Dear Parents
The Board of Clapham Rangers hopes you are all keeping safe and well. With the season now ended, we still remain hopeful starting the new season in September however the welfare, health and safety of our players and everyone associated with the Club are paramount and we will only start if it is safe to do so
Throughout lockdown we have encouraged our coaches, where possible, to keep in touch with their teams and as the restrictions eased introduced limited one-on-one training. Last weekend we restarted our Development Centre and Girls Academy under strict social distancing and hygiene guidelines. Small numbers to begin with but we were encouraged how well it worked. We have developed a risk assessment plan and will increase the numbers taking part each weekend.
This coming weekend we start trials for new members to join the Club. Each weekend we will systematically work through the age groups starting with the youngest first. Again, these trials will be conducted under social distancing guidelines. This means there will be non-contact football trials focussing on ball skills, fitness and attitude. We have over 300 new players registered to play for the Club and we are expecting a high demand for places.
Players – and their parents – already registered with the Club will soon be contacted to sign up for the new season. The Club is pleased to confirm that the new season’s fees will remain unchanged once again at £360 for the full season. (The fee however is more likely to increase in the 2021/22 season.)
Due to the uncertainty, we will be inviting all returning players to confirm their place in 2020/2021 by paying a deposit of £50 via LoveAdmin. This covers the upfront costs of starting the new season such as ordering a new kit. A payment reminder for the remainder of the £310 registration fee will be sent once we have a confirmed start date for the new season. We hope you will see this as a fair and reassuring way of preparing for the new season. (Just so you know now you will need to register with an up-to-date head-and-shoulders shot of each player registering.)
We have plenty of opportunities for bursaries and we have a goal of expanding our scheme to 20% of our players with bursaries, ensuring we represent more faithfully the community in which we live. We will however remain firm with our policy of ‘no pay, no play’.
The Board of Clapham Rangers has been meeting weekly throughout the lockdown. We have been working hard to improve the way we work and the product we offer to parents and players including recruiting better qualified coaches, hiring astroturf pitches for winter matches in case it rains and extending our bursary scheme for the less well off.
Thank you for your continued support and we look forward to welcoming you for the new season.
Simon Millson, Chairman
Clapham Rangers FC
You must log in to post a comment.