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How the Club was Formed. |
Sedlescombe Rangers Jnr FC was formed in 1981 when my daughter came home from Primary school and aked me if I wanted to form a football team as a lot of the boys at school wanted to play football but had no one to run a team for them. After a lot of consideration, I had a meeting with the boys, aged between 9-11 years and we had a few practice sessions. I saw the enthusiam they had and their potential as a team. I had a meeting with their parents and it was decided to go ahead and form a club. The name of Sedlescombe Rangers was chosen by the boys. Little did I know what this would lead to !!!! This team entered the Rother & South East Sussex Youth Football League at Under 12. and team proved to be very successful over the years winning several league titles. Their main accolade was reaching the Semi- Final of the Sussex County Youth Cup at the Under 15 Level. Unforunatley they did not win but it was a great achievement for them to have gotten so far. When this team could go no further in youth football the next generation came along. We now have teams in three different leagues, the ESMML, the Rother League and the Crowborough & District Youth League.
Since those days the club had just grown and grown and grown especially with the introduction of mini-football. Mini football, being played on small pitches allows the children to obtain a better understanding of the game of football from an early age and also to obtain a higher level of skills.
During the years various teams have won their prospective leagues and some have won the Sportsmanship Award. This is particularly pleasing as it is voted for by their opposing teams in the league, It is therefore, a great honour to win this particular award.
We now have teams ranging from Under 6 up to Under 14, a total of 9 teams, involving in the region of 160 children and we even have an Under 13 girls team starting soon.
Several boys over the years have been selected to represent their various leagues and some have gone on to have trials with professional teams e.g. Arsenal, Charlton, Fulham, Brighton & Chelsea, and some are currently attending acadamies connected to these clubs.
As we are now such a large club we have had to adhere to certain criteria, the main one being that we should become a FA Charter Standard Club. This involves having a Child Protection Policy and Officer. a Code of Conduct for boys, parents, coaches and officials and that each team has a FA standard qualified coach. It was a lot of hard work but we achieved this award in 2004 and it is especially rewarding as we were the first village club to attain this award in Sussex.
So, as you can see, something that started off very small has become a major part of sport in Sedlescombe.
The one thing we are very proud of is our reputation as a very fair and sporting club.
David Mitchell.
Chairman 2005-2007 Stewart Harper
Chairman 2007- Present Fred Ham
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