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Last night Birmingham County F.A. held their Annual Grassroots Football Awards

Last night Birmingham County F.A. held their Annual Grassroots Football Awards

Simon Cox16 Jul 2019 - 15:46
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Birmingham County F.A. held their most successful Grassroots Awards to date, an evening when volunteers receive recognition for their service

Last night, the Club Chairman Neil Chambers, Vice Chairman Garry Hale & Secretary Gil Preece, together with some of the clubs volunteers attended the prestigious Birmingham County F.A. Grassroots Football Awards at The Molyneux, home of Wolverhampton Wanderers. The awards evening is to reward nominated volunteers who are affiliated to Birmingham County F.A. for their efforts and service in the last 12 months and in some cases over several years.

Birmingham County F.A. is the second largest County F.A. in the country behind Lancashire. The organisation is responsible for the administration of football from Rugby in the South to Wolverhampton in the North and is responsible for 1,200 Clubs, 4,600 Teams with 20,000 registered players. 48,000 matches were played during the 2018/19 Season. £1.257 million was invested by Birmingham County F.A. into facility projects, 62 safe-guarding visits completed, 54 pitches assessed as part of the pitch improvement programme, 63 County sanctioned competitions, 14 County Cup Finals and over 70,000 views online on their Birmingham County F.A.’s content.

Part of Birmingham County F.A.’s mandate is also to provide training for the volunteers in grassroots football. During the past 12 months they have held 62 first-aid courses of which 902 people attended, 7 F.A. Level 2 Coaching courses of which 314 people passed, 46 Safe-Guarding Children workshops with 1,338 people attending and 79 F.A. Level 1 Courses delivered with just over 1,400 people passing. This is what Birmingham County F.A. provides for the grassroots game, it is an organisation that mostly is viewed as being responsible for discipline and fining players.

That is only a very small part of what any County F.A. does and as you have seen above, they provide an invaluable service as well as unlimited advice to all Clubs that are affiliated to them.

Last nights Awards were to recognise and celebrate volunteers, clubs and Leagues across the Birmingham County F.A. region, who dedicate their time to grass-roots football within the community. The evening was supported by McDonalds who have been an F.A. Partner for 17 years championing football as an inclusive sport and helping to create opportunities for more people to access the game.

As we know at Darlaston Town, volunteers are the absolute heartbeat and life-blood of a Club and have a huge role in developing grass-roots football and improving facilities for youth and adult football to use.

The evening, compared by BBC Radio WM presenter Jenny Wilkes, where eleven awards were presented and a list is at the base of this article, together with the winners, after they had received 192 nominations which was the most in the country for similar award evenings.

A successful evening supported by nearly 200 people including V.I.P’s and dignitaries and it was good to see the ideas of individuals, schemes that have been set up in under privileged and deprived areas and in major crime hotspots, that have provided a positive impact within the Community and improved crime rates, all through playing football.

The awards presented and winners were:

Rising Star of The Year
Josie Cottam

Grounds Team of The Year
Runner Up
Dennis Robinson – Stourbridge District Youth Football League
(Dennis also plays for Darlaston’s Vets Team)

Winner
Rugby Borough Football Club
They maintain a £2m site, responsible for providing facilities for numerous youth, male & female football teams together with adult football teams and a 3G Pitch

Supporter of The Year
Claire Edwards – Stourbridge Football Club

Community Project of The Year
Sporting Elite
An organisation working within Nechells, Birmingham
Responsible for setting up a League of four similar funded Clubs on the condition that all players attended a Police Crime and Awareness Workshop before each game. An extremely worthwhile and positive cause.

Prestigious Referee Award
Matt Wilkes
For being an assistant at The Emirates F.A. Cup Final

Match Official of The Year
Chad Roberts
Chad officiated two league games at The Paycare Ground last Season. The award was presented by Lisa Rashid who has recently returned from the Women’s World Cup after representing and refereeing for the English F.A. Lisa ran the line at the Women’s World Cup and refereed in the men’s F.A. League Refereeing in League One and League of the English
Football League as well as officiating in the Women’s Champions League.

Welfare Officer of The Year
Claire Bullock – Wake Green Amateurs
Claire has utilised some important schemes, not only with the parents but also with the Management and Players from the Club that runs a number of Youth teams.

Charter Standard League of The Year
Burton Junior Football League

Volunteer of The Year
Terry Steptoe from Bedworth United

Charter Standard Club of The Year
Coventrians F.C.

Coach of The Year
Sophie Bourton – from Southam United Minor.
Sophie is responsible for running two girl’s teams and an U14’s male Youth Team

The evening was highly successful and enjoyable. Birmingham County F.A. are an extremely forward thinking organisation and if you click the following link e programme B'ham County FA Awards you will be able to access the evening’s programme, utilising the same platform as we use for normal match day programmes to get them online, although this programme of events does include embedded videos.

To see a selection of the photographs please click Birmingham County FA Grassroots Awards Evening Album

Just a quick final reminder that this evening the First Team play Willenhall Town in their third pre-season friendly with the date being changed from tomorrow to tonight. Kick-off is 7.15 p.m. at West Walsall E-Act, Primley Avenue, Walsall, WS2 9UA.

Further reading