Grassroots Football Awards 2021 and a 2020 reflection
The Grassroots football awards are open for 2021.
Is there a special person that you feel is a Grassroots Hero and deserves recognition for their activities that has made a difference to our football club or your child’s experience of football?
Nominations are open until 4th May and there are 10 categories, from Grassroots Coach of the year to Grassroots Club of the year and many more. The link below will take you to The FA nomination page.
https://www.thefa.com/…/grassroots-football…/nominate
Last season (2020) we were thrilled that one of our volunteers, Kerri Wood was nominated and won the Grassroots Rising Star of the Year for the Birmingham County FA area.
Unfortunately, due to Covid restrictions, we didn’t get chance to celebrate properly, so we wanted to take the time now to share Kerri’s success.
Kerri has been a member of the Rugby Town Girls and Women for many years in several roles, from playing in our Junior teams and Womens team to refereeing and coaching. Kerri currently coaches our U8 Lionesses, holding their training sessions on Friday nights at Butlin Road and manages their League games on Sundays.
Kerri was nominated for Rising Star due to her passion, enthusiasm, and commitment she applies to all she does at Rugby Town. She has developed a fantastic relationship with her team and is an integral part of our club.
When presented with her award by BCFA at Butlin Road, Kerri reflected on what grassroots football means to her:
“Coaching is everything, I want to make it fun for the girls. I love working with the younger ones and seeing them smile. I am working towards to my coaching awards as I would love to coach professionally one day. The club has supported me so much and I want to give back by coaching and helping new young leaders”
Kerri’s mum, Jo, added “I am so proud of her and of all that she does in football. Kerri started at 11, playing up an age group and has played throughout the junior section. She is working on her coaching badges and loved it. Kerri is always the first one at training, she loves football loves being involved”
The Chair of Rugby Town Girls and Women FC, Jason Morris, was present when Kerri received her award and provided further insight as to why Kerri was such a worthy winner of the Rising Star award:
“Kerri offered to help a few years ago and was involved in our young leader programme, now she is mentoring new young leaders herself. Kerri is an inspiration to those young girls who are starting off in a new sport. She makes it fun and really connects with the players. During the Covid lockdown(s) Kerri has maintained regular contact with her team and held a number of sessions via Zoom, this helped keep the team engaged and assist them in preparing for the restart of grassroots football”
The whole club are so proud of Kerri and are delighted she was recognised with this well-deserved award.