Clarets Mad to fund youth development centre

Last updated : 24 March 2007 By Tony Scholes
Vince Overson - passed on his thanks for the support from Clarets Mad
The youth development team are setting up development centres in other areas and this will allow them to coach even more youngsters, particularly at the younger end, who would otherwise be unable to travel to Burnley each week to be involved with the Centre of Excellence at Gawthorpe.

It is an exciting development for youth football at Burnley FC, one that Clarets Mad are proud to be involved with, and we are delighted that from the money raised we are able to fund it to the full amount of £4,000 for the first year. It is something all of those involved with the running of Year of the Youth have supported fully and something we would very much like to continue funding in subsequent years. It really is a brilliant way for us to get involved with supporting our youth scheme.

To add to that we are providing them with £1,600 for some much needed rehab equipment for injured players - items that youth team physio Andrew Schofield and the Centre of Excellence physios consider to be vital.

We are also supplying them with £250 to begin setting up a library of books, CDs and DVDs to assist with the coaching, all these items are ones selected by youth coach Terry Pashley.

Finally, and to complement the smart board system we bought last summer, we are providing a platform to assist with the filming of youth games at Gawthorpe and this will enable even greater use of the smart board system.

This all followed a meeting we had this week with Head of Youth Development Vince Overson and Child Protection Officer Jeff Taylor and takes our donations to the youth development team to over £15,000 since Year of the Youth was launched, something we really are all very proud of.

This is the result of many people supporting our events and fundraising efforts, and through donations. Vince and Jeff asked that we thank everyone for their support, and stressed just how much it is appreciated. We are pleased to be able to pass on those thanks to each and every one of you who has supported Year of the Youth.