Bradley Stoke Youth FC Festival of Football

Martin Lee of Bradley Stoke Youth FC at the 2016 Festival of Football.

The top pitch area at the Jubilee Centre on Saturday 4th June was host to the annual Bradley Stoke Youth FC (BSYFC) Festival of Football. This was the tenth anniversary of the BSYFC festival and is the final stage of the Club School Link Program, where the club coaches have been going into 14 local primary schools providing in-school football coaching to all Year 1 classes.

In 2016, the club has coached 720 Year 1 children over the period from February to May. All these schools are then invited enter a team into the football festival, resulting in 140 Year 1 children taking part on the day.

Over the scheme’s ten year history, BSYFC coaches have coached a grand total of over 5,100 Year 1 children in their schools and the football festival has seen over 1,400 Year 1 children take part. All of this is provided free of charge to the schools and the children. This successful event has been supported every year by McDonald’s, Bradley Stoke Town Council, Bradley Stoke Youth FC and the Gloucestershire FA.

The football festival is a fun event and each school is awarded points for various categories when the coaches go into the schools. This year, every child participating in the festival received a goody bag, medal, swim bag, GFA baseball cap, shin pads, football socks, sports bottle, drawing/painting set and, of course, sweets. Every school also received a McDonald’s coaching set with footballs, a cup (of varying sizes) and a team photograph of their squad.

The cups for the teachers’ awards this year went to Iron Acton and Almondsbury. The top three schools also won football bibs and training cones, and the top team won a full McDonald’s football kit for their school.

Award winners

BSYFC & McDonald’s 10 year Anniversary Community Award: St Michael’s
BSYFC & McDonald’s 10 year Anniversary Partnership Award: Wheatfield
Bradley Stoke Town Council School Link Community Award: Iron Acton
Bradley Stoke Town Council School Link Coaches Award: Holy Trinity
Bradley Stoke Community Festival Respect Award: Meadowbrook
BSYFC Festival of Football Achievement Award: Almondsbury
BSYFC Festival of Football Club School Link Winner: Stoke Lodge
BSYFC Festival of Football Performance Award: St Mary’s (Bradley Stoke)
BSYFC Festival of Football Club School Link Runner Up: St Peter’s
McDonald’s Festival of Football Winners (Cup #1): St Mary’s (Thornbury)
McDonald’s Festival of Football Winners (Cup #2): Bowsland Green
McDonald’s Festival of Football Runner Up: Bradley Stoke Youth FC

Check out the 2016 Festival of Football album on the BSJ Facebook page for photos of the teams from Holy Trinity, St Mary’s (BS), Wheatfield, Bowsland Green, St Michael’s, Stoke Lodge and Meadowbrook.

• If you have a child who would like to join BSYFC, please contact Martin Lee at mlee1@btopenworld.com or visit the club website www.bsyfc.co.uk

This article originally appeared in the July 2016 edition of the Bradley Stoke Journal news magazine, delivered FREE, EVERY MONTH, to 9,500 homes in Bradley Stoke, Little Stoke and Stoke Lodge. Phone 01454 300 400 to enquire about advertising or leaflet insertion.

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