Youth Chairman Update

I would like to start by saying a “thank you” to all our volunteers – managers, coaches, committee members and everyone that has helped make the 22/23 season a success.

At the start of this season, we set ourselves a number of objectivities, we wanted to invest in our facilities, increase our girl’s section and to make Saturday Club more stable, as well as challenge in our competitive leagues.

The committee have worked tirelessly in terms of delivering this.

Our facilities are key in delivering a safe, quality environment for our players and club members. We have invested 11k into Hartsdown School, seeing us gain level 7 FA Approval on the school 3G, a brand-new set of 11 a side goals, installation of 11 a side grass pitch, and maintaining two 9 a side pitches – with this £5k in maintenance.

We are also in negotiation with Hartsdown School regarding the Food Pod facility and the management of it, I know how frustrating this has been in terms of being open or not.

We have also now signed a contract with Grass Roots & Sports Solutions (GR&SS) which sees them maintain our current setup and install further grass pitches at Hartsdown School and ready for season 23/24 two 7 a side and one 5 a side grass pitch at Garlinge Junior School.

I’m pleased to say we will be introducing a minimum of two new girl’s teams for season 23/24, Danny Rouse, Head of Girls, has again worked hard in delivering this. The Wildcats Thursday session headed up by Chris Bodley has been a huge success – thank you Chris, the new teams created have been born from these sessions.

In terms of our Saturday Club, this is now stable, working in partnership with Total Sports Coaching (TSC) and supplying a football session to the wider community, we now accommodate 150 local children playing football on a Saturday morning.

We also introduced our KICK SEND Inclusive session working in partnership with Inclusive Sport, these sessions have been on a Monday and Tuesday evening, a big thank you to Claire Allen our Diversity and Inclusion lead for its introduction and then developing sessions to over 30 players.

This season has seen us compete in all age groups - I have been fortunate to see several our teams compete from a Saturday morning to a Sunday afternoon. Mini soccer headed up by James Fellows looks in good shape with some great foundation phase principles being adopted, our Development phase, headed up by Dan Hudd, which is now really starting to advance our players, to our Elite section, headed up by Sal Usman, which is competing well in their respective divisions.

Our competitive age groups have brough some silverware home this season -

U12's League Winners, Cup Runners Up (Iain Stead, Matt Adams)

U12’s Cup Runners Up (Christian Ball, Clive West, Jonny Spanjar)

U13’s Girls KGLFL Runners Up (Danny Rouse, Faye Westgarth)

U14's KYL League Winners (Bartek Biegajlo, Mark Buckingham)

U14's EKYL League Winners (Marc Walsh, Jono Hackworth)

U14's Girls KGLFL Winners (Kevin Ring, Michael King)

U18's KYL Winners (Pat Sutcliffe, Tim Odlin)

We now start preparing for season 23/24, in which we see some changes within the club. Scott Holden will be leaving the Margate Youth set up – Scott has played a critical role within the club for several years, developing not only hundreds of players, but establishing the foundations of the club to what we see today. We thank Scott for all his hard work and dedication over the years.

Sal Usman will step down from Head of Elite Football, Sal will concentrate on U23’s management and working closely with our U18’s team to ensure player pathway is there for senior football. Sal will continue with his U11’s too. The Head of Elite football will be filled accordingly.

Additionally, Danny Rouse will step down from his role as Head of Girls, due to work commitments, Danny will be replaced by Dave Woodgate, we thank “Rousey” for all his hard work he has put into our girl’s section, we will still see Danny around the club as he will continue with the U14 girls.

Next season we are pleased to announce that the subscription fees will stay the same as they have done for the past 4 seasons, however this will change from a 10 month to an 11-month subscription. This is due to the fact that the closed season for 1 month, so there is a month where there is a cost to the club for our facilities that isn’t covered by subscriptions – the club can’t sustain this, hence the change. I’m sure you agree that we are investing this money back into our facilities including the improvements previously mentioned.

Registration info will follow shortly for season 23/24, however this will be via the same process as season 22/23.

Thank you for your continued support to the club.

Regards

Dan Winsbury

Up the Gate!

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