Ballyer awarded FAI Club Mark Award

BALLYFERMOT United have been awarded the FAI Club Mark Award which sees them enter into the initiative at the entry stage.

The mark initiative was set up by the FAI in order to establish a consistent level of coaching and management across all grassroots clubs which will hopefully elevate the overall standard of Irish football from the very bottom rung of the ladder.

Teams were given a deadline to pass the standards for being awarded the entry level mark by the end of December last year with Ballyfermot submitting their final application just a few days before Christmas.

The push for this achievement was organised by several members of the club with David Kavanagh in particular playing a key role, driving the movement and getting the club over the line.

If the club had failed to meet the mark criteria they would have faced severe ramifications such as being denied access to the DDSL for their youth sides.

Training involved coaches being involved in a number of workshops on their own time during evenings with some taking between three and six hours to get through.

A three tiered system the entry level mark is followed by level one and level two awards with Club Mark officer David Kavanagh believing that Ballyfermot are well on track to gain the next rank.

“My goal now is to try to bring all the managers up to the next level again in training and things like that.

‘There are a couple more hoops that need to be jumped but because of how much preparation we have already done in getting the initial mark award it isn’t that big of a gap until we get to the next one.

‘We didn’t have to do as much work for it as we did so that has dramatically decreased the time until we can get to the next level up.

‘For us that is the full priority at the minute. Why stop there, keep going even further and beyond.”

“The kids benefit because the coaches have more training. Other kids will be looking to get involved.

‘Coming away from the environment where you would be pulling managers and coaches out of the crowd of parents, instead you’re making an environment where parents will bring their kids knowing that they will be well coached and trained by experienced qualified coaches.”