Ted McCarter is the chairman of Bure Valley Youth, one of Impetus’ partner clubs. He spoke to Ben Gilby to bring us up to date with everything that has been going on at the Norfolk club since spring.
Above: Bure Valley youngsters pictured with their player pathway senior neighbours Wroxham – both teams have content partnerships with Impetus. Photo: Bure Valley YFC.
“It’s been really busy! Through lockdown I was bombarded with emails and messages from new parents looking for activities for their children. Covid and Lockdown has seen parents look at all options to keep their children occupied and busy. As a result we welcomed loads of new faces to the club enabling us to consider new teams in varying age groups. Our Covid protocols have always been strict, parents seemed reassured by this and kept coming through the gates.”
Once the green light was given for junior football to recommence, Bure Valley were quick to return to action as special competitions were organised, as Ted outlines:
“The Norfolk Women’s and Girls’ Football League (NWGFL) decided to end the league season and instead ran a Champions League style cup competition. This was extremely popular and stretched the season out for a few extra weeks. Teams obviously started back relatively cold with little or no preparation but most took it in their stride and gave it a go. Our teams enjoyed the competition and made five finals.
“Our U9 Kittens lost to Gorleston, U12 Leopards lost to Thetford, U13 Wildcats beat Waveney, U14 Wildcats beat Sprowston and our U15 Wildcats lost to Aylsham. All great games and fantastic experiences.”
The impact of Covid has hit Bure Valley hard from a financial perspective too, as Ted explained. “Our club coffee shop has remained closed for well over a year so a total loss of valuable revenue. Bills still need to be paid but we’ve obtained some small grants to help plus our fantastic parents continued to pay subs, amazing support. We’ve survived and look forward to reopening the coffee shop in September.
“Despite this, we’ve formed new teams. A new U8s and U9s, plus an additional U11s too. We’ve also started an U7 boy’s team that has come through from our very successful Mini Kickerz. As with most clubs we’ve lost coaches and gained new ones, volunteers are always difficult to find, people’s lives are very busy these days and committing fully to grassroots football is a big deal.
“We’ve improved our facilities with a new car park surface and trees cut back – all boring jobs but have to be done. Hopefully everyone enjoys a visit to us!”
Ted outlined the club’s aims for the coming season. “Pretty simple. Keep as many children playing football as possible. Enjoying the game whilst having fun. Smiles on faces are what we want to see.
Results are pretty much irrelevant, yes it’s nice to win some matches but it’s not the main objective. Success is not judged by the amount of trophies you win. If we can keep sticking to our ethos I’m sure we’ll continue to grow.”
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