Young Leader Siobhan Anderson represents Shropshire FA at The FA Leadership Academy
Can you tell us what you feel you have learnt and have gained over the week you attended St George's Park?
From start to finish the week was jam packed full of new learning opportunities and fun filled activities which have left me with life long memories. We attended various workshops focused around improving and educating us on how to be more effective individuals within our county and how we can impact the effectiveness of our counties to help the FA achieve their game plan for growth; by doubling female participation in football in 2020 by going from 6000 registered teams to 12000 teams. For me, I feel like one thing I have gained from the week is definitely many very strong friendships, and some that I'm sure will last a lifetime. I have managed to make some connections with members from other County FA's where we have the aim to work together to make our events more successful and held in different areas.
Over the week I have also developed myself as a person. From speaking to members of my mentor group they told me that on first impressions they saw me as quite a shy and timid girl who just needed to improve her confidence. After to speaking to them before we were due to leave the venue they said they now see me as a young girl with some potential life changing views/ideas that could start off a chain of ideas within the local FA, whose confidence has grown as each day went on.
From the activity leadership day that we had on Wednesday I learnt that sometimes it's better to stand back and let someone else lead and sometimes it's better to put myself forward as a leader, particularly when it's a situation that I have been in before or I feel that I could help the team to achieve the desired goal more effectively.
How did you get involved in football and particularly volunteering?
Football has been in my life from the second I could stand up, my grandad would have me in the back garden kicking a football at any opportunity. Throughout primary school I was always "that girl who played on the boys football team".
At the age of 10 I went to my first ever football training session down at Prees Football Club, who were then known as Prees Raiders. Where I played football for them for 5 seasons. Which a season or so after that time my dad became Manager (voluntary) my uncle became coach (voluntary), my mum became secretary (voluntary) and my grandad was the linesman (also voluntary).
As time went on it then got to the point where there was no longer a league for me to play in. So I had a long think which route I wanted to go down, refereeing? Coaching? Or something more admin associated, as removing myself from football just because there wasn't a team, it wasn't an option.
6 weeks before the start of the season I saw that my local team, Prees were looking for an Under 12's coach! What a way to give back to football by volunteering for a team I used to play for! Some months after my 16th birthday, I did my Level 1 in coaching football, and away I went! First of all coaching Under 12's for a season, then Under 10s! I can now apply what skills I have learnt and gained over the last couple of years both in my line of work as an Early Years Practitioner and when trying to better my newly formed team Malpas Women FC.
What was the highlight of the academy for you?
Some people may say that the highlight would have to be the food, from all you can eat cooked breakfast in the morning, to lasagne, currys and pasta for lunch and steak, burgers and 'big chicken nuggets' for tea it's fair to say that the food was definitely a form of highlight.
However, for me, it's near impossible for me to single out just one highlight over the week as there have been so many. A member from Middlesex FA Youth Council, a vlogger and a very good friend of mine; Iain Craig captured some of the best moments from throughout the week on his camera and put them into 4 separate videos on YouTube, so that each Young Leader who was at the Academy could relive the experience time and time again.
If I had to pick just one of my most favourite highlights it would have to be the "morning energisers", this would be a little half an hour slot after breakfast before we'd go off into our mentor groups where we would do the most random tasks to get us all energised and awake, they also worked well as ice breakers and help to settle us in really quickly. From "tap tap" to "Peel Banana" to "Web Connections" they all proved to be very daunting tasks when first mentioned however by the end of it we were all laughing, giggling and feeling ready for the day ahead.
On the last morning; the Thursday morning, myself and a little group I was sat with over breakfast were given the task to deliver a morning energiser! Well, what can be better than doing the "Hokey Cokey" at 8:45am!
Although this was fun what made it more of a highlight for me was the fact that I managed to stand up in front of 50 other young leaders to sing and dance! This just proved to me how far I've come in terms of my confidence and my ability to overcome a major barrier of nerves. I now feel like I could deliver sessions to bigger groups of people and still feel confident in my abilities.
Shropshire FA would like to congratulate Siobhan on all her achievements and we look forward to Siobhan sharing her experience and learning back to the Shropshire FA Youth Council.
Want to know more about Young Leadership Opportunities?
If you are a young person wanting to get involved in Football Leadership, then the Football Futures Programme is for you. Click here to find out more about the Football Futures Programme.
Shropshire FA Youth Council are currently planning and organising the next Shropshire FA Football Futures Leadership Day which will be held in October 2017, date to be confirmed. The day will offer any young person (aged 14-19) who is interested in football leadership the opportunity to take park in various football leadership workshops with like minded young people with a passion for football, just like you! Further information will be out soon!
For any information about the Football Futures Leadership Programme, please contact eve.bailey@shropshirefa.com or call 01743-362769
