The end of another season is upon us and as usual we celebrated the achievements of all our players at our annual awards night. This took place at Newick village hall on Friday evening and it was wonderful to see so many parents and children there.
The awards evening is the only time during the year that the whole club gets together in one place - all age groups, both players and parents - so it is a really special occasion.
As our wonderful chairman, Steve, said in his speech at the beginning of the night, the club isn’t just a small group of people - although it is led by a small committee of volunteers - the club is everyone … all the coaches, all the players and all the parents.
Without the parents getting their kids to training and matches week in and week out there would be no football so a huge thank you to all of them for their support. However, the stars of the show are, of course, the kids.
And what a wonderful bunch we have. This year the club achieved its aim of getting over 150 kids playing football and to see them shine so brightly is fabulous.
Our mission is to enable as many kids as possible to play football in a fun and safe environment. For us it isn’t necessarily about winning but taking part, learning new skills, making new friends and working together as a team. That doesn't mean we don’t value winning and competition but that the most important value to us as a club is good sportsmanship and making football available for all.
But back to the awards … the agenda for the evening was a welcome speech from Steve, our chairman, followed by each age group going up on stage to receive their medals and awards, starting with our youngest little kickers.
We split the little kickers into two groups - the U6s and U7s - and both groups received a medal each and one player was chosen from each age group by the managers for the ‘Most Improved’ player and one for the ‘Manager’s Player’ trophy.
After the little kickers, all the teams from the U8s all the way up to the U16s took their turn to go up on stage and each manager gave a short speech before awarding their players. For the U8s upwards the players also got to choose a ‘Player's Player’ each - a fantastic award as the kids are recognised by their peers for their hard work, commitment and skills, as well as by their coaches.
The look on the kids’ faces when they hear their name being read out is absolutely priceless. You’d think some of them were lifting the World Cup when they raise their trophies above their heads for all the hall to see - but that’s exactly how we want them to feel and it’s a joy to watch.
Finally, at the end of the evening Steve announced the ‘Team of the Year’, which isn’t necessarily about the most successful team. However this year, it was a no brainer, the award had to go to our amazing U14s.
Not only are the U14s the first ever Colts team to win the Sussex County Cup but they are a bunch of hugely talented individuals who have gelled as a team and display grit, determination, commitment and teamwork at its best. Led by their fantastic coach, Neil, who deserves an award himself for the amount of hard work he puts into the team.
In fact, all the coaches deserve an award and we’re really proud of each and every one of them, as well as every single player. Every child who stood on the stage on Friday evening thoroughly deserved their medals, trophies and moment of glory.
We also had to say an emotional goodbye to our U16s team, led by the one and only Ronnie, as this was their last season playing together as a Colts team. Some of the boys have been with us since they were little kickers and both Ronnie and all the boys will be greatly missed but we wish them all the very best for the future.
And now time for a well-earned summer break before we go again next season.
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