| When Weston Lane Junior Sports
& Social Club celebrate it’s 50th anniversary next year it has
more than a proud heritage to be grateful for. The club was on the
brink of extinction when an arson attack destroyed it’s old club
house in 2000 and the years that followed brought a sharp decline
for the oldest junior football club in Otley.
The old club house had stood for over 25 years and was the focal
point for many community activities in North Otley.
Ian Needham (Charter Standard Liaison Officer & u15 Coach)
says “We lost the club house not long after
I joined and I remember training on cold Saturday mornings with no
facilities and using an old container for equipment storage. However
through the hard work of the club we have re-built the club house
and started to develop new teams from Under 7’s to Under
11’s.”
Weston Lane set out in 2005 with a goal to become Charter
Standard within 2 years and at that time had only 3 teams and no
qualified coaches. The club now boasts seven Level 1 coaches and Ian
himself is a level 2 coach.
Ian says “The Charter Standard award gave
us a focus to put our constitution, committee, CRB checks and
coaching development on an upward curve and together with the new
club house this gives us the foundations to attain even greater
heights”.
The club continues to go from strength to strength and remains
true to it’s ideals of providing sporting and personal development
for children of all abilities from 6 to 17.
Special mention must go to all the committee, parents, friends
and local residents who have helped the club emerge from a dark
period in it’s history. In particular the chairman Richard Bolton
has put in hundreds of hours working to finish the new club house
which thankfully is almost complete. |
