Here in the Foundation, our Fun Football sessions have been going from strength to strength, writes Gill Jones. Numbers at Junior Saints, Mini Saints and Wildcats here at Park Hall Stadium are higher than ever, and Welshpool Huddle is now also beginning to grow again, having had a delayed restart due to pitch refurbishment works at The Flash Leisure Centre in Welshpool.  The success of all our sessions is due in no small part to the quality of coaches running the sessions, so my thanks as always go to them for their efforts in making the sessions enjoyable and inclusive for all who attend, and thanks to all those parents/families who commit to bringing their children each week.  We are also hoping to be able also to start weekly Huddle sessions in Chirk from April, working in partnership with Chirk Youth – subject to approval of our application to the FAW Trust – keep an eye out here for further announcements with regard to this.

We’ve been aware for a while now that there aren’t many opportunities for young people to play fun/recreational football once they move to Secondary School.  We therefore took the decision in January to launch ‘Teen Saints’ – a fun football session for boys and girls aged 11 to 14 years.  This means we’re now able to offer something for those young people who want to continue playing football for fun once they reach the top end of the age range for Junior Saints.  Numbers for Teen Saints are growing week by week – do get in touch with us if your child/grandchild would be interested in coming along for a free ‘taster’ – sessions run between 5pm and 6pm on Friday evenings.

We’ve also been asked for some time about the potential to provide a football session for very young children – pre Mini Saints. This has been a more difficult problem to solve, as we needed to be able to offer indoor facilities for the little ones.  Thanks to recent changes at Park Hall, we’re really pleased to announce that a new “Diddi Saints” football session will be running on Friday mornings between 10am and 11am here at Park Hall.  Each week our inflatable football pitch will be inflated indoors, and fun activities to engage children aged 18 months to 3 years will be provided by our coaches.  Sessions will be a fun opportunity for children to play and begin to develop their ball skills and enhance their balance and motor skills, whilst also of course having fun with other children.  The Venue is now open again during the morning, and Matt and his team from Manic Events will be on hand to offer parents and carers a chance to have a chat and a coffee/cake whilst keeping an eye on their children having fun with Diddi Saints.  Please get in touch with us to register your child to attend – the fee is £3 per child per week.

Finally for this week, I just wanted to touch on our youth provision – numbers are again growing in all locations now that the darkest evenings are behind us.  The team were really pleased to welcome 27 young people to Whittington last Thursday night – the highest attendance since pre-Covid, and really good to hear following of course the limitations on numbers which had to be imposed on various occasions to comply with prevailing Government guidelines during Covid.

Gobowen and Weston Rhyn youth clubs operate on Monday evenings (Gobowen – 4.30 to 6pm and Weston Rhyn 6.30pm to 8pm); Oswestry youth clubs (in partnership with Shropshire Youth Association) on Wednesday evenings; and Whittington Youth Club 7pm to 8.30pm on Thursday evenings.  We are also due to commence an Ellesmere youth session in partnership with Ellesmere Town Council from April.  All sessions are for 10 – 16 year olds.

For further information about any of the above, or any of our other provision please don’t hesitate to contact us at info@tnsfcfoundation.org.uk.