don t hesitate to contact myself. Make sure you check out our website! We look forward to delivering to you and seeing you soon. Tom Penny FA Tesco Skills Coach Email tom.penny@thefa.com Mobile - 07943552051
Looking for a Room for a meeting or training session? We have 3 rooms available for hire as a solution to local businesses and organisations looking for a suitable venue to hold meetings/functions, in our newly refurbished office in Kendal. Please contact the office on 01539 730946 for further information and cost. Player Noticeboard At times, it can be hard attracting new faces to a club or league, and we appreciate how time consuming it can be. We are very keen to ensure that all our teams and leagues remain competitive, and that means clubs having healthy sized squads and plenty of volunteers. This is why Westmorland County FA have decided to give more assistance to those clubs and leagues in need, and offer free advertising space for our clubs on our website. So if you are looking to fill a specific position or just looking to expand your squads, please complete the Player Noticeboard form available on our website (http://www.westmorlandfa.com/players/playernoticeboard) and email it to Info@WestmorlandFA.com. Your advert will then appear on our Player Noticeboard page. Groundsman of the Year Awards Following the success of last season s Groundsman of the Year Awards, we are looking for nominations from member Clubs at Step 7 and below for the 2014 Awards. If you would to nominate your club s groundsman please visit our website and complete the nomination form. Remember - Nominations must be received by Friday 17 January 2014 Pictured left is Steve Croskell of Burneside FC receiving his Highly Commended Award at St George s Park in August 2013. Christmas Holiday Arrangements The County FA Headquarters will be closed from the 24 December 2013 to 2 January 2014. The office will be visited regularly during this period to deal with urgent post. In the event of an emergency telephone contact arrangements will be available on the office answerphone.
Our next Football Fun Days will take place during February 2014 Half Term school holidays. For more details, look out for the information on our website in the New Year. Website Our website is kept up to date on activities and what s on in Westmorland. Visit www.westmorlandfa.com for up to date information Follow Us on Twitter For latest news from Westmorland County FA follow us on twitter @WestmorlandFA Westmorland County Football Association Limited 35/37 Appleby Road, Kendal, Cumbria LA9 6ET Telephone: 01539 730946 Email@ info@westmorlandfa.com www.westmorlandfa.com