I am assistant coach for an under 16's football (soccer) team in Guisborough, north east England. The team is new in terms of the squad of players and coaching staff. The club the team is affiliated to has been going for over 30 years. However each team within the parent club must find their own source of funding.

The players pay subs every time we train or have a match and we have done bag packing at local supermarkets. We have raised just under 1000 so far but much of this money has gone on the hire of training facilities, pitches and referees for match days. We have managed to buy the players tracksuits albeit not of a quality we would prefer.

The point this article is about is this..... I have written numerous letters out to local businesses asking for sponsorship and their support. To date I have had one reply which was no thanks. My frustration is that we have up to 20 15 to 16 year olds registered and we keep them off the streets at least twice a week. Parents know where they are and are doing something constructive. Within the experience of being part of a team the players learn discipline, how to work as part of a team, to be supportive, consider other view points other than their own and least of all their confidence and self esteem is developing at a huge rate of knotts.

These players are the future workforce and parents of their community. They can see the effort three of us coaches put in and fully appreciate this. They can also see the lack of interest people outside their immediate social network show towards their efforts. If one local business took the time to at least meet us and discuss possible ways of supporting the team the difference that would make would be huge.

Unfortunately in the current world making money and being less considerate to the future generation is symptomatic with a wider problem within our society. If 20 local lads saw that someone within their community cared enough to help them they would pay back ten times over. I have worked with many groups of young people and this group are the most motivated to succeed, they have a moral fibre and care about other things than themselves. For example they have made a small donation to cancer research, when they could have insisted more footballs etc were bought.

I would like to hear if people have had similar experiences or have been successful in getting local businesses involved with similar situations.

Learn more about this author, Richard Wrighton.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.

---

Add your voice

Know something about Finding sponsorship for junior football (soccer) team - is anyone really interested in their community??
We want to hear your view. Write now!