lots of love
Ella O’Reilly
U18 Panthers player

The post End of an era for U18 Panthers Girls appeared first on Hythe & Dibden Youth Football Club.

The future’s bright in green and white!

The post Introducing… Hythe & Dibden Womens Football Club! appeared first on Hythe & Dibden Youth Football Club.

After receiving the same accolade in 2019 we weren’t sure how we would top such a high level of recognition from English football’s governing body. But to receive it twice in the space of four years is an incredible honour, for everyone involved at the club.

This award belongs to all of us. Players. Parents and spectators. Coaches. Helpers who run the line and referee, collect subs, man the kiosk, arrange socials and more. Your hard work and excellent conduct as well as belief and support in what the club is trying to do is fundamental to this success. And of course our incredible club committee, volunteers who put in a huge level of effort, consistently going above and beyond to keep the club operating at the highest possible standards.

A huge thanks also for our sponsors, MIMO Connect and Robertson ETOs. Their support makes a huge difference to the club’s ability to operate and provide excellent kits for the children and young people at the club.

It’s fantastic to hear that we were cited by Hampshire FA as being “incredibly inclusive“, as inclusivity is incredibly important to us. At Hythe & Dibden YFC it’s our mission to empower as many children and young people as possible with positive skills and values through football. Our club motto is ‘We All Can Play’. This comes from our belief that the benefits of football should be available to all.

Hampshire FA also informed us that one of the other reasons for the award was to do with the excellent learning experiences delivered by our volunteer coaches.

“The teaching and learning experience offered was of high quality, allowing all children the opportunity to shine and thrive in the environment and with a workforce that truly cares about its participants.”
Hampshire FA

This is particularly pleasing also, as many of our team of dedicated volunteer coaches put in so much effort behind the scenes attending education workshops and CPD events, researching practices, and working together and with the club mentors to develop their teaching skills and techniques.

We will not rest on this achievement, and are looking forward to pushing the club in the right direction for the coming 2023/24 season, with lots of exciting plans including coach mentoring, facilities improvements, and pathway. Watch this space.

The future is bright in green and white.

The post Hampshire FA Grassroots Club of the Year WINNERS 2023 appeared first on Hythe & Dibden Youth Football Club.

Although it runs throughout the year, Play Safe really comes to the fore over football’s National Safeguarding Weekend, held this year on Saturday/Sunday 17^th and 18^th September.

The main focus this year is on parents and carers, with two key messages to convey:

• Awareness of the vital safeguarding role parents/carers play in football; and
• Encouragement to take the short, new and free online safeguarding course that’s been created specifically for parents/carers. You can access the course here.

Importantly, encouragement to take the new course has come from FASSSAG – The FA’s Survivor Support and Safeguarding Advisory Group:

“We have inputted into the course and helped frame its key messages from our collective experiences. It’s vitally important to us that every parent/carer understands they role they need to play in football. Taking this course can make a real difference – we are asking every parent/carer to commit to help ensure football is ever-safer.”

The support of FASSSAG has been welcomed by FA Chief Executive Mark Bullingham, himself a parent and youth football coach. “The FASSSAG has been important in helping us create our new strategy moving forwards and we really appreciate their input into the new course.  I have taken the new course and encourage all parents/carers across football to take it too.

“Ultimately, safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility. We all need to ensure that everyone involved in football – particularly children and young people – has a consistently safe and positive experience of our great game.  Play Safe reminds everyone of that responsibility and keeps safeguarding front of mind, which is exactly where it should be.”

Hythe & Dibden YFC Chairman James Golding said:

“Safeguarding is something that’s always been important to Hythe & Dibden YFC as a club, so we’re pleased that the FA is promoting these important messages to all involved in the wider footballing community.” 

Play Safe is being run in partnership with the NSPCC and has the full backing of the Premier League, EFL, Barclays Women’s Super League and Barclays Women’s Championship. It’s also supported and being run across every other level of the game.

The post We’re backing Play Safe appeared first on Hythe & Dibden Youth Football Club.

Well it seems like the season has flown past as just like that we enter Tournament season having completed another successful year at the club. It was great to finally have an undisrupted season following the 2 previous seasons with lockdowns.

Following COVID we were delighted to see the club grow even more with more teams then ever playing. The children were excited to be back playing with their friends and enjoying being outside again. It wascertainly a testing time for the club with new guidance and guidelines week on week but with the help from parents, players and coaches we made it work. Thank You.

Starting on the pitch we once again saw our number of local girls joining the club increase. By far one of the proudest achievements the club has had. From 2 girls 5 years ago, we now have over 100 girls within the club. A truly remarkable effort. A personal Thank you to the coaches who have inspired and driven girls’ football to a new level on the waterside. #weallcanplay

Once again there were multiple teams in every age group representing and this will grow again next season following another remarkable mini’s programme of futsal and soccer school. This really is the future of the club and remains a hugely important part of our continued success. Well done to Josh and the team.

Off the pitch saw us secure our long-term future with Applemore School and the wonderful playing facility, a partnership we are very proud of. Moving forward further investment into the facility will see the clubs home go from strength to strength.

We are also delighted to announce that for the first time in 3 years we can host an annual tournament and presentation evening. Both events have been sorely missed so we can’t wait for the summer to arrive.

On a personal note, this will be my last year with the club. My football journey has always followed my eldest son’s team as the team coach and now that team are beginning to enter senior football it seems the right time to say goodbye.

I joined the club in 2013 and have spent 8 of those years on the committee, 4 of them as chairman and I’ve loved every minute. I was lucky enough to work alongside Phil, Paul and Terry as previous Chairmen and learnt a lot from them and I feel I’ve been able to continue the growth and excellence of the standards set before me. When I look back at our development plan we have certainly achieved a lot in the last 4 years together.

Obviously, the strength behind any voluntary organisation is the people and this club has been blessed with an amazingly dedicated group of committee members, some of the most hard working, loyal, wonderful people I’ve ever met and I really can’t Thank you enough.

A personal Thanks to Steve, John, Kati & Paul who have been there from the beginning of my time on the committee, you truly are the reason this club is so great. Thank you.

I can’t name every coach who has been a part of the club but to you all Thank you and well done for giving up your time to volunteer. True heroes of the local community.

Lastly, Thank you the children and parents. You are the reason the volunteers are so dedicated. You are their inspiration.

A good friend of mine told me when I took the role, “buddy, remember you can’t please all of the people all of the time” and he was right, but I promise it never stopped me trying!

Best Wishes

Wayne Harris – Club Chairman, Hythe & Dibden YFC

The post A LETTER FROM THE CHAIRMAN appeared first on Hythe & Dibden Youth Football Club.

We our proud to announce that we have completed our Kit-To-Africa campaign, with hundreds of used football kits now on their way to Africa to be donated to under privileged children and young people.

Over the last few years we have stockpiled as much kit as possible, in order to send a sizeable contribution, and have finally managed to get the shipment arranged. The donation consists mainly of old playing and training kit from the club’s children, but was also bolstered by kit donations by children from other local clubs, including boots and training equipment.

Several local businesses have helped with the collation of the kit, as well as some of the young players from the club.

We are confident the kits will be put to good use and improve the football experiences of many young people in Africa. Many children in the communities we’re supporting have so little they play barefoot, and only own one or two sets of clothes. Football is an incredible tool for teaching values, having fun and bringing communities together, and hopefully some proper kit and equipment will help with that.

Hythe & Dibden YFC committee member James Golding said “As a youth football club we’re all about inclusivity and giving as many young people the opportunity to enjoy the sport. We’re very fortunate to be in a position where we can provide our young players with good quality playing kits, but weren’t comfortable with the idea of old kit going to waste. Putting this kit to good use in Africa is the perfect solution, it will give young people in less privileged parts of the world the opportunity to enjoy the beautiful game as we do. And it’s fantastic to know we’re making a positive difference to the lives of young people in another part of the world.”

Following the success of this campaign the club will continue the partnership every season, and hope to deliver an even better package next summer.

The post HYTHE & DIBDEN YFC FINALISES THE DONATION OF USED FOOTBALL KITS TO AFRICA appeared first on Hythe & Dibden Youth Football Club.

We’re currently looking for applications for players to join our Junior Committee!

We’ll get together with them periodically to listen to their opinions/views and to come up with ideas for the running of the club, and make sure we’re all making decisions that benefit the people we’re all here for – our young players! Hopefully we’ll also help develop their teamwork and diplomacy skills, and have a bit of fun along the way.

We ideally need one or two per team or age group. Anyone interested can email Kati at treasurer@hytheanddibdenyfc.co.uk

This is open to any player registered at the club, whether they’ve been part of the junior committee previously or not.

#WeAllCanPlay #YouthEmpowement #GrowingFutureLeaders

The post We’re currently looking for applications for players to join our Junior Committee! appeared first on Hythe & Dibden Youth Football Club.

Hythe & Dibden YFC is lending its full support to Play Safe – a national FA-led campaign to raise awareness of the importance of safeguarding in football.

Play Safe is being run in partnership with the NSPCC and has the full backing of the Premier League, EFL, Barclays FA Women’s Super League and the FA Women’s Championship. It’s also supported and being run across every other level of the game.

The main element of Play Safe is a series of short films which emphasise the importance of clubs such as ours having safeguarding as an everyday reality. The films also explain to parents/carers and children themselves know what to do if they feel unsafe or worried, because nothing matters more than making sure football is safe for everyone, especially children and young people. You can see these films below.

PlaySafe for Parents & Carers

PlaySafe for Children

PlaySafe for Club Officials

“As a youth team coach, I will be working with my club to ensure we support the Play Safe messaging,” says FA Chief Executive Mark Bullingham. “I am also pleased that the campaign has the support of the former footballers with lived experience of abuse in football, who are on our Survivor Support and Safeguarding Advisory Group. The Group has collectively said:

“Learning from the past is crucial, so that we can prevent the horrific experiences that happened to us and so many others in football, from happening again.

“As a group of survivors, we fully support the ethos and important messages that Play Safe conveys – whether to club officials, parents/carers and or vitally, children and young people themselves. Equally important is that Play Safe is not a one-off campaign – it will be used at key points in the football calendar to remind everyone in football, that children’s welfare and keeping them safe, should be at the heart of all that we do.”

As the Survivor Group points out, you’ll see Play Safe appearing at various points throughout the season to keep safeguarding front of mind in football. Together, we want to do everything we can so everyone – particularly children and young people – has a consistently positive experience of our great game.

The post We’re backing Play Safe appeared first on Hythe & Dibden Youth Football Club.

It’s been a strange year for our football club, another stop start season, another year without a tournament or presentation. I really hope our children and parents get to enjoy an un disrupted season and next year we can all look forward to a fantastic tournament and presentation.

We welcome new teams and volunteers to the club who I’m sure will have lots of fun along the way and make lots of new friends.

It’s also another success for our growth of girls football in the area. 6 years ago we had 2 girls participating within the club but after a successful girls festival followed by a hugely effective Wildcats program we now have almost 90 girls within the club which includes 6 girls teams as well as many girls who play in mixed teams. Outstanding achievement by our dedicated volunteers.

I’d like to use this opportunity to thank the club committee, with the season stopping and starting this has brought lots of extra meetings, discussions and difficult decisions. Often guidance and risk assessments being worked on late into the night to ensure everyone was kept up to date. It’s this work that people don’t see but is vital to keep the club running and more importantly to keep everyone as safe as can be. Guys, thank you.

I’d also like to thank New Forest Care and particularly Rich White as we enter our last year of sponsorship with them. NFC and Rich have supported the club for a number of years and have played a huge part in our growth. They’ve not only offered financial support but also have been hugely important at our tournaments. NFC and its staff always went above and beyond to ensure we could deliver the best tournament possible. Thank you Rich and the team at NFC.

Lastly, a message to our players and parents. thank you for your support, patience and understanding during the last year as well as your co operation during some really testing times. We hope things are in place now to ensure you all have a fantastic season in Green & White.

Play well, play fair but above all have fun.

Best Wishes

Wayne Harris
Chairman – Hythe & Dibden YFC

The post A message from the Chairman appeared first on Hythe & Dibden Youth Football Club.

Say hello to black and yellow!

The post New Training Kit released for the 2021/22 season appeared first on Hythe & Dibden Youth Football Club.