A F C Chellaston U15

About A F C Chellaston U15

THE START

Chellaston Boys FC was formed in 1992 by Greg Gaskin and Chris Edwards. Greg had always been active in Chellaston as a volunteer at both junior and adult events. He had previously been the head at the Beaver Cubs and an active member at the Community Association. Chris was a close friend and had children of a similar age. They both decided it would be good to set up a friendly football team for the boys in the Chellaston area who had never been able to get in to the other nearby clubs in Derby. Both of their sons were keen to play, so they went about finding a training venue and started training once a week. It was basically by word of mouth that more and more boys attended and a team was entered in to the league the following season. New teams were established each year so by the end of the nineties there was around 8 teams at various age groups playing in the Junior leagues. None of the teams did particularly well, but the clubs main aim was, and still is to provide football for all abilities. Many of our better players moved on to more successful clubs as they probably thought they would not be able to achieve any honours at Chellaston.

THE NEXT STEPS

Chris stepped down as club Secretary in 2000 to be replaced by Kendal Hodder and Greg stepped down as Chairman in 2002 to be replaced by Shaun Martin. As the club grew more parents and helpers became involved with training. In 2002 Brian Bignall joined the club and established and ran our Soccer School for 3 years, raising the bar with the standard of training the players received. As the Chellaston area grew, so did the club. The decision was made for all teams to wear the same style kit, creating a club look. We also started putting our team managers through the FA's Level 1 Coaching Course so the level of coaching improved. As a result the teams started winning trophies and Chellaston Boys FC was finally on the map.

THE GIRLS

After several attempts to start a girls team within the club, 2005 saw the formation of Chellaston Girls FC, it started off slowly but with hard work and the guidance of Steve Hiley our 1st girls team entered the league. At the end of the 2010/11 season we became an FA Charter Standard Club and plans are not for it to stop there as we strive to ensure our players are given the best opportunity to develop and enjoy their football.

A MERGER

During the summer of 2011 AFC Redstar joined us as they too were based in Chellaston, this saw team numbers rise to 22 boys teams and 4 girls teams, and now along with Soccer Schools for both Boys and Girls we don't see these numbers stopping here. In the 2012/13 season the club acheived FA Charter Standard Community Club status, which puts us alongside the top Grassroot clubs in the country, and in the same season we were also awarded Derbyshire FA Charter Standard Club of the year in recognition of all the hard work in helping children play and enjoy football. The club continues to grow with 30 teams representing the club during the 2013/14 season. Nathan Doyle was a player who once represented the club and went on to play Premiership football, so the sky is the limit. When Greg started the club, he wanted children of all abilities to be able to play and enjoy football, and this is the belief we try to maintain in all we do at the club. At the start of the 2014/15 season the club formalised it’s ETHOS, this was the first time we had actually written down what the goals for the club were, instead of being word of mouth and was a big step as this made it very clear exactly what players and parents were joining.

THE PRESENT DAY

January 2015 then saw the biggest change in the clubs history. The club officially changed its name to AFC Chellaston. This decision was not taken lightly, but it was felt as we represented both boys and girls up to the age of 18, with the possibility of expending to U21s and above, the BOYS/GIRLS tag no longer represented who we were. The 2015/16 season continues to see the club expand, for the first time ever we have a team competing in an adult league as our Ladies team play in the Derbyshire Ladies and Girls League, with our desire that this will provide football for girls, even when they leave school. The next challenge will be to see if this could happen for the lads as well. THE FUTURE

No one can tell what the future will bring of course, but one thing we do know, we can't do it without you. Join us today.