2013-14

Shropshire Junior Football League (SJFL) – £2000 Charity Donation/Presentation (2013)

I would be most grateful if you can carry a sports news item on behalf of the SJFL in the Shropshire Star and Shrewsbury Chronicle local papers regarding a cheque presentation made to four charities at the recent league awards day held at The Greenhous Meadow.

SJFL and member clubs have again been very generous in raising funds through the league’s charity cup competition – played at age groups U11, U13 and U14 with the finals held at the Ludlow FC stadium. This year in excess of £2330 has been raised which is an exceptional sum when considering the continuing financial constraints and that over £2700 was raised last season!

Four charities each received £500 and those benefiting this year were; Asthma UK, Little Bears Day Care (Whitchurch), Cardiac Risk in the Young and The Brain Tumour Charity. Whilst all charities were pleased with their awards the league is humbled by the excellent work they do and trust we have raised awareness to this and also how the football family does help in the community.

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Caption for photo Left –Right Mike Hames (Chairman SJFL), Jan Butler (Secretary SJFL) Katie Dalders (Brain Tumour Charity), Karen Edwards(Asthma UK), Hayley Marsh then Wendy Griffiths( Little Bears Day Care), Ian Morris (CRY) and Jim Mitchell (President SJFL)

(picture courtesy of Kidz in Sport)

SJFL Sponsorship of Primary Schools Final – U10 Boys County Shield

SJFL are very pleased to extend the partnership agreement with SSCFA to include sponsorship of the U10 Boys County Shield which will be played for at the Primary Schools Finals which are held yearly at The Greenhous Meadow. The partnership enhances part of the reciprocal work of the SSCFA and SJFL in relation to respect, conduct and fairplay of boys and girls who play junior league and schools football. Prior to the U10 final a cheque presentation was made by SJFL to SSCFA .

Main photo SJFL sponsorship, making the cheque presentation are left to right Mike Hames (Chairman SJFL), Jan Butler (Secretary SJFL) and Phil Bradbury (Treasurer SSCFA)

Photo courtesy of Kidz in Sport

This year the Under 10 final was contested by Meole Brace and Ladygrove schools with the match ending in a draw and both schools sharing the shield. The shield presentations were made to both schools by the Town Mayor, Lady Mayoress and Mike Hames (SJFL)

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Making the presentation to the Ladygrove Under 10 team captain are left to right; Shrewsbury Mayor (Cllr Keith Roberts), Mayoress (Catherine Roberts), Mike Hames (Chairman SJFL) and the Ladygrove captain holding the shield.

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Making the presentation to the Meol Brace Under 10 team captain are left to right Mike Hames (Chairman SJFL), Mayoress (Catherine Roberts, Shrewsbury Mayor (Cllr Keith Roberts) and the Meole Brace captain holding the shield

Photo courtesy of Kidz in Sport

SJFL: Club Secretary of the Season 2012-13

As part of the FA 150 years SJFL has introduced the award that recognises the hard work, commitment and dedication that club secretaries do in running and managing a junior football club. Under her secretarial leadership Debbie Winstone at Whitchurch Alport Juniors FC, who run 12 junior teams, has brought stability and excellence in promoting grass roots football within the Whitchurch area. She is also very willing to help and support all football matters for both club and league and is most deserving of this award.

SJFL Secretary of the Season 2012-13 is awarded to Debbie Winstone at Whitchurch Alport Juniors FC.

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On the photo call left to right: Jim Mitchell (President SJFL), Jan Butler (Secretary SJFL), Debbie Winstone (Secretary of the Season – Whitchurch Alport Juniors FC), Dave Rowe (Shropshire FA)

Photo by courtesy of Kidz in Sport

SJFL: Club of the Season – 2012-2013

Another award introduced through the FA150 years is for Club of The Season. Shrewsbury Up & Comers FC are founder members of the Shropshire Junior Football League ( then Shrewsbury District Junior League) and continue to support and deliver all aspects of youth development that promotes excellence, fairplay, respect and opportunities for young people to enjoy and play football. Up & Comers are always willing to help both league and county FA with coach education programmes, raising standards, better players and are currently working towards CS Development Club status. The club currently runs 19 teams that cover mini-soccer, 9v9 and youth football and next season will be looking to support girls football and a team in the Shropshire Youth League (U17).

The Club of the Season is awarded to Shrewsbury Up & Comers FC.

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Photo call left to right: Jim Mitchell (President SJFL), Simon Lee (Chairman Shrewsbury Up & Comers FC), David Rowe (Shropshire FA)

Photo courtesy of Kidz in Sport

SJFL Outstanding award and Vice Presidency

Sharon Murch has been involved with junior football for many seasons with both Shrewsbury Juniors FC, as parent, representative and club secretary, and as mini-soccer ‘age representative’ on the SJFL before taking on the new office as Mini Soccer Sectary for The League. In all these positions Sharon has shown great enthusiasm and dedication in providing the best for all and is deserving of being bestowed a Vice President of SJFL. Whilst the league is sad Sharon is leaving office we are pleased that she is starting a new chapter in her life and new family in Welshpool and we wish her all the best happiness for the future and have pleasure in presenting her a silver plate in recognition of her work with SJFL.

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Making the presentation are left to right: Jim Mitchell (President SJFL), Jan Butler (Secretary SJFL), Sharon Murch and David Rowe (Shropshire FA)

Photo courtesy of Kidz in Sport

Turner Peachey Fairplay Team Award 2013

SJFL completes its season with a Presentation Day held at the Greenhous Meadow. Whilst teams are presented with the awards for their sporting achievements as league winners and runner up the league also recognises fairplay and respect in the game. Each age group/division has a winner but the coveted trophy is The Turner Peachey Fairplay Cup presented to the best overall winner across all age groups. To win this trophy the team must compete against all 178 teams in the league and are marked by teams they play against for their sports behaviour in relation to The FA Respect Code for players, managers and supporters. This year’s award is made to Shrewsbury Juniors U8 from the U8 Red division and the team will now go forward to the Shropshire FA Respect awards for the county.

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Photo: Along with the managers and coaches (in the centre) and the team players from Shrewsbury Juniors U8 are, on the back row, from left to right, Dave Ralphs (Chairman Shropshire FA), Jan Butler (Secretary SJFL), Roger Whitfield (Turner Peachey)

Photo courtesy of Kidz in Sport

Turner Peachey Sponsorship 2013-14‏

Given the challenging financial climate I can report that Turner Peachey have indicated their willingness to continue as the main sponsors of the league for a eighth consecutive season. This partnership promotes ‘fairplay and respect’ in the games and as already brought many awards/benefits to league and clubs with most recently the SJFL being awarded The FA’s Silver Accreditation for it’s excellent work across Shropshire.

The FA’s Respect Manager Dermot Collins said: “ Achieving the Silver Award has marked Shropshire Junior Football League out as one of the very best leagues in the country. They have done some truly great work which the FA will use to inspire others”. Collins added: “Through education, promotion, campaigning and dogged perseverance they have changed the behaviour of teams and individuals and in doing so help ensure the continuing health of our national game.”

This demonstrates how professional bodies recognise the standing of The Shropshire Junior Football League and our commitment to good sportsmanship, fairplay and respect. Turner Peachey’s sponsorship not only helps support costs towards coach education, welfare training and tournaments but also in raising the profile of the league in the wider community.

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Photo left to right: Jim Mitchell (President SJFL), Jan Butler (Secretary SJFL), Roger Whitfield (Turner Peachey), Mike Hames (chairman SJFL)

Photo courtesy of Kidz in Sport

Futsal Festival

The League sponsored a fifth Futsal Festival following the excellent games from previous years and 44 teams (over 440 participants) at U8, U9, and U10 enjoyed a very successful football festival at Shrewsbury Sports Village.

SJFL was the first junior league in the country to provide a mid-winter break for a Futsal festival, which area county associations and leagues have since followed, and this is now a calendar event that provides an essential part of player development and raising standards. This year Radio Shropshire made a visit and carried out interviews with players, managers and officers and a link at the radio station can be found on Futsal as Live.mp3 The League is already in consultation with SFA, SFA Development Office, Shrewsbury Sports Village and sponsors to promote a sixth Futsal Tournament next winter (2014).

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SHREWSBURY UP & COMERS FC
Shrewsbury Up & Comers is a progressive club that is currently working towards becoming an FA Charter Standard Development Club. The club is one of the biggest within the County in terms of number of teams and is looking to expand further with the addition of U17/U18 boys and girls teams of all ages. The club is very active in its promotion of the FA RESPECT programme as well as having a key focus on player and coach development.

WROCKWARDINE WOOD JUNIORS FC
Wrockwardine Wood Juniors FC is a rapidly growing club, with the number of teams rising from just a couple to more than ten, in less than 3 years. The club has been successful in retaining junior players into two Adult Male teams and an under 18s team. The formation of an under7s crèche has also proved very popular, resulting in the formation of a number of new mini-soccer teams, and the adoption of an Adult Female team for the 2013/14 season will see the club grow further still.

To view more photos from the Shropshire FA Community Awards, visit shropshirefaevents.com/gallery

Photo courtesy of Yarrington Limited

LUCY SUTTON – ONNY JUNIORS FOOTBALL CLUB
Lucy has been an active member of Onny Juniors Football Club for 8 years now, starting as a player in the under 8’s to now coaching teams and refereeing matches every weekend. She has helped run the Onny Cubs section of the club for the last 3 seasons and completed her FA Level 1 Coaching Course as soon as she was 16. Lucy qualified as a referee to help officiate games for the club’s teams, and has since moved on to refereeing for a number of different clubs and leagues. Lucy continues to be a member of the Shropshire FA Football Futures programme and will attend the FA’s National Leadership Camp.

To view more photos from the Shropshire FA Community Awards, visit shropshirefaevents.com/gallery

Photo courtesy of Yarrington Limited

SHREWSBURY JUNIORS FC
Shrewsbury Juniors FC are an FA Charter Standard Community Club with over 20 boys and girls Junior Teams. The club have also extended their provision this season to include U18s football with the ambition of one day having an Adult Male team as part of the club. The club have also formed closer partnerships with local schools through the Shropshire FA school-club links programme providing coaches for free after school sessions for age groups the school can’t currently cater for. They have also been successful in their application for Football Foundation ‘Grow the Game’ Funding, in order to increase the number of schools they support and expand the number of teams at the club. Shrewsbury Juniors have also been active in Futsal both as part of Shropshire Junior League and County Futsal Qualifiers, as well as supporting all FA iniatives such as RESPECT and Fair Play.

To view more photos from the Shropshire FA Community Awards, visit shropshirefaevents.com/gallery

Photo courtesy of Yarrington Limited

MIKE HAMES – SHROPSHIRE JUNIOR FOOTBALL LEAGUE (centred)
Mike Hames came into junior football in 1992, after being involved in senior football since 1976. During his time with Up & Comers he served as team manager (age groups U10 to U18), was elected chairman in 1996 and lead the club in becoming the first FA CS Club in Shrewsbury before  election to club president in 2004. Mike was elected chairman of the Shropshire Junior Football League in 2000, and was pivotal to the league becoming the first FA Charter Standard League in the Country. He is a Council Member and Director of Shropshire FA and was inducted as a Life Member on the Shropshire Schools & Colleges FA (SSCFA) in 2008.

BRIAN CHAMBERS – WREKIN JUNIORS FC (left)
Described as a ‘Great leader and Chairman of Wrekin Juniors Football Club’, by a fellow club member, Brian Chambers is undoutedly the driving force behind Wrekin Juniors FC. Brian started out as a team manager and has since gone on to take on most other roles within the club. Currently the club secretary and much more, Brian oversees one of the biggest clubs in Shropshire, with 23 junior teams, ranging from 5 to 18 year olds for both boys and girls.

To view more photos from the Shropshire FA Community Awards, visit shropshirefaevents.com/gallery

Photo courtesy of Yarrington Limited

MICHAEL OST – MARKET DRAYTON TIGERS FC
Michael is the club secretary of Market Drayton Tigers Football Club, and has been involved in the club (formed in 1975) for as long as anyone can remember. He has a passion for the game, his local community and for the young people of Market Drayton and the surrounding areas. As well as being Club Secretary, liaising with the Shropshire FA and attending meetings on behalf of the club, Michael can be seen every Sunday (home and away), rain or shine, supporting one or more of the the club’s, sporting his green and white scarf. He is both a role model, and an ambassador for all that is good about Market Drayton Tigers FC.

To view more photos from the Shropshire FA Community Awards, visit shropshirefaevents.com/gallery

Photo courtesy of Yarrington Limited

ONNY JUNIORS FC
Onny is the largest junior football club this season in South Shropshire, with young players from age 4 through to 16. The club aims to provide excellent training and football to the young players in the area, whilst teaching all the members of their club that winning isn’t everything and playing football and enjoying it is the number one priority. The club encourages its elder players to become young leaders as part of the FA Football Futures programme as coaches or referee’s. The club Ethos is Teamwork, Sportmanship, and Friendship with a focus on working together, to move the club forward for the benefit of all players.  The club holds an annual under 7s festival to give their own players and those of other clubs their first taste of match football, as well as hosting an annual tournament that attracts over 500 players each year.

To view more photos from the Shropshire FA Community Awards, visit shropshirefaevents.com/gallery

Photo courtesy of Yarrington Limited

SHROPSHIRE JUNIOR FOOTBALL LEAGUE – Charter Standard League of the Year
The Shropshire Junior Football League continues to deliver its commitment to football development as the first FA Charter Standard League (February 2009) and continues to acknowledge and reward excellence carried out by the willing volunteer workforce of league and clubs. It is the vision of the SJFL to ensure that every young person who plays football within the league should be able to participate in an enjoyable and safe environment. The League supports the FA Respect Code as part of its ‘Fairplay and Merit’ scheme/match day reports and this enables the league to monitor behaviour, performance of team managers, coaches, club officials and supporters in good sportsmanship. This season the league has introduced Referees Appointments for the under 16 age group which has led to 90% coverage of qualified and registered referees across all league fixtures. Currently the league stands at 25 clubs and supports 179 teams. The League continues to organise its Winter Futsal Programme for U8, U9 and U10 age groups, now into its fifth year, with 42 participating teams. Last season the league raised over £2700 for local charities.

SHROPSHIRE JUNIOR FOOTBALL LEAGUE – Silver FA Respect Award
The League supports the FA Respect Code as part of its ‘Fairplay and Merit’ scheme/match day reports and this enables the league to monitor behaviour, performance of team managers, coaches, club officials and supporters in good sportsmanship. This helps to support the League’s vision that every young person who plays football within the league should be able to do so in an enjoyable and safe environment.

To view more photos from the Shropshire FA Community Awards, visit shropshirefaevents.com/gallery

Photo courtesy of Yarrington Limited

Sir Bobby Robson Day

On 1oth August 2013, London Road Sports Centre were the hosts for Sir Bobby Robson National Football Day.

The event was a great success in which 11 teams took part. The teams appear in the table below:

Club Team Name
Dawley Wanderers Dawley Wanderers
Shrewsbury Up & Comers Eagles
Oswestry B&G Oswestry Greyhounds
Shrewsbury Juniors Shrewsbury Juniors Under 8
Shrewsbury Juniors N/A
Wellington Amateurs Wellington Amateurs
Prees Cricket & Rec Prees Sabres
SAHA SAHA Stars
Meresiders Menaces
Meole Brace Juniors Meole Brace Juniors
Randlay Colts Randlay Colts

Click on the Facebook link below to view a gallery of some of the highlights:

Kick It Out ‘Focus Week’

Shropshire Junior League wish to support Shropshire FA’s Kick It Out ‘Focus Week’ as part of the campaign’s 20th anniversary year.

Kick It Out was established in 1993 and has spent the last 20 years campaigning to raise awareness and tackle discrimination in football with the aim of making the game accessible to everyone and at all levels, regardless of race, colour, gender or disability. Unfortunately, during the past couple of seasons we have seen examples of discrimination creeping back into the game, both in the professional game and at a local level.

Shropshire FA are organising a number of activities in schools over the coming weeks, to raise awareness of Kick It Out prior to the Annual Kick It Out Cup for Adults taking place on Tuesday 29th October ( info at  www.shropshirefa.com/news/2013/oct/shropshires-kick-it-out-cup).

As part of the campaign, Leagues and Clubs have been invited to show their support for Kick It Out. In order to support and raise awareness of the work that Kick It Out do, we would like to make the Shropshire Junior League fixture programme for next weekend Sunday 3rd November 2013, a Kick It Out focus weekend.

We would ask that all clubs and teams make their players and parents aware of this, and help to ensure that they are reminded that is everybody’s responsibility to ensure that unacceptable behaviour and discrimination are not acceptable in our game!!!

This is something that Shropshire Junior League fully supports and we would encourage all our clubs to showing their backing to this campaign.

For more information on Kick It Out, please visit, www.kickitout.org

Futsal Festival 2014

Click on the links below to view relevant Futsal forms:

Fairplay form
Report sheet
Fixtures

40 Years Gala Evening

Shropshire Junior Football League will be celebrating 40 years of providing junior football across Shropshire and will be holding a Gala Evening to mark the occasion at the Greenhous Meadow Stadium (home of STFC) on 15th March 2014. In recognition of this and also because of the excellent work the league does in Respect, Futsal and Development /Opportunities for young players, we are very pleased to announce that Matt LeTissier, Sky Sports Star of Soccer Saturday and former England and Southampton striker, will be our FA guest for the evening.

The Gala Evening will have a number of presentations recognising the work of clubs and people in the grass roots of junior football. Master of Ceremonies will be Carl Jones from the Shropshire Star and a three course meal is included in the price of the ticket. During the evening there will be a prize draw and tickets priced at £35 also includes a complimentary gala programme

The SJFL is pleased to be working with Yarrington and the Shropshire Star to help promote and support the Gala Evening and more details can be found on the attached promotion poster.

To book your tickets please contact Jan Butler on 07984549304

Or e-mail janbutler09@btinternet.com or visit www.shropshirejuniorleague.co.uk

BOOK EARLY TO AVOID DISAPPOINTMENT.

Best regards and SJFL looks forward to seeing you all at the Gala Evening.

SJFL40

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Former England footballer Matthew Le Tissier was the star attraction at a gala dinner to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Shropshire Junior Football League.

Le Tissier hot-footed it up to Shrewsbury from the Sky Sports studios to attend the event at the Greenhous Meadow stadium to celebrate one of the region’s biggest grass-roots football success stories.

He entertained the 160-strong audience in an on-stage conversation with Shropshire Star assistant editor Carl Jones, signed dozens of autographs, posed for pictures, and helped league officials to hand out awards.

Below are a selection of images from SJFL40 awards gala evening:

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The programme for the evening can be downloaded here.

You can download the Shropshire Star article here and also view the article online too:

www.shropshirestar.com/news/2014/03/18/matt-le-tissier-at-shropshire-junior-football-awards

There was also a ‘silent auction’ on the night for three signed football shirts:

1) Signed goalkeeper shirt by Joe Hart.
2) Signed Man City shirt when they won the premier league.
3) Signed Shrewsbury Town FC shirt.

All bids to SJFL – please use contact page.

Please note all photographs are courtesy of Kidz in Sport and copies can be obtained from them at www.kidzinsport.co.uk

The event was produced, designed and organised by Yarrington www.yarrington.co.uk