Wakefield Jets Under 9's Dual-Team raise their own funds to say thank you to the NHS

Head Coach - Steven Jackman

Assistant Coach - Eri Sata

Parent Rep. - Phil Hodgson

After returning from the latest lockdown, I noticed a very big drop in social and psychological confidence across my age group. I expect this would have been the same in all foundation grassroots teams across the country. I decided to have a chat with the kids to see if I could somehow find a way to boost those corners again and get them back to how they were feeling prior to lockdown. At the time this seemed a huge task, with little guidance available to support coaches as lockdowns are not something we have experienced before. Football needs kids to be confident and happy to play well. It doesn’t only require a technical and physical ability. Finding that balance between them all can be difficult but the impact can be massive across a team.

One of the kids asked if we could be sponsored by the NHS to say thank you to all the staff for their hard work over the last 16 months. I explained that the NHS is unable to sponsor football teams, and this would require a complete new strip for everyone. Given there are 22 players, not really an easy task and very expensive, but we like a challenge so let's see what we can do!

After several discussions with parents and the kids it was decided that the kids could raise the money for the new strip themselves by completing their own individual challenges. Parents were not allowed to just pay into the fund!

Over the last 56 days the kids have all completed their own personal challenges to help raise the monies require to fund a new custom printed shirt. Initially this was intended as a social confidence boost for them to decide, plan and then complete their challenges by letting them choose what they want to do. Some of the ideas were off the scale and as with any 8–9-year-olds they didn’t hold back. 

Some of the challenges they completed were -

1. Ice bucket, some kids attempted to keep their feet in a bucket full of ice water for a set time. 20 secs or 40 secs, the length of their games in seconds.

2. Window cleaning

3. Car washing

4. Hanging on a bar for 2 mins

5. A penalty shoot-out against the coach (Me) 50p a goal (Cost me a fortune as I’m not as quick as I used to be)

6. 2 mins planking

7. Bake and cake sale.

8. Hedge cutting

9. Gardening

10. Football related challenges i.e., shooting, curling shots (Very difficult for 8–9-year-olds)

11. Sitting in a bath full of ice water

12. 1 hour stay quiet (The biggest chatter on the team took up this challenge and we now know he can be quiet)

13. Kick ups

Some challenges are still coming in and the good news is they have already managed to smash the £375 target to fully pay for the new shirts within 2 months!!! WOW!!

Confident that the monies would be raised, the Club Committee allowed us to order the kits in advance and the squad have now fully reimbursed the costs thanks to all their individual efforts. They did this themselves with a little support from parents to get them going in the early stages.

The confidence on the team has now almost returned to pre-pandemic levels and we have 22 happy, socially confident kids, smiling and full of energy and confidence again. After lockdown, some found it very difficult to settle in for a few weeks but slowly and surely you can see them all starting to light up just like a rainbow and become normal kids again; they're loud, happy, full of energy and difficult to control.  The team have not lost a game in the last 5 weeks and have come together as a group off the pitch and more importantly on the pitch too. The impact of this challenge has also fed into their psychological confidence too. You can see them all booming and loving the new freedoms of playing football again with confidence they just didn’t have 6 weeks ago when we returned to football.

As a volunteer coach, many people ask "why do you do it?", "how do you do this?", "where do you find the time?", "what keeps you going?". The answer is simple; the kids do it, you just find the time and you become one of them. It’s addictive and something you never regret once you start. They drive us as much as we drive them and it is a feeling that money can never buy.  It’s the feeling that you can only get from coaching in grassroots and worth every hour we spend helping them develop. Try it and you will never look back!!!

Well done Wakefield Jets Under 9 Dual team and parents. You are the best!!!!