Shelley CFC does a fine job of providing people within their community with the opportunity to play football in a safe and enjoyable environment. Sport Yorkshire Magazine recently caught up with their Head Coach Damo Southwell to find out more.
Involvement
He told us, "I have been involved with Shelley CFC now for ten seasons, firstly as a player then moving into a coaching role for the last four years and now becoming the Youth Head Coach at the club.
I was first attracted to the club by a close friend who told me about the club's ambition to be one of the top clubs in West Yorkshire within a five year period, and also how they wanted to grow the club from having two teams in the adult league to having a successful youth set up too."
The Role
"The most challenging aspects of my role would be trying to find sponsors because without them or their financial backing then i don't believe Shelley or any club would survive.
The most rewarding aspect for me would have to be all the kids enjoying themselves playing the sport they love every week and that for me is something that all our coaches at the club should be proud of because without me or them then the kids wouldn't be able to play football."
The atmosphere
"The general mood at the club at the moment is really good; we have had a lot of grounds improvements happen recently to help the club move forward so that it entitled us to enter our 1st team in to the North East Counties League this season.
Everyone that comes to our club always speak very highly of our facilities and how well we maintain it so that every game can be played every week. We also have a very good working relationship with Barnsley FC as we run their Development Centre at our Storthes Hall Facilities for children aged 6-11 years old, so with this the club has always got a good mood about it."
Sponsorship
Nemi Alexis, Marketing Executive at Stafflex commented: "Stafflex first got involved with Shelley Community Football Club in 2016 when the club approached us to do some sponsorship. We had done a small bit of sponsorship back in 2016 and the relationship has grown to us now being the clubs main sponsor.
As Stafflex is all about helping out in the community and with the Storthes hall park being a hub for sport in the community we thought it would be a great opportunity to get involved with the club.
We follow the clubs progress regularly through their social media, scores etc. and they are holding their own after being promoted last year which is great to see. From everyone at Stafflex we would like to wish the club all the best in the future and we look forward to continuing our support with the club.”
Click here to find out more about Stafflex's sponsorship of Shelley CFC, here.
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here to read the full article featured in Sport Yorkshire Magazine.