As a club with their own eyes on their future, established MSFL outfit Norstar FC have entered into an exclusive link with Pinner JFC with the latter focusing on their core strength of developing youth.
Pinner have just completed their 25th anniversary season and as part of that progression and by looking towards achieving another quarter of a century are integrating their service provider, Elite Soccer Academy across the whole club, to a unique way of working.
Based on a pilot during the 2010/11 season, which generated direct successes, all of the Pinner teams will now be run by qualified paid coaches at training and most importantly on match days. These coaches are externally sourced, recruited and vetted by Elite where all coach as a profession. Not being parents or directly connected with any of the players, this not only helps technical development of each individual and gives for a greater degree of satisfaction by members from people who are not just qualified to a high standard but are also experienced working within the game at varying levels. It also maintains a distance from any potential parental influences.
Elite has a clear and defined strategy of developing young players beyond the grassroots game and beyond the standard approach. This was a similar desire for Pinner who were looking to create differential and despite being a registered charity, acknowledged that the volunteer model had its difficulties. It felt the need to run itself like a charity where providing its income matched its cost base, the model was perfectly feasible.
Specifically, Pinner have always looked to promote the game within the community at large and to assist players develop their individual skills and overall team play, hence the complimentary approach.
This was one of the key attractions to Norstar who were keen to plug into the resources that Pinner and Elite were able to offer. The opportunity gives Norstar access to coaching staff plus other connections to the wider aspects of the game that Pinner and Elite have forged and developed.
A principle objective for Norstar is to help their A-team achieve and sustain MSFL Premier Division status. For Pinner, it provides a link with an established set up where should any of its players post Under 18 choose to progress, they have somewhere sound to go.
With such facilities and knowledge at their disposable Norstar expect to reap the benefits and with a long history within the MSFL, expect this to give them a real chance of taking their club forward and really progress.
Phil Peters, Norstar FC chairman is delighted with the link up: "This was an obvious move for both parties and I'm excited to start working with the guys at Pinner to see what we can learn from their youth set-up.
"There's huge potential and after acquiring both Paul Wolfson and Jonathan Kay in recent years, perhaps we'll unearth some more gems in the coming years."