Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
Club of the week
Bargeddie Colts u-14s
Bargeddie Colts have grown substantially as a club since their inception in 2009.
Multiple age groups have been created and flourished, with the current u-14 team really making strides on the park.
The village outfit have reached the latter stages of national competitions and seen some of their best players move on to proyouth set-ups.
Now they’re aiming to continue providing a pathway for younger players in youth football.
We spoke to club secretary and u-14 coach Gordon Thomson for more..
How did Bargeddie Colts begin?
It started in 2009 with just a wee bunch of us in the village organising something for our kids to do.
We started a 2002 age group and within a few years it had grown into a few teams being available for kids who previously had nothing.
The u-14 team started in 2010 for four and five-year-olds and a lot of the core boys who started with us back then are still here.
It must be nice seeing so many of the kids growing up playing football together
Yes, but so many have come and gone too.
We’ve had nine boys go on to pro-youth teams and three are now playing in the elite performance schools.
We get players coming from everywhere - Airdrie, Coatbridge, Motherwell, Bothwell, Glasgow, and they’ve all done really well over the years.
We also got to the Scottish Cup quarter-finals last year and were the last Lanarkshire-based team in the competition.
The price you pay for that though is that the players then move on to better things.
It’s good that we can help provide a pathway for kids to go on and succeed.
It’s a great achievement for us as a club and ultimately that’s our job.
What has the team been up to recently?
We’ve only recently taken the step-up to competitive 11-a-side football and that’s been a good test for the boys.
Airdrieonians asked us to represent them against an American Youth Olympic team at the Penny Cars stadium in the summer, which was great.
We were also contacted by Didier Agathe whose team came over from Reunion Island and needed a game so we played them.
That’s a lovely memory for the kids to play against different cultures or languages.
They’ve also rubbed shoulders with a man who played in a European final!
That’s great for them and their development.
What about the financial situation at the club?
The cost of running the club is horrendous.
Every game costs £100 to host so if you’ve got 12 games in the league plus cup matches then you’ve got all that to take care of.
It’s £40 a week for training, £600 for a set of kits of which you need home and away. It’s a real strain on families. But it’s great for the kids’health and wellbeing and offers them a pathway into something great.
Our sponsors are vital and we wouldn’t exist without them.
Tony Devil, who owns TD Soft, has been helping us for about five years now, and AM Fagan estate agents are sponsoring kits this year.
We have real gratitude to them as a club and allowing us to just carry on.
When you get people like that helping you it’s a hell of a boost.
What would you say the benefits are for a kid wanting to join the team?
A player here will get top notch coaching for starters but it is also a proven way into the professional youth set-up.
It’s a place you can come and get good coaching and find a platform to develop.
You’ll get opportunities to play as it’s important to make sure everyone gets enough game time to develop properly and get a chance to show what they can do.
A lot of it is down to personal commitment though.
If you can match our commitment with a good attitude for developing then you’ll reap the benefits.
If a player doesn’t do that then it won’t work for them.
We’re just coming into winter, is this a tough time for the team?
Winter can be a difficult time, especially if you need to play on council pitches.
We had a two six-week delays where we didn’t have any games and ended up with a huge fixture pile-up at the end of the season.
It can be really hard on the boys and playing five games in nine days can amount to injuries.
The costs of doing this can be hard to deal with as well.
We train at St Ambrose on a Monday and Wednesday and play at the Penny Cars stadium on Saturdays.
It’s cool for the boys to play in that setting. The club can be emailed at bargeddiecolts@hotmail.com