BARKING & DAGENHAM GOALS TOURNAMENT EXPANDS
BARKING & DAGENHAM GOALS TOURNAMENT EXPANDS
Last Friday night saw Councillor Emmanuel Obasohan, The Worshipful The Mayor of the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham attend the Goals Soccer Centre at Dagenham Leisure Park for the finale of the Leyton Orient Community Sports Programme (LOCSP) Barking & Dagenham five-a-side football league.
From next week the free 6pm – 9pm Friday night league for girls and boys aged 16-19 will expand to a cross-borough tournament featuring teams from Redbridge, Tower Hamlets, Newham, Hackney and Waltham Forest.
With that in mind, there was extra impetus for the young people to prove they were the kings of Barking & Dagenham with teams attending from across the borough including Gascoyne, Parsloes, Scrattons, Romford, St. Mary’s, Dagenham, Castle Green, Greatfields, Becontree, Heathway, Eastbury amongst others.
Each league runs consecutively for six weeks with prizes given for the best team on the night and the best team over the past six weeks with points given for wins, draws, punctuality, sportsmanship and behaviour.
The Gascoyne ‘B’ team consisting of Egzon Asllani, Kevin Mukendi, Aaron Dempsey, Florence Marqeshi, Mauro Fortes have been the most consistent since the sessions started back in 2007, winning the overall six week league a massive 13 times and last Friday was no different as they took the overall honours again.
The Mayor took time out to watch the matches and conduct individual presentations and inspiring speeches to those who had won trophies and medals over the six-week period and on the night.
From Friday 30th January the free league is open to teams and individuals from across east London and for girls and boys aged 16-19.
For more information please contact Taskin Huseyin, LOCSP Barking & Dagenham Community Officer on 020 8556 5973 or email taskin.huseyin@locsp.org.
Quotes:
Taskin Huseyin, LOCSP Barking & Dagenham Development Officer said:
“We’ve got a limit of 15 teams here but could easily get 25-30 because of the
good work that my staff – Shaz, Paris, Ben and Steve – do, making it as
enjoyable and competitive as possible.
“A lot of the people here are friends now and that is a lot of the reason why they come down here.
“Next week we will have teams from other boroughs coming down to compete
and the young people from Barking and Dagenham are definitely looking forward to
playing them – they want more competition and to pit their wits against other
boroughs.
“The night isn’t just about playing football though as we have involved some of the participants in our development work – we have put two of the Gascoyne ‘B’ players through their FA Level One in Coaching Awards and are now looking at them coming to work with us. We aim to create exit routes for the young people through running sessions like this on a Friday night.
“The Mayor was very impressive and also impressed with what we done here. He went out and spoke to a lot of the young people out there who really appreciated it.
Having him here to watch them play football, present awards and give speeches
makes them feel proud.”Councillor Emmanuel Obasohan, The Worshipful The Mayor of the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham said:
“My presence here shows that whatever the people of Barking and Dagenham are
doing we have them in mind. We are role models and it is part of our
responsibility that every resident of our borough or within our community are
looked after - there isn’t any excuse for anyone to be isolated within our
borough.
“It is part of my responsibility and the councils’ to ensure that every resident is looked after academically, socially and emotionally.
“My favourite sport is football and I have been very impressed with the
skills on show and with the large crowd supporting in a positive way.
“Everyone involved – the young people, coaches and organisers - have
composed themselves in such a positive way to represent the borough and the
people should be proud of it, I am very happy to be part of it here tonight.”
“I think we have a good, strong, organised team and we can keep on winning this
competition. I am currently studying Electrical Engineering at London South
Bank University but I always find time to come here on Fridays as I really
enjoy it and it is worth the travelling.
“The teams we play are good teams who really give us a challenge, but our hard
work is what really gets us there. We do have to play extra hard all the time as
everyone tries that little bit extra when they see it’s us, plus our
cheerleaders really help too!
“With the cross-borough challenge coming we aim to carry on improving and learn from the other teams - they might have a quality that we don’t have and by playing and watching them we can learn from then and they can learn from us.
“You want to know and be known that you are the best team around, we’ll be coming here with a smile on our faces looking to win.
“It was really good to see the Mayor here watch and supporting what we do but I cannot thank Leyton Orient enough for providing this opportunity to play, plus training me up as a coach too.”
“I started coming here as a social event instead of being on the street and
getting hassled. I then started to take more notice of what Gascoyne ‘B’ were
doing and started supporting them – we are not really ‘cheerleaders’ though!
“The new cross-borough tournament is something they feel they can do
well in so we will give them all the support they need – we are their sixth
player on the pitch!”
“I have been coming for a while as I love playing football. The secret to our
teams’ success is passing, keeping the ball moving and 100% teamwork. We are
looking forward to the new cross-borough tournament as we are always looking for
competition and to be tested.”
“The teams we have been playing against are fantastic and they have all been
great. The whole organisation has been great too - the referees have been giving
us a lot of support. We are looking forward to the new cross-borough competition
– bring it on!”
“There’s not a great deal for young people to do around an area like this on a
Friday night, so events like this are positive for them to be involved with when
there are negative activities they could be getting involved with.
“The Mayor was a really lovely man – I have never met a mayor before. It’s great he’s interested and his visit means a lot to everyone here.”
“When the league first started there were a few minor behavioural issues, but
now everyone gets on with each other and I have personally seen a lot of young
people break down barriers between themselves.
“The young people here are very passionate about this tournament and you see them bantering with each other when they leave – looking forward to seeing and playing each other the following week.
“There is a lot of skill on show here - two young people here are signed to a Premier League club for example.
“Gascoyne ‘B’ are winners because they are organised, play as a team, have been brought up together and their discipline is good.”
Labels: locsp barking dagenham hackney newham tower hamlets redbridge community development goals
posted by Leyton Orient Community Sports Programme at
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
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