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Norfolk Christian football league youth team plea  

A new season kicks off for the Norfolk Christian Football League in September writes new chairman Mick Culwick, including an appeal for churches to get involved in youth football.

We are all looking forward to the new season, with a few administrative changes to kick off with after we managed to complete all of our fixtures and cup games, back in May, for the first time since the Covid- pandemic.

Paul Nice will be assisting Alan Barnes with the secretarial duties for both adult and youth leagues, Alan may well be stepping down next season, because of health issues and we need to provide him with as much assistance as possible.
 
Jim Green has also stepped down as chairman after guiding us through some difficult times these last four years of cancellations and the shrinkage of the youth league. I will take on the role as chairman, having served the league for seven years as chair before Jim took over.
 
This may be the last season for youth football as if numbers of teams do not increase, it will become financially unviable to run a league with so few teams.
 
If any churches would like to consider youth football as a way of reaching out into their community and would like to know more please get in touch with myself at mcculwick@gmail.com or Paul Nice paulbigsnice@gmail.com  We will gladly come to visit your church and or leadership to talk with you.
A big thank you for all those who continue to pray and support us, as we continue with our football leagues.
 
We will start the new season with an adult tournament on September 17, possibly at Sloughbottom Park, with youth and adult fixtures starting the following week.
 
The adult league is looking strong with at least nine teams entering, and another team has made positive enquiries about entering an adult team too. The club is well known to us having played in the youth league for many seasons.
 
The youth league however has been in sharp decline for last three years, with just two leagues last season, u14s and u16s which is very sad when looking back six years ago when we had u10s, u12s, u14s, u16s, with nearly 400 young people engaged in the Christian youth league, plus 10 adult teams.
 
It is not just the numbers that matter; it is the opportunity for churches to engage with the youngsters in their communities that is what our football is really about.
 
So we hope to combine u14 and u16 leagues to form an u15 league, depending on the age of the players. This means that the older u16s will not be able to participate in the league but can play friendly game
 
We may need to make big changes to the way” we do football” so we can make it more attractive and simple to enable churches to participate. We are open to suggestions!- please get in touch.
 
Pictured above, Lighthouse Sheringham Under 16s football team won the Norfolk Christian League U16 cup final back in April.


 


Published: 01/08/2022


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