Oxford

Stars Welcome VIP’s 

Summertown Stars AFC is an Oxford based children’s football club that was established in 1974. The club has over 350 registered players and runs boys and girls teams for ages from under 7 through to under 16. The club is an FA Charter Standard Development club and won the county club award in 2005/6. This accreditation is only given to clubs that abide by the high standards set by the FA. All team coaches have a minimum qualification of FA Level 1 coaching certificates and all coaches and helpers have been CRB checked. In recent years, the club has successfully established links with the Greenhouse charity, which runs sports, including football, for inner-city communities. Teams from Greenhouse Bethwin in Peckham, London, have played several matches against Summertown Stars teams, and a player from Greenhouse has played as a Summertown guest player, at the Stars expense, in a tournament in Holland. This exchange programme has encouraged the club to forge other charitable and community links. Summertown Stars now send football kit to a Township school in South Africa. Lwandle Primary school is in Cape Town, and its 700 pupils come from particularly poor backgrounds, with most of the children’s parents either unemployed or low wage earners. Closer to home, Summertown Stars have successfully raised over £1,300 for the Oxford Children’s Hospital through football events. These include persuading Barclays Bank to bring the Barclays Premiership trophy to the clubs annual 5 a-side football tournament in June 2007 and more recently, holding a sponsored fancy dress football match. Summertown Stars has now embarked on its most ambitious project - setting up a team for visually impaired players (VIP’s). Jo Kalies, a sports coach with a local private school, and manager of the girls under 13 team, is the clubs disability officer. Jo has been working with the Oxfordshire Football Association, and British Blind Sport, and has successfully put together a small group of visually impaired players. VIP’s play futsal, an indoor 5 a -side game of football, originally started in Uruguay in the 1920’s. Futsal is a fast and skilful game that has successfully been adopted by VIP’s, with the Great Britain B1 category team currently ranked 5^th in the world. Training sessions are held every 3 to 4 weeks, and are run by Jo along with other Stars coaches. If you are visually impaired and are interested in taking part in these fun  sessions, then please contact Jo Kalies on 07867 646503 or Paul Chamberlain on 07813 591586. Club web-site: http://www.summertownstars.org.uk/