Hullbridge Sports
the Hammers I thought I would take my
Son aged 3.5 years old along to see what
it was all about. The turnout over the next
few weeks was pretty disappointing and
resulted in the West Ham connection
slowly ebbing away with the coaching
roles being taken over by any of the
club members that were available on a
Saturday morning.
The “academy” only had a hard core
of around 8 kids at this time; my son being
one who absolutely loved his Saturday
morning training sessions. He has
stuck with his Hullbridge football
and currently plays for the U10
Lions along with one other good
friend from those early days.
The club appointed a
young Coach to take control
of the now aptly named Mini
Dribblers until one day when
the then Chairman Danny
approached the parents
one
Saturday
morning
looking for volunteers to get
involved, and I, as usual, was
slower than the rest at taking
one step backwards and as a
consequence, after a couple of
meetings with the club found
myself as the new head of Mini
Soccer.
Having worked in marketing
myself the first thing anything needs is
advertising and spreading the word, so I
utilised the Fantastic Mum network to get
our message into all the local schools. We
set about a number of recruitment flyers,
some ‘turn up and try’ days along with
some fun events and as a result we have
seen the academy grow and we now have
in excess of 150 children with eight teams
playing exhibition football in the South
East Essex primary league, and the Mini
Dribblers are still going at 10am every
Saturday morning.
Mini Soccer is by far the most
rewarding part of my job as the game is
still pretty much pure and I could watch
the kids all day long as they continue to
develop their knowledge, understanding
and skills. On the other side of the coin
the most challenging part is reminding
parents, coaches, managers and spectators
that they are still kids and not to try and
live out their own dreams through their
kids.
At Hullbridge we are very much a
Community Club and can offer, for those
with the ability, drive and passion, a
pathway from Mini Soccer through youth
soccer, Eastern Junior Alliance soccer right
through to our First team football playing
in the Essex Senior League. Equally, as
a community club it is also important
that we can also provide a football path
for those that just want to play at a level
they are happy and comfortable within
without any pressure.
The FA have made the transition from
youth to Adult football easier now with
the continuing development of more 5v5,
7v7, 9v9 squads before being let loose on
a full size 11v 11 pitch which when it does
come can still be quite daunting, so at
Hullbridge we have also included in our
pitch layout a smaller 11 a side pitch to
assist the transition.
Youth Football this season has
been pretty successful for us again
with two sides being promoted
for the 2nd year running and we
also have our U13 Boys team
winning a cup final followed
by our U13 Girls team, in only
their second season winning
a cup as well, and they say
that thirteen is supposed to
be an unlucky number?
Hullbridge FC also has
the facilities to be able to
offer the opportunity for our
youth to play in the Eastern
Junior Alliance league, which
is pretty much like playing in the
premiership and sets a standard
for those serious about their football,
something that not all local clubs can
offer. We are proud to have five teams
competing in this league and are always
looking to strengthen our squads, in
particular U15 and U17 level currently.
The results for our senior First Team
has however not been as good as last
season, as a number of prolonged injuries
have meant that they will only be able to
manage a mid-table finish in the league,
but still retain the chance to bring back
some silverware to Lower Road as they
have once again reached the final in the
Tollshunt Darcy Cup competition.
www.footballfocusmag.com
21