DeaFFF NW
After seeing my eldest son upset after attending mainstream football I had to do something!!
Whilst running Lancaster & Morecambe Deaf Children's Society my oldest deaf son played football at the local village football team. After a season he still didn’t know anyone, despite deaf awareness input. I applied for a grant from 'Awards for All' for some football training, with the help of the National Deaf Chlidren's Society’s Tom Lyons (Inclusive Officer - Sports) as I knew nothing about football. I was successful in getting funding. We had skills training for a year for 5-16 years, based at the Globe Arena, Morecambe. We started with an open day at Morecambe FC and watching a match. The next week 24 deaf children attended the first training session. The following year we again got funding, and on advice from the FA we changed to using the rules for disability football and had two age ranges, U16’s and U12’s, both covering a four year age bracket. To help increase numbers and help deaf children that wanted to try football at mainstream level we said that we would allow a hearing friend or sibling to attend the training so they had a buddy to go with. The only annual Deaf football tournament is that run by NDCS, held in March each year, and so we set the goal for the kids to play in the tournament at the end of the football season. Other than that we had problems finding another team to play against.
DeaFFF NW (Deaf Friendly Football Festivals North West) was an idea I developed due to the lack of competitive deaf football for players under the age of 12. Player Development Centres are available at local County FA’s around the country, and these lead onto regional Centres of Excellence for specific impairments, which in turn feed players into England talent camps and the possibility of playing for your country. But they involve 12 year olds and up : what about the younger deaf player, and do parents know about the possible pathways available to players?
DeaFFF NW was initially going to be a league for deaf clubs across the North West, but instead I have organised monthly venues able to provide a warm up/skills session and then football matches for mixed teams aged U12 and U16. (The disability 4 year age bracket applies - we use school years as this makes it easier to understand so U16's are school years 8, 9, 10 & 11, whist U12's are school years 4, 5, 6 & 7.) We set up 4 sessions during the 2013-2014 season as a pilot, and we are currently setting up 7 sessions for 2014-2015 due to the response. Players can come as teams or as individuals. We have also been granted the new dispensation ruling from the FA, meaning we can have mixed teams in the U16 category so that we can encourage more girls to play. Areas we have attended already include Lancaster, Morecambe, Bolton, Salford, Blackburn, Liverpool, Manchester and even as far as Bradford, Leeds and Newcastle!
Our initial session was held at Milnrow Soccer village, Manchester, where we had over 30 deaf children attend. Next we were given the Soccer Goals Centre by Everton for another free venue, and had approx. 30 children again. Man City Disability Officer Paul Kelly organised our next venue, and we had around 50 deaf players attend. The final venue for this year was Lancashire FA - Leyland, where we had the head coach and the goalkeeper coach of the GB Deaf Womens team come along to inspire the players. 34 deaf players attended. We had Lancashire FA staff at the last venue for this season as they have both the Pan Disability Centre (PDC) for 12-16 yrs and the Centre of Excellence (C of E) for both VI (Visual Impaired) and HI (Hearing Impaired) teams (12-16 years) for the North West. This was a chance for them to see some of the local players, and also to be able to inform parents and children about the possible pathways in football for deaf players. We also had Chris Gwynn and Micheal Boyne from GB Deaf Womens football come along and talk to parents and players.
Andy Brady, Everton Disability Officer has been involved in a number of disability teams and has also been involved with deaf football. He has been a great help in setting up DeaFFF NW and we are now affiliated to the Liverpool Disability League. Andy is one of the trustees of DeaFFF NW. We hope to announce another trustee shortly. Adam Thomas is our youth representative. He started playing football in Plymouth and then moved up to the North West, where he joined Morecambe Deaf Friendly FC. Adam is now 16 years old and plays for Myerscough College (Preston), Manchester United - deaf squad, and England Futsal squad. He has great experience of the deaf football pathways.
With the help of several other Disability officers within the region we are currently organising the last few dates and venues for next season and we hope to announce the 5 dates for the 2014-15 season shortly. We are looking at taking some sessions indoors and utilising the chance to teach some Futsal skills to the players.,
We hope that if you come along to one of our sessions you will enjoy it.
The initial response from the deaf players is that have attended events so far say that they do!!!