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Established in 1976 |
Founded as a Boys Club in 1975, St Joseph’s Youth Club now has a current membership of approximately 300 boys and girls aged from 9 to 15 years old, opening every Friday night throughout the school year.
The Youth Club participates energetically in all the Hampshire Youth Options activities and has been fortunate to win a number of competitions over the years and continues to attract an average of 120 youngsters every Friday night providing a cross-section of activities.
The football section of the Club was started in 1976 and competes in the local boys league as Rushmoor Saints, providing football for U/7’s to U/17’s. There is also a senior side who play in the Aldershot Sunday League – a vast majority of these players are ex-Saints boys. The Saints have won league and cup honours in all age groups over the years and past members have played for the youth teams of Reading, Aldershot and Farnborough Town.
The undoubted highlight of the football section was our U/12’s team playing at Wembley on 11th May 1991, providing pre-match entertainment before the Football Association Challenge Trophy Final, the Club were also Hampshire Club of the Year in 1991.
The Club prides itself on providing football for all boys and girls irrespective of their abilities, coupled with the need to temper the thrill of winning matches and the good grace to accept defeat in a sportsmanship manner. Indeed, the Club’s Code of Conduct has been adopted by the local leagues.
Over the years the Club has also raised funds at the Annual Summer Fete held every June at St Joseph’s School to donate to Leukemia Research and Celebral Palsy.
A recent development is the formation of a mini-football school for boys and girls at All Hallows School in Farnham in junction with St Polycarps School.
This is run under the Code of Conduct for First Football and Mini-Soccer as outlined in the Football Association handbook. The mini-soccer is proving to be very popular attracting youngsters aged 6 – 11 years old from the surrounding area.
The Club has now arranged for u/7’s, u8’s, u/9’s and u/10’s teams to play ‘First Football’ against other local clubs – this is non-competitive and while it is natural to want to win it must be stressed that the emphasis of ‘First Football’ is for the players to enjoy the game, have fun and develop their skills.
The Club has also over the last two years encouraged and supported the development of Girls football and this coming season the club will be running u/12’s + u/14’s Girls teams competing in the Surrey Primary League.
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