7. A new parent's role in a team

PARENTS ROLES FOR A NEW TEAM

Coaches / Leaders – The most important helping role. We suggest a team of three parents to share the coaching duties and leading the team through its matches – ideally this triumvirate should be split down as one Head Coach and two assistants but the roles can be equally shared if this suits people better. At this age group most of the emphasis of the coaching should be concentrating on basic football skills and a sense of positional play. Typically, a coaching session would last for an hour on Bourne Green (goals and other coaching equipment are going to be kept in a lock-up next to the cricket pavilion) and would consist of a skills session followed by a practice match. Once the season starts, there will be a match on most Saturdays so coaching opportunities are restricted to advice given before and during the match and also the time available on any spare Saturdays. There are FA coaching courses (which the club will happily sponsor) but these certainly aren’t obligatory for the coaches at this age group. All coaches will need to be CRB checked by the FA (this again is something that the club will arrange).

Coaching / Match Day Equipment Assistants – Although all parents are expected to give a hand in helping with the equipment for a practice or competitive match (goals, corner flags etc), we suggest that four sets of parents take ultimate responsibility for making sure that the equipment is ready in time for the coaching / matches (and taken back to the pavilion lock-up afterwards). Each set of these parents would hold a key for the lock-up.

Fixtures Secretary – The hub of all team communications. The team’s fixtures are arranged and organized by the League so the fixtures secretary is responsible for notifying kick-off times and directions with both the opposition and within the team. The fixtures secretary has a position on the club committee and is the age group’s representative to the club.

Results Reporter – The results reporter has to gather the final score and Blades scorers information from each competitive match and email it through to the League Secretary and the Blades Website Manager before 5pm on the day of the match.

Qualified First Aiders – We generally ask for two qualified parents within each squad as the League’s rules dictate that there must be one qualified First Aider at each home match. A current First Aid qualification is accepted by the League (a copy of the certificate needs to be sent to the League). Alternatively there are one-evening courses which can be attended in Basingstoke to get the necessary certificate (the Club will reimburse for the cost of the course).

Home Match Referee – At this age group it’s useful to have a regularly available home match parent who is happy to referee (they are generally not supplied by the league). Whistle and watch needed!

Pitch Marker(s) – Each team needs to supply one or two people to assist with the line-marking of the junior pitches. This will involve a lesson on the use of the line marking machine, a couple of hours at the start of the season assisting the other pitch markers in marking out the pitches for the first time and then an hour or so each month using the line-marking machine to top up the lines (so they are visible for matches).

Extra-Curricular Secretary – We have a club extra-curricular officer Brian Copeman who, on a very occasional basis, will look at any social or extra-curricular activities that the club might do as a whole (i.e. all age groups).