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Shine Sports Coaching Football Academy Tournament - 08th May 2017

More than 100 children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 took to the St Ursula’s playing field ready for a Shine Sports Coaching Football Academy tournament. Children from St Ursula’s, Elmlea Infants, Westbury-On-Trym, Henleaze Infants and Christ Church took to the field in glorious sunny conditions.

In the Reception tournament, the small sided teams were getting used to playing a tournament football for the first time. The voices of John and Adam could be heard in Westbury Village as they encouraged the children to try their hardest and get used to what playing in a proper match felt like.

In the Year 1 & 2 tournament, 11 teams played 6 games as the aim of the game was to have as much fun as possible, no scores were kept, there were no winners or losers, this was all about children enjoying the beautiful game. After an intense first couple of matches we had to put a ban on slide tackles as the ground was rock hard.   With regular drinks breaks as the children and plenty of encouraging words from the watching parents, everyone had a fantastic time.

We awarded some medals at the end to the children who showed the best example of sportsmanship as well as the determination to keep going in the warm conditions.  Dylan, for example, won a medal for agreeing to go on the other team as they were a man short and managed to score a goal followed by wild celebrations.  Bobby won a medal for making 3 outstanding saves in goal showing bravery that was boarding on the side of foolishness.

Due to the amount of children we are now coaching we had to separate our Key Stage 1 tournament and Key Stage 2 tournaments to different weeks. This proved a huge success as the coaches were able to give the children more individual attention.  We now look forward to welcoming the Year 3, 4, 5 and 6s next Monday.

Shine’s tournaments are a free event for all the children who attend a Shine Football session in school, if your school would like to be involved, please call us on 01174 033 033.

Photographs