This guide has been put together to support grassroots clubs with recruiting and retaining players. This booklet includes information on West Riding County FA initiatives, club initiatives from local clubs within this County and ideas on how you present and sell your club to new and existing players. You will also find documents to help you firstly let us know how your club is doing keep us up to date on numbers in your team/club, we usually find out a team is struggling when its is about to fold, this is usually too late! Secondly to help advertise if you don't already have a club flyer and thirdly if you want to share any good practice then please use the document provided to let us know about it. It might help another club!

Key people to contact • Caroline Hulme – West Riding County FA Women and Girls Football Development Officer Email: caroline.hulme@wrcfa.com Tel: 07850630510

• Jo de Tute – Senior Football Development officer Email: Joannne.deTute@wrcfa.co.uk Tel: 07850630510

• James Riches - FA Tesco Skills Team Leader Email: James.Riches@thefa.com Tel: 07943862282

• Chris Hoyle – West Riding Girls League head of Girls Development Email: chris.hoyle3@btinternet.com / Findaclub@wrgfl.com Tel: 07773817763

West Riding County FA have a number of opportunities that you and your club can be involved in along with being able to offer advice and support when it comes to applying for funding to support your club, below are just some of the programmes we run.

Clubs contact WRCFA with an expression of either creating a new team or assistance with retaining a current team. Clubs complete an Expression of Interest Form.

A meeting is held between the Club and WRCFA to discuss the Expression of Interest Form and background of the club. At this time the Club will identify approximately 4-5 schools in which they want to target.

Clubs will make contact with either Primary / Secondary schools and offer them the opportunity to work in partnership with the Club and WRCFA. A block of coaching sessions are offered to each school, aimed at the Club’s target age group. Club coaches and WRCFA coaches will lead on the school sessions.

During the block of football coaching, WRCFA will offer students aged 14-19 a Junior Football Organisers course at either the local Secondary School or Young Leaders within the Club. WRCFA will offer school teachers a Girls Football Coaching CPD event.

Once the school coaching is complete the Club and WRCFA organise a festival for all the participating schools to attend. The Club will use this as a tool to promote themselves to players, teachers, and parents.

The transition of players moving from a school to club setting is monitored. Ongoing support is provided to the club.

The FA’s revolutionary football coaching programme for 5-11s, The FA Tesco Skills, is expanding nationwide giving more children than ever the opportunity to experience high quality football coaching. The programme’s unique child-centred philosophy has established it as the leading grassroots youth football programme in England. It’s foundations are The FA’s ‘4-corner’ coaching model, developing children socially, technically, physically and psychologically, giving them more than just football skills but life skills such as confidence, teamwork, decision making and problem solving. The coaching is also based on the FA Future Game with the aim of developing young players who are comfortable on the ball, creative and have good game understanding. WRCFA have a skills team which consists of 6 full time coaches, these coaches are based across the county and coach in a number of primary schools. The coaches also run a mentoring programme through clubs. For more information on FA Tesco Skills programme, please contact james.riches@thefa.com.

tescoskills.thefa.com

To Inspire and empower young people through a fun, recreational football playing

opportunity

With the support of Vauxhall, The FA have developed a new programme aimed at encouraging boys and girls aged 14-17 years old who have dropped out of regular football

to get back into the game. The Football Mash-Up initiative is basically a kick about with mates, overseen by an FA coach who will ensure that the sessions are fun and sociable,

with you and your friends getting to choose how you would like to play.

26 week programme at a club setting linked to a secondary school

For futher information on Vauxhall mash up please visit – www.wrcfa.com

This is a course aimed at young volunteers aged 14+. The course provides a basic introduction to leadership skills required when involved in football. The course will primarily introduce 4 areas; Assisting Football Activity Sessions, An introduction to Refereeing, Helping with a Team and Different Football Events – in addition to these areas, Respect, Promoting the Game and Developing the Game will be embedded during the Guided Learning Hours.

For more information on getting young volunteers involved please visit:

http://www.westridingfa.com/volunteers/football-futures.

Do you look at both orthodox and innovative ways to deliver positive, fun and engaging football coaching sessions? As a County FA our aim is to share ideas for best practice and give teachers/coaches the confidence to deliver coaching sessions and create playing opportunities for girls at their club and school. We can support you to:

Positive Learning Environment

Session Management Tips

Managing the Difference

Utilizing Limited Space and Equipment

Challenging Conditions - Outdoor Play

Contact WRCFA to find out how we can support your club coaches!

Joint Club Recruitment Festivals – Closed Season Get together with other clubs to invite local schools to recruitment afternoons or early evening events at a venue to suit both teams Arrange one between 3 teams at on a Saturday morning for 3 weeks (host 1x week at each club) Ask a retired person to help organise the event Invite WRCFA to come to coach the session Get your team flyers ready to give out School Partnership Posters – get these out and network with teachers to ensure they are placed in school facing out where parents may congregate. Referrals – speak to Teachers and ask to be referred to any girls showing sporting prowess (does not have to be football – can be netball, hockey) Flyers – give these out to parents waiting to collect kids, don’t rely on the schools. Get help from 6 formers who might do this for you Assembly Talk – book a morning to go talk about your club in assembly – leaflets, presentations are a big hit

Network with School PE teachers (if school doesn’t have Girls Football don’t stop there) The teachers will support you as they see the benefit of their girls getting fitter Girls Football, Hockey, Netball, Athletics Local Press Meet the editor/sports editor – tell them what you are trying to achieve Gain paper support (they like to be seen to be supporting the community) Constantly send in ‘’newsworthy articles’’ no matter how trivial and always mention you are recruiting for new girls Remember – grandparents and people who are home during the day read local papers cover to cover A small advert may be worth some money – however you usually can get coverage through newsworthy items for free Trips/Discos/Bowling/Galas You score highly above other teams if you offer other activities beyond the league games. You may look to appoint someone to organise a trip from pitch side raffle money May have a Xmas or End of Season disco or party. You may want to take your team to National Tournaments such as Blackpool, or Skelmersdale.

Make your sessions interesting: Plan ahead – don’t be caught trying to think of something on the spot – the girls sense this an once this has happened your session is destined to fail Be enthusiastic – try to be inspirational – remember your performance is being judged by the parents, they will take their daughter to the club with what they perceive have the best coaches Exciting, interesting, creative practices – avoid being repetitive and boring

(Nothing worse than a line of players kicking a ball at a GK) Player/Parent Meetings: ALWAYS start the pre-season with a player/parent meeting chaired by the team manager. (U10’s and below players may well be excluded and play outside while you talk to the parents) Lay out the expectations: Timeliness and punctuality , Respect for all – weaker players have a right to enjoy it as much as the better Behaviour – your chance to lay out what you expect and to avoid any embarrassment later, Tell them what they can expect from you, Set the agenda ,Enforce that you are a volunteer, Explain what you want to achieve Give them an idea of how the season can span out, cups, postponements, friendlies, galas etc....

Set up a helper support network for each team It is good practice to involve all the parents in the team and the games YOU – the Manager – ultimate responsibility for the team, training and the running of the games, substitutions and health/safety of the players. Also responsible for the equipment ect... Team Admin person – better if this person is from another household – responsible for organising matches and liaising with the League and opponents, sorting team sheets and reporting the scores to the league Referees – if you don’t have access to a referee one possibly two dads who can referee home games, someone the girls can get used to. Raffle Organiser – responsible for organising the raffle prize rota with the parents Refreshments Coordinator (home games) – if you don’t have a shop or cafe – a person or persons to make some tea and coffee and sell a few sweets – funds for the team Goals and Match day Helpers – all parents should be encouraged to help set up the pitch before and break down following a game. This is also useful for getting players to games on time If you implement the above the task of running a team is shared and everyone is feeling part of the team.

Girls that have never experienced

football before

Research your customer - tailor

your club to meet player needs

Sell your club, provide information

make your club stand out

Attract a new audience

Understand what drives

participation

Make playing football

attractive and simple

By using research that is available to us and implementing it into what we deliver

WSFF Research http://www.wsff.org.uk/the-challenge-girls

‘Surveys show that only 12% of girls aged 14 meet the official guidelines for physical activity – roughly half the number of boys at the same age. However 74%want to be more active’.

‘Many Girls feel very self – conscious about their bodies and don't like to be seen exercising, particularly by boys’.

Club players have successfully been selected into the Excellence Programme. Team has enough players to continue.

Team may sometimes be struggling with number of players for fixtures i.e. +1, 2 more than squad size.

Team may only have enough players to field a team, or less. Team in danger of folding.

Where would you put your team?

Club Age Group

Playing Format

Number of Players

Club Contact Details

Additional Information

Girls United

U11 7 a side 8 Jane Smith 0113 282 2358 Jane.smith@girlsunited.com

One player signed for Centre of Excellence. No new players in the Summer. Advertised in local primary school

Form available on www.wrgfl.com