“After a really tough year, it is great to feel the togetherness that a kit can bring to the team. The boys look really smart in their new training kit, and it is bringing on their confidence leaps and bounds.”
Karl Fellows, Volunteer Coach at Solihull Moors FC U9s sat down to discuss the recent Antser training kit sponsorship and what it means for the growing community football team.
Becoming his son’s football coach by accident, Karl said: “Their previous coach had to leave the team and there was no one to pick it up in his place. With no one stepping in it was likely that the team would fold, so to stop that happening I volunteered on a temporary basis and am still here two seasons later.”
With a strong background in football, Karl is deeply passionate about the game. Karl shared: “I had previously worked at Aston Villa FC for a long time, so it felt right to me to jump back into football with my own son.”
Solihull Moors FC has over 200 volunteers who all help to coach and support the teams of all ages up to the U16s. With 105 teams, it is known to be one of the largest children’s football clubs in the area.
With many of the youth and junior teams heavily reliant on volunteers, Karl’s mother kindly sponsored the team to enable them to have training jumpers to keep them warm through the colder months.
After hearing of this jumper donation, local Richard Dooner, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at Antser, a leading health and social care technology provider, decided to donate the team a full set of training tops.
Karl shared: “We all just wanted to say a huge thank you to Richard and everyone at Antser for the generous donation. The children look fantastic, and it gives us a real sense of togetherness and community.
“Prospective children and their parents really pay attention to us now, and people comment on how smart everyone looks. It gives us a real community-feel to be proud of, and we know that not everyone is lucky enough to have that.”
Karl continued: “The feel-good factor really is through the roof. I’m not sure that the children totally understand the power behind the gesture, but the families and I certainly do, and you can definitely tell the kit donation has helped their confidence.”
As thousands of people across the UK did, the football team had a difficult year throughout the pandemic and lockdown. Karl said: “It was hard. Our team changed a little bit and some of the players couldn’t come back to the club which was a real shame.
“Sport can have such a positive impact on children and young people’s social skills and confidence, so when they didn’t have access to that it was quite difficult. I always say to people, get your kids involved in sport, even if it’s not football, it can have a hugely positive impact on them.
“On behalf of everyone involved with the U9s at Solihull Moors FC, we wanted to say a huge thank you to all at Antser for their generous donation to our team.”
For more information on the club you can visit their website here: https://www.solihullmoorsfc.co.uk/teams/youth-junior/
For more information on Antser, please feel free to reach out to us on: hello@antser.com.
