The Kent County FA is thrilled to have been granted their FA license to run their Disability Centre of Excellence for the forthcoming season. The Centre of Excellence, which is run in partnership with Gillingham Football Club, has gone from strength to strength since it was launched in March 2008. The centre caters for players with a range of disabilities and operates two age groups – Under 14’s and Under 17’s. As well as weekly training sessions both squads also compete in the South East regional fixture programme against other County FA squads.
Jeff Davis, National Manager for Disability Football at The FA praised the Kent FA for their hard work putting the license application together, particularly as it was commended as an example of good practice for other County FA’s by the Disability Equality Advisory Group at the FA. The application included a development plan to demonstrate how the Centre of Excellence would help meet the targets set out in The FA’s National Game Strategy, particularly with regard to the development of disability specific teams ahead of the London 2012 Olympics.
The 2008/2009 season proved to be very successful for the Kent Centre of Excellence, largely due to the creation of our first deaf squad. The squad was formed from players from our two Deaf Friendly Football Clubs, another successful disability football initiative in the county. The highlight of their season was a successful trip to Derby to compete in a national tournament 5 a-side organised by the National Deaf Children’s Society.
Disability Development Officer Stephanie Gadd said “I am delighted we have secured our license to run the Centre of Excellence next season. We have a great team of coaching staff who have worked tirelessly to establish the centre. Disability football has snowballed in the past four years. We have gone from having one disability club to now having a thriving adult and junior County Disability League as well as a talent identification pathway for talented and able players in the form of the expanding Centre of Excellence. In Kent we are leading the way in terms of development football opportunities for people with disabilities and I look forward to developing the centre and it players next season”.