Junior Football

Martinborough Junior Football Club is halfway through the 2021 season, so it is a good opportunity to provide an update. The Club is made up of two parts – Juniors (4 to 13 year olds) and Seniors. All of our teams play in competitions run by Capital Football. Capital Football do an excellent job organising the competitions and guiding Clubs through COVID19 impacts. 

Sometimes it easy to overlook the people in the background that support sports like football and make them fun to be involved with – so THANKS OUT LOUD to Capital Football.

In 2021 we have 6 teams junior teams and a total of approximately 45 players. With an excellent base of players across the year groups and generous volunteers to coach and manage the teams we have a lot of fun over the season. 

Junior Football is designed for the kids to have maximum enjoyment and involvement, whilst building their skills. This is achieved by gradually increasing the number of players and the sizes of the pitch that matches are played on. Our most junior teams, 8 years and below, play on mini-pitches 30m by 20m in size and have three short matches (10-15 mins each) each game day. 

There are no goal keepers and scores are not recorded. The players get to touch the ball often and they have a lot of fun shaking hands with the other team after each game.  As the players progress they move onto larger fields and goal keepers are introduced. Most of our 9 to 12 year olds have played football since they were five so they have excellent skills, play entertaining footy and work together as a team.

We would like to thank our coaches and managers who make their time available for training, gamedays and organising the teams. We also appreciate excellent support from the wider parent group who always put up their hands to help out when we host the junior festival, and help transport and support the players to attend trainings and gamedays each week.

We are also lucky to have the support of several local businesses. P&K Martinborough help make our turn to host the junior festivals easy through the use of their BBQ and sponsored food supplies. Neighbourhood sponsor coffee for the festival days and the player of the day certificates – enjoying a hot chocolate and donut they are a highly prized item by the players.

So far it has been a rewarding season with plenty of highlights. We are looking forward to rest of the season after a short break for the school holidays. In September we are hosting our annual 7 a-side masters tournament. We get teams from all over the region and it is s great opportunity for the Club to do some fundraising.

Thanks

Martinborough Junior Football.