Teesside club providing football opportunities and health benefits for children with disabilities

A Teesside-based football club that caters for young people with disabilities is trying to increase awareness of its existence and encourage more children with disabilities to get active and join their community-driven club.

Soccability is run by North Riding FA Coach of the Year (Disability Pathway) David Harland, who is helped by a number of volunteers and fellow coaches Nick Curtis and Ade Sturman, who come together once a week between 10 am and 12 pm every Saturday at Laurence Jackson Sports Village, Guisborough to provide children with a range of disabilities the chance to enjoy playing football.

Running for over 14 years and now consisting of under-16, over-16 and frame football teams who play in leagues and cup competitions against other disability clubs thanks to an affiliation with Boro Rangers, Soccability are hoping to raise awareness of the opportunities available to children with disabilities in football.

“We have young people in frames, kids with autism, cerebral palsy, down syndrome, learning difficulties, behavioural difficulties… everything really,” David told Teesside Live. "We call ourselves a pan-disability group [a broad spectrum of impairments and health conditions] because nobody is excluded.

"One thing we really push as well is that anybody is welcome, regardless of ability. We do it all year round as well because kids with Autism, for example, you can’t tell them there’s a closed season. For them, 10 am on Saturday, they’re at football and they want that routine.

"We find it really helps the kids as well, there are so many health positives to it. My son Harry, for example, built his strength up over the years and is an independent player now, which means he doesn’t use a frame."

David's son Harry, who has CP (cerebral palsy), was ultimately the motivation behind starting Soccability when the disabled football group he was once part of shut down. What started as a means of providing Harry with the opportunity to continue playing football morphed into something far bigger.

Harry would develop so much strength that he no longer relies on a frame and plays for the North East and Yorkshire CP side based at York. After reaching the FA Disability Cup Final at St George's Park last year, Harry even got to sit down and interview England star Jude Bellingham. David, meanwhile, has become an award-winning ambassador for disabled football for the North Riding FA, while his partner Anna and daughter Charlotte both also help out with the running of the group.

David continued: "We find because they’re doing their activity on top of having fun and making friends, there's so many benefits for the young people in taking part. They're doing the exercises that physios are asking them to do without even realising it because it can become tedious for them otherwise.

With the help of Jasmine Morris at the North Riding FA we have also been able to set up a Comets Group, recreational pan-disability football for disabled children aged 5-11. It’s time-consuming and in that two hours each week it’s certainly hard work. It’s become a real labour of love and a bit of a family thing. There are challenges to it, of course, but honestly seeing how much the children and young adults love it is so rewarding.

"We had a grandma bring her grandson a couple of weeks ago for the first time and she was in tears because she said she just didn’t think she’d ever see him involved with something like this. The older ones who have all been there, they make such a fuss of new starters to make them feel welcome. We’ll do games and activities and then at the end they have matches and when they score a goal they are buzzing! You feed off that really, it’s just so nice.”

Over the years, the club and its regular-goers have become a community, and the feedback of parents and children is always so important to Soccability in ensuring that they are meeting the individual needs of each of their participants. One thing that became quite apparent, and was appreciated from personal experience anyway, was the lack of support and time that parents/carers often get, given the challenges of raising and caring for a disabled child.

“Getting parents involved and feeling included is really important for us,” David explains. "A lot of the parents didn’t think that their kids could ever play football or be involved in training or teams. There can be a lot of stress and strain with parenting children with disabilities and we now have a community of parents who lean on one another and ask advice of one another. A lot can struggle.

"So now, as well as the training for the kids, we’ve also started offering what we call ‘Time For You’. We often find the parents just struggle for much time for themselves to unwind or do their own physical activity. So what we do now, for an hour of every session, we put on a bit of yoga or some kind of keep-fit activity in the gym upstairs and it give them time to focus on themselves.

"In truth, they mainly just have a giggle, but it’s just a little something they can do that isn’t revolved around the kids. I suppose in the grand scheme of things it’s a bit of a side issue, but it all goes into the melting pot to make things easier and more accessible for people. We’re always trying to improve and evolve though, so we are always pushing parents for feedback to help us to continue to develop.”

That sense of community is at the heart of everything David and co. do at Soccability. Sadly, that can sometimes come at a price like last month when one of their regulars Joe Field died aged just 16. Middlesbrough fans might remember a minute's applause that took place at the Riverside for Joe during the final game of the season against Watford. It left everyone involved with Soccability heartbroken.

"Sadly at the beginning of April one of our players Joe Field took his own life, Joe was 16," David says. "An inspirational young man who was not only a fearless, valued and outstanding player for Soccability, Joe was also a para swimmer for England and a member of Richmond Dales Amateur Swimming Club.

"We owe a huge thank you to Joe's parents Vicky and Steve who kindly donated £2,000 to Soccability from money raised at Joe's funeral. Joe ’the warrior’ Field was loved by all who knew him, Joe will be missed but never forgotten by us, his football family - RIP Warrior.”

Vicky and Steve are supporting the excellent work of PAPYRUS through raising awareness and fundraising. If you or anyone is struggling, regardless of age you can contact PAPYRUS Prevention of Young Suicide on 0800 068 4141.

Soccability, meanwhile, is self-funded and they relies heavily on donations from local charities. They recently secured some welcome funding with the help of Tanya at Tees Valley Community Foundation, YALF and You’ve Got This.

Soccability Frame Footballers have been shortlisted for the Teesside Charity’s Golden Giveaway which now goes to a public vote on the charities website https://teessidecharity.org.uk/ too. Voting starts Friday, May 17 at 12 pm through to May 31 at 12 pm. The more votes received the bigger the funding and so any help would be greatly appreciated.

Anybody interested in joining the team can contact David or Anna at Soccability via the club's Facebook page, or by emailing soccability@outlook.com. Sessions run all year round every Saturday from 10 am to 12 pm at Laurence Jackson Sports Village, Guisborough.