A go-ahead Vale of Clwyd football club is appealing for more coaches to help with its expanding junior section.
St Asaph City, which runs two senior sides in the North Wales Ardal Leagues, also fields over 80 youngsters in five sides from Under-Six to Under-12 in the Rhyl and District Junior League with a new 20-foot storage unit from Denbigh-based Container Sales Service to house their matchday and training equipment.
In the last six years the club, which plays at Roe Plas, alongside the River Elwy, in the heart of one of the UK’s smallest cities, has carried out a series of ground improvements including new hard-standing on two sides of the pitch, improved changing facilities and a 100-seater stand.
Club Chairman John Roberts is keen to recruit more coaches to cope with the demand from local youngsters to join the club and he said: “We have over 80 training here two nights a week but we are having to turn some away.
“The coaches we have do a great job and we support them to get their qualifications but we could do with more people coming forward to help because then we’d be able to provide a game of football for more young players because they’re going to be the next generation of the club.
“We used to run Under-16 and Under-13 sides but found that during Covid it was difficult to retain teenage players but we’ve had such a demand from primary school age children.
“They have been the ones most affected by the lockdowns and being able to play football with their friends is really good for their mental health so we have had a boost in playing numbers and we could cater for even more if we could recruit more coaches.
“They all get their coaching badges, safeguarding and first aid training provided through the club and we’d really like to hear from anyone interested in helping out.”
The new unit, which has 1280 cubic feet of storage space for balls, nets, training cones, corner flags and the rest of the paraphernalia of a football club, was paid for with a £4,000 grant from the Gwynt y Mor Wind Farm Fund and installed by Container Sales Centre.
CSC sales consultant Lisa James said: “The club is really busy and it’s great to see so many young people down here making use of the facilities.
“They have a fantastic youth section here and run so many sides that I can understand why they needed the extra storage space.
“We are finding a lot of local sports clubs and leisure and recreational sports facilities are needing extra space now that life is returning to normal and storage units are perfect for them.”
John Roberts added: “Our old storage facility had outlived its useful life and it was great to be able to find a solution to our storage issues so close to home and CSC have done a great job for us.
“This isn’t an easy site to access but with their expertise, local business links and speedy service they very quickly had us sorted with the delivery on site of the unit which enables us to store our equipment safely and out of sight.”
CSC specialise in the sale of new and used shipping containers which range in size from 10-feet long up through 20-footers to 40-foot units, all eight feet high and eight feet wide, from 640 to 2,560 cubic feet in volume.
Lisa added: “Containers are versatile and ideal for so many different uses and we’re finding there has been a real surge in demand for them.
“An advantage of buying outright is that you can also paint the exterior to your own taste including having your company branding if you are launching your own business.
“Our units have been used to house a flight simulator and even as an indoor coffee bar and with our specialist lorry we can deliver containers up to 40 feet long and can also arrange to move units to different site locations.”
