Minister sets the ball rolling
A PROJECT aimed at breathing new life into run-down sports facilities at Ovenden ARLFC was visited by Sports Minister Nigel Adams.
The OSCA Foundation, on behalf of the club, was awarded £55,000 from the Rugby League World Cup 2021’s CreatedBy grants programme.
It is the latest in a series of grants and funding the Foundation has received totalling more than £650,000 from organisations including the Premier
League, The FA, the Football Foundation, the Football Stadium Improvement Fund, Calderdale Council and Sport England.
The Foundation was set-up in 2009 to help build a first-class sports and community hub in the area.
But the clubhouse is now unsafe, the roof is leaking in many places and the facilities badly need modernising.
Preparations for the start of construction are now underway which will see four separate new changing rooms, a referee’s changing room, and a new clubhouse.
Steve Smith was born in Ovenden and is secretary of Ovenden
West Riding FC, as well as an OSCA board member.
“I’m hoping the refurbishment will encourage more people to come and play here,” he said. We want to develop the teams we have into older age groups, right up to women’s football. It’s a long-term plan.”
Great Britain rugby league international Jake Connor played for Ovenden as a teenager and grew up in the area. He now coaches the men’s first-team.
“This investment is massive. I tried to keep the team together because I knew we were getting this grant.
“It keeps the boys together. If we didn’t have this investment it would have meant five boys going to Illingworth and five going to Boothtown, so the team wouldn’t be there any more.”
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