In May 2021, four of our club coaches and committee members took a trip to Edinburgh to visit the inspirational Dougie Samuel, CEO of Spartans Community Football Academy and Head Coach of Spartans FC men’s team which competes in the Lowland League.
After a fascinating and moving tour of the Spartans facilities and listening to Dougie’s passionate description of the great work the club does in its local community, Dougie challenged our group with a simple question:
“What is your why?”
After some bemused looks and half-hearted suggestions which were rejected by Dougie, (“Football for all? Nah. That’s what you do but it’s not why you put in all the work you do.”) we left with some thinking to do and a new question over which to lose sleep.
What is our why?
As you’ll no doubt soon come to realise, OLA FC is concerned with far more than mere wins and losses on a football pitch (although those are important too). We are passionate about the game and about seeing our young players progress and develop but we also want to use the medium of football to bring about positive personal and relationship growth for each member of our community – players, parents, families and volunteers.
Furthermore, we are determined to use our relationship with our wider community to bring about new and exciting opportunities, to support those who need it and to teach our young people that football is just one of the many roads they can take to happiness and fulfilment.
When we considered all of those ambitions and goals, it became clear that Dougie, as usual, was completely right. We needed a new why and after putting our heads together we’ve come up with a statement that we believe encapsulates exactly what OLA FC aims to do:
To help our community through football
Whether you’re brand new to OLA FC or you’ve been around the club for a while, please know that this is what you are doing – at every training session and when you stand next to a pitch in the pouring rain on a weekend morning, when you complete yet another coaching course or a necessary piece of paperwork when the club asks your help in procuring and distributing medals, trophies, selection boxes or Easter eggs to make our kids happy, and every time you have a quiet word with a kid who seems a bit unhappy one week and helps to put a smile back on his or her face.
Giving a player a run to the match on a Saturday, donating an old pair of trainers to the kit recycling or contributing to our foodbank drives are all vital activities in the life of our club.
Being affordable and inclusive are core concepts for OLA FC and we have benefitted from the unfailingly generous support of club sponsor, Mackie Pharmacy in providing free playing and coaching kit to enable us to keep our fees as low as we possibly can.
We also discreetly provide free participation to families who are unable to pay.
Every time you contribute in any way to the work of our club, you are helping our community and you are using football to do it.
Thank you.
We are passionate about the game
and about seeing our young
players progress and develop
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