Development Training Centre

This man, has just completed a remarkable 37 years at the DTC and today is the last official day. As I’ve said in previous posts, I have spent the past 20 years working alongside Ian. At the beginning Ian set this soccer training school up for youngsters and called it Kick Off Soccer and it was the first mini-soccer school to be registered in the county.
At one point there were over 60 children attending every Saturday. It was a pathway for children to start playing football and move into a team at under 8’s stage with Hellesdon Youth FC. A club I was Chairman of for 7 of those later years.
We had a terrific partnership and to modernise the setup we changed the name to the DTC (Development Training Centre), we provided a kit uniform and had sponsors such as Asda on board to help with kit supplies.
I don’t think anyone will truly understand how rare it is to have someone commit so much for so many years for the children in this community, 37 years, pretty much every Saturday morning (afternoons at one stage) and all through the year. I take my hat off to you sir and I was privileged to be a part of it for 20 years.
Well done mate, enjoy the free Saturday mornings. All the best! ⚽️

Development Training Centre Football development training fun for 4 to 7 year old boys and girls. The DTC is coming into its 35t

Well, today was my last day at the DTC and for me, my coaching boots are hung up once and for all. Over the past 20 years, I have had so much fun, meeting new people and seeing some of these children grow up and come back with thier own! I also have so many people to thank but one person, Ian Spinks, who has been my teammate for all these years. That’s one hell of a partnership. Thank you Ian it’s been an amazing time and we’ve helped so many young players through in our time, too many to mention. Finally, this won’t be goodbye as I’d love to see you all about playing football, so I wish everybody the best for the future and I’ll leave you with a selection of pictures from past and present… au revoir! ⚽️

Well, today was my last day at the DTC and for me, my coaching boots are hung up once and for all. Over the past 20 years, I have had so much fun, meeting new people and seeing some of these children grow up and come back with thier own!
I also have so many people to thank but one person, Ian Spinks, who has been my teammate for all these years. That’s one hell of a partnership. Thank you Ian it’s been an amazing time and we’ve helped so many young players through in our time, too many to mention.
Finally, this won’t be goodbye as I’d love to see you all about playing football, so I wish everybody the best for the future and I’ll leave you with a selection of pictures from past and present… au revoir! ⚽️

What a group of lovely lads. From left - Freddie, Mylo, Alex and Ted.
This will be one of the last DTC pictures taken, only 2 more weeks!

Ready to go again this morning at the DTC…

Club 1st Team Mascots for the day. Thank you to the management and officials of Dussindale & Hellesdon Rovers for including our little stars of the future. As you can see, they all had a fantastic time! 😊⚽️

🚨 Due to extremely poor weather conditions DTC Training is unfortunately cancelled this morning ‼️
‼️ Please can you spread the word ‼️

We’ll I asked them all to say cheese, then I asked them to say it again facing the wall…and they did! Bless them all.
We’ll done today boys and remember our code of conduct cards every time you play. Have a good weekend all.