Wokingham District Primary Schools FA are on the lookout for new coaches to help continue the development of the best football hopefuls throughout across the borough.
Wokingham District is a representative team made of all the schools in Wokingham Borough, with 12 boys and 12 girls selected to play for respective teams.
There are 40 schools registered as part of Wokingham Schools FA, and the schools are invited to send their best players to trials each year before a squad is selected to represent Wokingham District.
The team has enjoyed great success since being reestablished just seven years ago.
“This is our seventh season since re-establishing the district side and during that time we have won the national championship,” said Wokingham District manager Stuart Bevan.
“The team has been very successful and we are keen to make sure we can continue this provision for children going forward.
“District football is reliant on volunteers giving up their time.
“A lot of the boys we are cocaching are in academies and some of them through playing for the district is a platform for them to be seen by scouts and a number of them have been invited to trials and signed as a result.
“The season this year has obviously been hit by the pandemic. It will restart on the first weekend of April, we’re also in the national cup and the southern counties league cup so there is a lot for us to play for.
“There is a lot of talent in Wokingham we just need to provide them with the opportunity to play against the best players across the whole of England and that’s what District does.”
Both the boys and girls teams have had brilliant success in recent seasons with the boys side winning the ESFA Premier League National District Cup in the 2017/18, while the girls team reached the National District Cup Final in 2018/19, in their first ever season.
“In our short time we have won nearly everything there is to win,” continued Stuart.
“We’ve won the Southern Counties Cup, the Shires Cup, National Cup, Southern Counties League and the Surrey League.
In the last couple of years we have also started a girls team and in their first year they reached the national final. There’s a full programme every Saturday of league and cup fixtures and we train once a week.
“We want people to jump on board, it’s an exciting opportunity to coach the best players in Wokingham at that age group.
“Personally for me it has been a pathway into professional football as I now work for Chelsea as a professional scout so from working in district football it can open doors for both the coaches and the kids.
“We are after enthusiastic coaches ideally with some qualifications but we are willing to help them with that.”
