Story added: 25th February 2019
Looking back at a busy February half-term for the Foundation
Fixtures, residentials, Colney visits, and even two international call-ups – it’s been an action packed February half-term for the Community Sports Foundation and our participants.
Here’s our in-brief round-up of just some of the activities that took place:
Disability
Our U16 pan-disability PDC team experienced that winning feeling on Tuesday, with victory in an FA People’s Cup tournament in Hertfordshire. They’ll hope to carry that on in the next round of the tournament in Bedfordshire, later this month.
On Friday, we welcomed boys and girls from our various disability programmes for a fun afternoon of sport at Open Academy.
The weekend saw a residential at The Nest with guests Watford FC Community Sports & Education Trust. Both teams bonded over a number of fixtures, training sessions and the chance to watch the Canaries in their 3-2 victory over Bristol City at Carrow Road, as well as enjoying all the entertainment on offer at The Nest.
Boys’ Football
Half-term is always a busy time for our football department, and this one was no exception.
The week started with internal fixtures for all age groups at Easton & Otley College and The Nest, with both Suffolk and Cambridgeshire RDPs joining in on the Tuesday.
On Thursday, Brighton & Hove Albion in the Community came to The Nest for a full fixture programme against our U9-U15 EPDC age groups. The result was a series of tightly contested and highly-competitive games, with some great learning outcomes for our players.
A GK Development Day at the FDC put close to 100 young goalkeepers through their paces, while there were away fixtures at Luton Town FC (Monday; PDC U13-U16), Pro Direct Soccer Academy (Thursday, EPDC U16) and Peterborough Regional Development Programme (Friday, U7-U12).
Girls’ Football
The girls kicked off the week with an ACC festival against Suffolk, which included a fixture against a Boys’ PDC side.
Thursday saw a range of fixtures at Easton & Otley College, with the Girls PDC (approx 70 players) playing internal fixtures and the Elite girls (U10-U16) taking on the Cambridgeshire Regional Development Programme.
On Friday, Cambridge City were the latest club to experience matchday at The Nest, taking on our U10, U12, U14 & U16 ADP sides in some competitive fixtures.
…and elsewhere
Sonny Carey and Owen Murphy, two of our Football & Education scholars, spent the week representing the Three Lions with English Colleges FA in Rome, Italy. As part of the Roma Caput Mundi Tournament, they played three fixtures against teams representing Kosovo, Malta and SS Lazio.
Two young deserving Canary fans were given a day to remember at Colney as part of the latest Foundation Wish Day. Both Harry (age 2) and Callum (age 12) met players and staff, including Daniel Farke, and received a number of goodies and a Canaries home shirt.
Thirteen graduates from last year’s National Citizen Service programme joined us at Carrow Road for the Bristol City FC fixture. The group spent the morning in a focus-group session, before catching Norwich City’s victory.
And last, but by no means least, half-term means Soccer Schools, and across seven venues we welcomed over 440 young Canaries. They enjoyed the usual dose of skill challenges, fun games and small-sided matches.