Bradley Stoke Youth FC Celebrates 25th anniversary
June 29th, 2023Report by Martin Lee (July/August edition)
On 10th June 2023 at the Jubilee Centre, Bradley Stoke Youth FC (BSYFC) celebrated their 25th anniversary with a football festival with over 350 children participating in the event. The age range of players on view was 4 to 16 years old showing their football skills and ability in front of some large crowds.
The sun was shining and the pitches were looking fantastic. The format of the day was to have fun matches with no results and some competitive matches where the results were recorded to find a winner. All the action took place between 10am to 4.30pm and afterwards the coaches even played a match until the sun (or old age) got to them.
The event results were as follows:
Reception children – fun matches with a penalty shootout with the Minion in goals.
Year 1 children – fun matches with a penalty shootout with the Minion in goals. The Year 1 children were the winners of the Luke Wheaton Memorial Cup (photo top).
U7s and U9s – fun matches.
Mixed U9s and U10s – competitive matches with U10 Blacks winning the McDonalds Cup and the U9 Golds winning the Bradley Stoke Town Council Cup.
U11s – competitive matches with U11 B’s winning the McDonalds Cup (photo left).
U11 Girls – fun matches and coaching session.
U13s – fun matches.
Mixed U14 and U15 – competitive matches with the U15 Oranges winning the Bradley Stoke Town Council Cup (photo below right).
Mixed U15 Girls and Ladies – competitive matches with The Ladies Goals Aloud Team winning the McDonalds Cup.
Every age group had an award presentation with the Mayor of Bradley Stoke (Dayley Lawrence) and Deputy Mayor of Bradley Stoke (Natalie Field) in attendance to hand out the trophies and cups.
For the Year 1 presentation we were delighted to be joined by Matt Wheaton from the Luke Wheaton Legacy Trust. The presentation of the Luke Wheaton Memorial Cup is an annual event at the Festival to ensure we remember Luke who played for many years with BSYFC.
The club would like to say thanks to the Bradley Stoke Town Council and the Luke Wheaton Legacy Trust for their kind donations towards the cost of the trophies which every child received at the festival. This was very much appreciated.
It is hard to believe how big the club has grown from that first training session way back in June 1998 with just one team in the League. We now have over 450 players at the club across 22 teams playing in many different Leagues!
Some highlights of BSYFC story over the years:
Sept 2005: the club started football enrichment sessions at Bradley Stoke Community School.
June 2006: the club started the first Football Festival with Bradley Stoke Town Council.
Mar 2008: the club started the School Link program providing free football coaching to Primary Schools. This grew from one school to 14 local schools.
May 2008: the club achieved the FA Charter Standard Club Award.
June 2009: the club started working with the Gloucestershire FA to address the lack of female teams in the area. Girl’s football is started at BSYFC.
July 2010: The Young Coach Mentoring Program is started.
Aug 2010: the club achieved the FA Charter Standard Community Club Award. There were only 9 other clubs in the whole of South Gloucestershire that held this award.
June 2011, 2013 and 2016: the club is awarded Gloucestershire FA Community Club of the Year.
Sept 2012: the club started free community disability football sessions.
May 2015: the club created the first ever female adult team for the town of Bradley Stoke.
Nov 2022: the FA transition all clubs to the new England Football Accredited Club system with BSYFC awarded the highest 3 star level.
The club is always looking for more volunteers so if anyone would like more info, please check out our contact page on our website at
www.bsyfc.co.uk
Editor’s Note: Thank you Martin – what a truly wonderful job you do (and I know you will want me to thank all the other volunteers too who help bring all of this for our young people) . It has been a pleasure to work with you over the last 18 years as I recognise including many of these milestones in our pages since starting Bradley Stoke Matters in summer 2005.
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