Club Update - October 22

Hello all,

As promised previously, we continue with our commitment to ensure better communication with everyone on the activities across the Club!

Club Update

Quiz Night

Our Quiz Night is on the 12th November at Ditton Community Centre, Doors Open at 7pm! Quiz Starts at 7.30pm! Join us for a night of fun, laughter and no doubt some silly answers as we raise vital funds for the Club, with some amazing prizes up for grabs! Register your team here! All funds go directly back into our club activities

Ditton MUGA

You may have seen on Social Media that we have released information about our proposal to Ditton Parish Council to revamp and resurface the existing 'cage' / MUGA facility at the Community Centre. These proposals which were previously rejected by the council, have now been unanimously approved (after years of hard work) by the Open Spaces Committee and are with the Full Council for ratification. The Club have worked continuously to research the best facilities, ensuring that whatever we propose is sustainable and works not only for the members of our Club, but the wider community - one of our Club aims. We strongly believe that this proposal is the best we can offer, in terms of surface, lighting and practicality - and we are delighted to have the backing from the likes of TMBC Leader, Cllr Matthew Boughton and KCC Councillor Andrew Kennedy.

We have provided all of the relevant information to the Council for them to make an informed decision, including obtaining maintenance schedules from the manufacturer of the surface, approximate quotes and grant information available to us as an England Football Accredited Club. We will keep you updated on this and will need your help!

Volunteering

We have recently completed our Club Development Plan and are in need of additional volunteers to support the Club in various activities. Volunteers are at the heart of the Club, and without a strong army - we simply can't keep developing the Club.

We have a number of opportunities available, so if you're interested in volunteering and can offer your skills in any of the following areas, please do let us know;

Events Team - We're looking for an Events Officer, and various Events Team members to help support our Annual Events, come up with creative ways to raise additional funds for the Club and support on the nights

Executive Committee - We have a number of roles available with varying degrees of commitment. These roles are vitally important to make sure that we make the right decisions across the Club, and ensure the sustainability of the Club. Some of the roles we're looking for are; Club Development Assistant, Sponsorship & Partnerships Officer, Minutes Secretary, Events Officer, Accreditation Co-Ordinator and Referee Secretary! Although, if you have leadership skills to offer, please do get in contact as other roles may be available!

Team Update

We're a month or so in now to the 22/23 season, after a turbulent start with the passing of Her Majesty The Queen and the subsequent cancellations of fixtures. Our teams are demonstrating their ability across all age groups, we've had some amazing results across the Club and learning points in others. Some key shoutouts:

• Marek, Sam & our U7s who in their first season are flying already and are looking for promotion to a higher division already with a couple of new signings as well who we are delighted to welcome into the #DMFC family
• Alex, Nick, (newly welcomed) Kiren & our U8Y who have had a strong start to the season with a number of great results
• Greg, Anthony, Steve & our U12s who put a stop this weekend to Kings Hill's unbeaten streak since the middle of last season with a 2-1 win away at Kings Hill
• Tim, Dan, Matt & our U15s who are sitting comfortably at the top of their league after winning all 3 of their league matches to date and advancing to the next round in the Cup after a convincing 6-2 win over Barming Youth Blues

We're extremely excited to see how as a club we progress throughout the season and look to bring home some trophies!

Development Update

As you will be aware, we started our partnership with DediKate for our Tiny and Mini Minors sessions, and launched the Wildcats & Squad Girls sessions as part of our #DMFC Development Centre at Ditton Junior School. These sessions continue to grow week on week, and we're delighted to have welcomed Jay Blake back on to the coaching team who joins Ditton Minors FC from our previous coaching partner, LL Coaching Academy. It's amazing to see that we consistently have over 25 children attend week on week at our Development Centre. If you know anyone who fits the following categories, please direct them to register for our sessions as we would love to have them!

• Tiny Minors (Mixed - Ages 3 and 4)
• Mini Minors (Mixed - Ages 5 and 6)
• Wildcats (Girls - Ages 5 - 11)
• Squad Girls (Girls - Ages 12 - 14)

Why is the Development Centre so important to the Club?

It's important for us as a club to have a pathway into our league teams, both for players who are too young to join a team who still want to develop their ability or players who wish to improve their ability before joining a team. These players then form the foundation for our Under 7 teams annually, and go on to be amazing teams!