York Railway
Institute
2017
“We have two annual tournaments, the boys tournament is
on June 11th and the girl’s tournament on June 18th. We aim to
have around 150 teams for an amazing couple of days. It has a
real buzz and is exhausting but great for the club, all our players
love it, and it is a good fundraiser too.
We also have presentation day in May, last year we hired
zorbs which was great fun, this year we are looking at an inflatable
assault course. With up to nine hours of presentations to include
all our 21 youth teams, we need some fun entertainment too.”
Youth
“The youth football is immensely important and we have
worked hard to provide pathways through the club to playing
at a senior level. We now have an U19 team in the men’s senior
section and the girls have strong links across the section with the
Ladies team. Our Ladies coach Dean, has also started coaching
the U14s girls team this season which has really helped. It is
something we want to improve even more in future.
We are also immensely proud of the kids who have gone on
to play at academies and development centres, and to develop
careers in football. Part of our development strategy is also to
commit to pay for three or four of our players to train as referees
each season. It is great to then see them develop leadership and
authority on the pitch.”
Community
“We are absolutely a community club;
we are part of the wider York Railway
Institute which was established in
1889 in York and became a charity
last year. We share our ground
with rugby and netball and
can have over 1600 people
through the gates over one
weekend.
Our fantastic volunteer
coaches are mainly very
local and started when
they brought their kids
through our black iron
gates when they were
small and looking for
somewhere for a kickabout.
The club is thriving because
these local people have
stepped forward to commit to
their community, have become
qualified coaches, continued
with CPD and run great sessions.
We achieved FA Community
Charter Standard in 2015 which
recognised the work we do providing sport
in the community and the high level of coaching
our great coaches provide.”
Challenges
“I don’t think I am going to be too unique by saying the
biggest challenges are funds, pitches and infrastructure. We
have football pitches next to Hob Moor, which basically tells you
in the name how boggy they can get!
It is hugely frustrating to have to cancel games and training.
When you pay for pitches, whether you can use them or not, and
then can’t train or play matches, the extra costs of hiring training
space really racks up. We would love 3G.”
Volunteers
“It is incredibly tricky and time consuming managing a club
sometimes, particularly in bad weather - cancelling fixtures and
matches takes more admin work than playing them. We are lucky
to have some amazing volunteers who put in the effort to fill in
forms, collect subs, keep coaches up to date with qualifications
and do the rest of the immense amount of admin with
no pay.
It is hard sometimes when you know
that if you had more time, resource
and money you could provide so
much more. Sometimes it does
feel like the FA, the leagues and
the players have very high
expectations of a bunch of
volunteers who work full
time and have kids of their
own. We would love to
have beautiful 3G pitches
and be able to only charge
a small amount and play
in all weathers, but it is a
permanent compromise
and sometimes that is
hard.”
Ambitions
“In the short term, we
need to help improve the
infrastructure at the ground - the
road has potholes, storage is not
really good enough and our pitches
need further work. All this comes on top of
the normal outlay for maintenance and running
costs.
Regarding the actual football side of things though, we have
worked hard to reach a point where we have most age groups
represented in the club - both boys and girls - and are in quite
a stable place. The next step is for more success with our senior
teams and to improve the links between the juniors and seniors.
A recent good cup run for the Ladies team saw a lot of
supporters down and we would love to see the support side
grow, with the juniors learning from the senior game and really
feeling part of the club when they pull on their blue and white
stripes.”
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