Cumberland is a rural county, and this presents the team with a number of challenges to overcome, finding ways to deliver quality football provision in hard to reach communities.
We have been able to continue the growth of our Football Development network again this year. The work carried out by our two Community Coaches in our School-Club Link Programme has helped us to form good quality clubs in some of our more rural areas.
Our girls’ programme has again delivered on most of its targets, and the County, in partnership with Westmorland FA, has been granted a licence to run a Girls’ Centre of Excellence programme based in Penrith.
We have continued to develop strong links with School Sports Partnerships, and this year delivered a TOPS programme in Copeland and Allerdale. This allowed the County the opportunity to provide schools with information on Football Foundation schemes, such as the Junior Kit Scheme and the Goalpost Safety Scheme.
We delivered a full Coach Education Programme during 2007, allowing us to improve the quality of coaching in all junior clubs, which will hopefully help raise the playing standards in all local junior leagues.
The Development Team look forward to the coming year, and the launch of the new Football Development Strategy in July 2008 will provide the focus for our work programme over the next four years.