Lee Rangers Newsletter (volume 1 Issue 3)

LEE RANGERS YOUTH FOOTBALL CLUB

LEE RANGERS NEWSLETTER V O L U M E

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Welcome!

INSIDE THIS ISSUE: Chairman’s Mutterings

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Events

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At eight pages, this is our biggest Newsletter to-date. I hope you enjoy leafing through it.

Calendar U12A League Champions— Again!

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The FA Respect Campaign

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Competitions! 4

Parent/ Community Meetings

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U18’s—The

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Class of 2009

Lots to tell you all about: We are changing the Presentation Night and Superstars formats from earlier years, we have an update about our Lee Rangers Tournament which should be a great event for us, there are competitions within these pages, a chat with some of our longestserving players on their memories of Lee Rangers

over the years, a riveting update of the match that decided who won the U12A League, we also have our Chairman‟s update, news about Parent/ Community Meetings and a couple of daft jokes thrown in for good measure... Enjoy! With Jeanette stepping down as Youth Secretary, the search for a replacement was on. Lee Rangers can run without many of us, but it cannot run without a secretary! Becky

Wratten has taken on the role and Jeanette is currently helping her with the transition. Best of luck to you Becky... You will need it! Big big thanks to Jeanette for years of service and toil, Lee Rangers simply couldn‟t have survived without you. Yours in football, Stephen

Congratulations... U12A League Winners League Cup Runners Up U13B League Fair Play Trophy Winners U14A League Runners Up

U16A League Runners Up U16B League 3rd Place U17/18 League Winners Testway Invitation Cup Winners Mid-Solent Cup Runners up

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out and become future Coaches, can extend for a lifetime if we all believe in and deliver our vision: Real Community Football – Football for all.

“The Club has to plan for its future and one of its most urgent needs is new, skilled, long-term coaches”

The most important item or thought of any volunteer organization such as ours is long-tem sustainability. We need two essential items – Players (boys and girls to develop to their full potential) and qualified coaches that enable these Players to attain this level of skill and ability. The Club is planning to revitalize mini soccer and start a campaign to recruit to U7, U8 etc. These are the Players that will hopefully be part of the Club for the next ten years or more. This history with the Club, if the Players put back into the Club what they got

But, going back to the present situation and mini soccer, recruiting Players in itself is not all the answer to the longer term plans of the Club. What we also need are new Coaches, now, who will bolster our existing ones, who want to grow with the Club and help it achieve this long term sustainable future mentioned above. We need Coaches for the 2009 – 2010 season. The Club has to plan for its future and one of its most urgent needs is new, skilled, long-term coaches to start looking after the 2009 – 2010 season of mini-soccer teams. You may say that you are unskilled, but, the Club will undertake to pay for the required courses if you make the

commitment to attend them as required and progress through the different stages over several years giving us the ability to plan and develop all our Players to their full potential. Your Club needs you, Players and Potential Coaches alike, so contact me or the Head Coach – Steve Butterworth – and find out what we can both offer each other. Football Development for your son or daughter (or both) and/or a lifetime of encouraging others to develop and enjoy Football. Hoping to hear from you Manny

Presentation Night & Superstars Our usual Presentation Night has been combined with our Superstars event this year on 5th July. It is hoped that this new format will be more enjoyable for everyone. At a recent Managers Meet-

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ing, it was agreed that the day will be made up of two half-day development sessions. The presentations will be taking place, by team, throughout the day. There will be a BBQ and soft drinks available all

day. Help is needed, so anyone who would like to assist with the running of the day will be a hero! Please contact Manny Martins at [email protected] for more details.

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Events Calendar Saturday 13 June 2009 Lee Rangers Tournament Bridgemary School Fields All Day th

Wednesday 8th July 2009 Signing-on Evening Lee Community Centre 8:00pm

Wednesday 1st July 2009 Annual General Meeting Lee Community Centre 8:00pm

Tournament Lee Rangers’ Tournament will be an all-day event, held on June 13th at Bridgemary School fields. This will be a great day out for everyone and a great fundraising event for the club, so please come along and bring all your friends and family with you!

Sunday 5th July 2009 Superstars & Presentation Day Lee Junior School 9:30am to 5:30pm

“This match was a big game for us as it would decide who would win the 2008/09 League title. The

U12A - League Champions Again!

boys were prepared for a tough game, and from the moment the whistle went,

Havant & Waterlooville v Lee Rangers. This match was a big game for us as it would decide who would win the 2008/09 League title. The boys were prepared for a tough game, and from the moment the whistle went, Havant were having a go at us. We responded well and didn't let them dictate to us. The Defence was made up of Michael Banks, Fahren Smith, Nathan Binning and Frankie Rudland, they shut the door at the back and stayed strong, this allowed the midfield to pass and open up the wings. Curtis Rayment on the right caused all sorts of problems with his electrifying pace and strength and eventually we opened our account with a goal created from the left by Matty Taylor, a great run and driven cross provided Curtis with an

easy opener 0-1. Havant responded with a good spell which resulted in a equaliser 1 -1. Just before half time, Charlie Taylor made a driving run into the box and was brought down..Penalty! Nathan Binnings stepped up and calmly dispatched the penalty, 1-2. Sam Butler and Dougie White had a terrific game in the centre of midfield, we were attacking Havant‟s goal with a long ball that Sam Butler connected with and struck a blistering shot towards the bottom right corner, the keeper dived and tipped the ball onto the post which went out for a corner, it was a fantastic shot but an equally good save. Half time. Liam Mcshannon worked really well linking up with Charlie Taylor, 10 minutes in, Liam, Matty and Charlie made

the 3rd Goal 1-3. George Foster came on for Mike Banks at right back, and within minutes we had scored our 4th goal 14 . Matty Taylor followed in another shot from Charlie which hit a defender 10 yards from goal, Matty latched onto it, looped it over the left back and struck the volley into the top left hand corner, 1-5. With 15 minutes left this pretty much secured the league title for the second time for us. Finlay made some good saves throughout the game. Well done boys League champions again!

Havant were having a go at us...“

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Respect is The FA‟s programme to address unacceptable behaviour in football – on and off the pitch.

FA Respect Campaign On average, 7,000 referees quit football every year because of the abuse they receive from players and from the sidelines. Lots of children also pack it in because of the attitude and actions of overenthusiastic and pushy parents. In response, The FA‟s Respect programme provides a series of tools for leagues, clubs, coaches, Referees, players and par-

ents from grassroots to elite football to ensure a safe, positive environment in which to enjoy the game. The FA has also launched a free online Respect Parent Guide to highlight ex-

amples of poor behaviour and, more importantly, how it can be improved. To see the Guide for Parents and carers visit http:// www.thefa.com/ respectparentguide/.

Competitions! Lee Rangers History Competition - Win one of our match footballs!

Lee Rangers Joke Competition – Win one of our match footballs!

To enter, just email the answer to the question below to [email protected] before 31st May 2009 for entry into the prize draw...

To enter, email your best football joke to [email protected] before 31st May 2009.

Question - When was Lee Rangers formed? Hint: There‟s lots of information on our web site...

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The best joke, as judged by an esteemed panel (ahem), will win one of our match footballs.

The winners of each competition will be notified via email, by 30th June 2009.

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Parents/Community Meetings Thank you to all that attended the Parents/Community Meeting on 18th February at Lee Community Centre. Our Chairman, Manny Martins, welcomed everyone to the meeting. Additionally, Manny explained the format for our Superstars event this year. Details of this can be found on page two of this Newsletter. The meeting included our Head Coach, Steve Butterworth, speaking about the upcoming drive to grow our U7,

U8 and U9 Mini Soccer Teams. Steve also gave some educational pointers to everyone about Crowd Behaviour and what is expected of spectators at our matches. Lastly, Steve also requested more volunteer coaches and managers, anyone that would like to find out more, please contact Steve at [email protected] Our Fundraising Officer, Adrian Dykes, described the Lee Rangers Tournament to everyone. The tournament will be taking place in 13th June and

will be a great fundraiser for the club. *** At a recent Committee Meeting it was decided that we would reduce the number of Parent/Community Meetings to 3-per-year at key points in the season. The meeting originally scheduled for May has therefore been cancelled. Please watch future Newsletters and the web site for details of future meetings.

Do We Have Your Latest Contact Info? While information is regularly updated on our web site, we do sometimes want to get important communications into your hands quickly. For this reason, it is very important that we have your latest contact information on file at all times. This information will never be used for non-Lee Rangers business.

While email is our preferred method of communication due to cost and speed, we realise not everyone has this facility.

If you are not sure what we currently have on file, send it anyway and we will doublecheck it.

“Lee Rangers Youth Football club will not use your personal information for anything except club business. Never ever! We won‟t sell it, trade it, advertise it… We wont even laugh at your photographs… Okay, we may laugh at your photographs, but your personal details are safe with us… We promise!”

Please send any changes to your contact information to Rebecca Wratten at [email protected] or let your team manager know.

Feedback Your ideas for future newsletters are very welcome. Please send your feedback and ideas to [email protected]

packed web site www.leerangers.com as often as you can to get the latest updates in the world of Lee Rangers Youth Football Club.

In addition to this Newsletter, please visit our information-

“I must admit, your explanation of the offside rule was spot on”

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“Finally winning Top Goalscorer last year was great. I should have won it a few times but they kept changing the award each year so I never won! “

“The buzz of playing in front of supporters at Gosport‟s

U18’s—The Class of 2009 This season the final whistle blows for our current U18 team. Many of the team have been with Lee Rangers for over ten years. I spent an evening with Craig Vincent (CV) and Matt Baldwin (MB), along with their coach Mark Vincent (MV), reminiscing about their Lee Rangers escapades... When did you start with LR? CV “We both started with Lee Rangers in 1997 when we were just six years old, playing six-a-side” What positions do you play? CV “Centre Back” MB “Midfielder” CV “But we were both originally up front, the Strike Force!” MB “I did the hard work!” CV “Then Steve Jones came in as a temporary coach for one season when we were U14, one week he put me at Centre-Back and I‟ve been there ever since”

ground was really great”

MB “He‟s actually alright as centre back. I‟ve played all positions except defence. Eventually settled into Midfield” So a different Coach with a different perspective for had a big impact on you, Craig. How important have the managers and coaches been over

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the years for the team? CV “We‟ve had a few different managers over the years. They have been mixed really, some not so involved, but we have always had good coaches” MB “It‟s been best when the partnership between coaches and managers was good. That relationship is really important” CV “The coaches disciplined us and that was important. We were disciplined from an early age. Both positional football disciplines, as well as typical „no messing around‟ discipline. I remember one training session where there was no play, no ball, just positions”. We have always had a laugh though and managed to get the balance right between fun and discipline. What was the Best Moment of your Lee Rangers career? CV “Best moment... This season. We are having such a laugh” MB “Yeah, now we don‟t see each other so much because we aren‟t all at school together, it makes it even more special when we are together” CV “Everyone knows it is the final season, so we‟re making the most of it” MB “Morale is really high this season. It‟s a good feeling putting the shirt on a few more times” When you think back over your entire Lee Rangers career, what are the memorable moments that stay in your mind? CV “Winning Top Goalscorer! There‟s no better feeling than scoring” MB “Finally winning Top

Goalscorer last year was great. I should have won it a few times but they kept changing the award each year so I never won! Also scoring in last year‟s final was great... even if we did still lose” CV “The buzz of playing in front of supporters at Gosport‟s ground was really great in that final” MV “I really enjoyed that day. We were U17 against U18. The whole team was

dressed in suits before the match. We made it a special day. Everyone looked smart. That is a day I‟ll remember... In that final we played against some lads who used to be in Lee Rangers. They had to leave because there was no league for U17 at that time, so they went to AFC Dynamo. I worked out that Woody, current U18 coach, and I had coached 17 of the 22 players on the pitch, so that was a proud day” CV “The semi-final shootout in the dark was memorable too! The back-four and Jack Barker took the penalties. Jack missed, but we won 4-2. So many memories and we’re still only into last season! What else? MB “I remember sloping pitches and relegation bat-

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tles over the years” MV – “I remember Jim Green from Ventnor. He‟d found out about Lee Rangers from the web site and from our results in The News. He and his dad liked the feel of club. For each match he used to catch a bus, then train, then IOW ferry, then Gosport ferry, and finally got collected by Matt‟s Mum. He was our Goalkeeper. He was already 6‟3” at 14. Always scored one goal each season from lumping it up the field. Even scored in his debut! Small pitches helped! Went on to be a Youth Trainee at Spurs. There was another lad called Harley Dallison who moved here from Barrow via Bolton, I think. He was scouted at Stubbington rec by our right-back, Connor Frampton! We‟ve attracted players from far-andwide! Some have left and many came back because they like how we run the team here. A number of the lads have been here since start and are really good mates, they clearly enjoy this environment. It‟s nice to now talk to the team as young men after watching them grow over the years” MB “Doing my FA Level 1 was good. I also went on a course for Youth Volunteers Coaches at St. James‟ Park, that was great. We had lessons by age group, lessons for training kids with disabilities, Samba soccer, and lots of other areas. I got to meet Bryan Robson, Eric Steen (Man Utd Youth Coach), Trevor Brooking and even Geoff Hurst (that was really special).” MV “I get a great buzz from watching the team grow and demonstrating on the pitch what has been taught in training. It‟s the closest I can get now I‟m not playing any more” How did you all cope when you moved from Mini-Soccer to 11-a-Side and the dreaded Offside Rule?!

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CV ”Matt couldn‟t stay onside!” MB “My Mum went to the library and read about the offside rule, then she would shout at me to get onside! She is my biggest fan and my inspiration.” CV “Yeah, Matt‟s Mum‟s great. She‟s helped a lot over the years, even been our Lineswoman” MB “More space when we moved to 11-a-Side was good. It allowed us to shoot more at bigger goals. It was tough for the goalies though” MV “Yeah, the tactic when we moved to 11-a-Side was „If you see the goal, shoot!‟ It takes a couple of years for everyone to grow and be the right size for the pitch” After 11-a-Side, the next typical impact on Boys Football is Girls! Were you affected?! CV “Girls began to come to games to check us out from Year 9, but it wasn‟t an issue for me!” MB “Me neither! I played my best game when my girlfriend was watching!” MV “We did lose one of our players though because of his girlfriend, that was a shame” So what’s next for all three of you? CV “Well first, everyone wants Harley to score before this season ends! Aside from our goalie, he‟s the only player not to score this season. We have such a team spirit this year that everyone is determined to help him get that goal! Matt and I both play Sunday League now too. That has really improved us. But we can‟t do more because we are all off to University and different places. I would love to keep playing with the lads I grew up with, but it‟s not possible” MB “I‟m getting into Coaching more seriously. I‟m off coaching kids in the USA this sum-

mer and hope to continue working with kids.” CV “Yeah, I‟ve already done some refereeing and will hopefully keep doing that and also helping the coaches when I am home. Aside from that I want to keep playing myself for as long as I can” MV “I have no idea! This is the first side to go all way from U7 to U18. I‟ve been doing this a long time and will miss this lot. No idea what to do next! Maybe help other teams.” Okay, before we end... There may be a few young boys and girls reading this article, what advice do you ‘old boys’ have for them? MB “Just enjoy it. Stick with it. It‟s worth it” CV “Yeah, remember that you won‟t play well if don‟t enjoy it” MB “Trust your coach too. There is so much to learn” MV “Same goes for coaches. Remember that you will only get out of it, what you put into it. Woody and I were the first to get coaching qualifications at Lee Rangers, it was the old version of FA Level 1 and you learn so much. It allows you to connect match incidents to coaching.” Thanks guys

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“The tactic when we moved to 11-a -Side was „If you see the goal, shoot!‟”

Big thanks to Craig, Matt & Mark for their time given to this article, and thanks to our Head Coach, Steve Butterworth, for hosting the evening.

From left: Matt Baldwin, Craig Vincent, Mark Vincent

Lee Rangers Youth Football Club The home of youth football in Lee-on-the-Solent

Contact Us Your team manager is always your first point of contact. In addition to your manager, feel free to contact these lovely folks for anything else regarding Lee Rangers Youth Football Club: Manny Martins [email protected] Steve Butterworth [email protected]

Committee Chairman Manny Martins Treasurer Steve Butterworth Head Coach Steve Butterworth Secretary Rebecca Wratten Child Protection Officer Fiona Todd Child Protection Officer Angela Lewis Fundraising Adrian Dykes Social Events Organiser Dave Orpin IT Officer Glenn Broadway

More contact details are available on the web site.

We’re on the web: www.leerangers.com

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