Stowmarket
Saints
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Stowmarket Saints Under 8’s Football Team
Stowmarket’s latest children’s football
team has been taking the Under 8’s
league by storm! Andrew Collett and
Karl Blagg came together to form the
team after fi nding it hard to locate a
local children’s squad for their sons
to play in. With the help and support
of the Salvation Army Football Club,
the Stowmarket Salvation Army Saints
Under 8’s team was established in the
Autumn of 2018.
Now a strong team of 14 boys, the
Saints started playing in the Under 8’s
league in January 2019 against many
well-established and experienced
Suffolk teams of the same age range.
Mid-week training along with regular
Saturday league and friendly games
has seen the boys confi dence and skills
grow.
Andrew comments; “Like many 8 year
olds, my son Max is football mad and
had been crazing me to let him join
a team for months. I was surprised
it was so hard to fi nd a kids team in
Stowmarket in his age range. Although
it was a daunting prospect to set up a
new team, the support Karl and I have
had from the Salvation Army Football
Club has been amazing.
We started out with the aim for the
children to work together as a team,
to try their best and have fun – this
is still the main ethos of the team. At
this age group, results aren’t published
in the league. The boys have come
a long way since they
fi rst started, we’ve seen
them blossom in skill and
ability. More
importantly, we’ve seen
them grow in confi dence.
Come win or lose, we’re
super proud of each and
every
one of our players.”
One big challenge for the
P le a s e m e n t i o n ‘ T h e F l yer ’ wh en r esp o n d in g t o ad ver t isements
newly established team was to fi nd
fi nancial support by gaining a team
sponsor in order to purchase kit and
help with funding the training and
pitch rental. Fortunately local estate
agent Purbeck and Co, based on
Station Road, came to the rescue to be
the offi cial team sponsor.
Jo Fox, Managing Director of Purbeck
and Co comments; “We are thrilled
to be sponsoring the Under 8 Saints
football team. When the opportunity
was presented to us, and we saw
the passion and enthusiasm of the
children and the dedication of the two
managers, we jumped at the chance to
support this local children’s team. They
have already come a long way and
done so well considering they
are a brand new team to the league,
we’re super excited to see what else
they can achieve!”
For more information on the
team, please visit the Saints
www.facebook.com/Stowmarket
SalvationArmyU8sFootballClub
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