A Colne Valley football club is to start a section for disabled players and anyone throughout the area is welcome to join.
Linthwaite Football Club is beginning the disabled football this month and it will be based at Colne Valley High School. The section is for disabled adults and children with the aim to get teams ready to enter the West Riding Pan Disability League next season.
The first training session will be on Friday, November 10.
Any players with disabilities, especially those with learning disabilities or mental impairments, are urged to join if they love playing football.
Linthwaite FC club secretary James Carter said: “This is a huge milestone for Linthwaite Football Club. We have spent many months planning and working really hard behind the scenes with the West Riding County Football Association to ensure we continue to widen our reach to the local community through football.
“We are really excited about setting up the disability section and several of our coaches will be involved in running it in addition to their usual roles with the club.
“There is nowhere else in Huddersfield doing something like this and there is such a strong desire within the club to set it up.”
Linthwaite FC is based at Colne Valley High School and now has 254 players across 18 teams, including four girls’ teams.
Linthwaite FC has a three star accreditation with the Football Association – the highest a club can get.
The disability session coaches will include James; the club’s mental health officer and under 10s team coach Andrew Greenway; under 12s coach Mike Teer; 18-year-old Will Marriott who manages the under 14s and helps with the under 13s and the under 11 girls; Hughie Friell who is the club’s vice president and tots coach; and player Paul Masterson.
James added: “We are really focused on working with the community and some of the teams have been involved in projects such as litter picks.”
The disability sessions will be held on Friday evenings at the all-weather pitches next to Colne Valley Sports Hall on the school campus.
Children aged from eight to 17 will be from 6pm to 7pm with adults aged from 18 upwards from 7pm to 8pm.
To sign up for children’s sessions go to https://forms.gle/H6ed3NsEqWiQmcTR6
Adult sessions sign-up forms are at https://forms.gle/XgUJhcanKJx84f4U7
The first month are classed as taster sessions so are funded by the club with help from the West Riding FA.
The club is always on the lookout for more volunteer coaches.
For more information and contact details for the club go to its website at https://www.linthwaitefootballclub.co.uk/
Written by ANDY HIRST who runs his own Yorkshire freelance journalism agency AH! PR (https://ah-pr.com/) specialising in press releases, blogging, website content and copywriting.
