Dorset County FA proudly hosted its 2024 Grassroots Football Awards night at the Hamworthy Party Venue in Poole on Thursday 25 July, providing an opportunity to congratulate the inspirational award winners from the 2023/24 season.

The Grassroots Football Awards are celebrated annually across the country to say thank you to all the people and organisations who give their time to make football happen, week in week out, come rain or shine. It's a great opportunity for players, parents, coaches, clubs, leagues, fellow volunteers and match officials to pass on their appreciation. 

Roger Vaughan, Dorset FA CEO, said: “Our awards night was the perfect way to cap off another fantastic season of grassroots football in Dorset. Without our incredible volunteers the grassroots game wouldn’t exist as we know it, so nights like these provide a great opportunity to say a big, well-deserved thank you. To our 13 award winners - and everyone else who was nominated – huge congratulations to you all, from everybody at Dorset FA.”  

Dorset FA handed out 13 awards in total, with the winners as follows:

New Volunteer of the Year: Alfie

Alfie is a 14-year-old player at Dorchester Town Youth, who also qualified as a referee to initially support his club to cover the younger age groups. Alfie is an excellent role model to the young children as a referee. He has been nominated by the Dorset Youth League following extremely positive feedback in the way he has conducted himself both on and off the field. Such have been the reports received that Alfie has been offered a place on the Dorset FA Youth Centre of Referee Excellence, which identifies and prepares talented young referees for the national promotion pathway. It has been a difficult time recently for Alfie and his family, but he has worked tremendously hard in all aspects of his refereeing. In January, he joined the DCFA Youth Leadership Group and has been part of the county two-day camp, the Kit to Africa project and fully supported the Girls Euro’s Festival.

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Kieran has been a very active volunteer at Dexter Sports Youth. Throughout last season he coached the Little Dexter’s U6 Team, and qualified as a Dorset referee and officiates most weekends for the club. Kieran is excellent in his interaction with young players by always explaining decisions and making sure that they understand the rules of the game. He is also proving to be a role model to other young people of similar ages, and these players are now wanting to emulate what Kieran has achieved in supporting the club. Kieran has taken his football coaching and volunteering to an international level and is part of the Magna Academy who will be travelling to Zanzibar to support in the building of school facilities and coaching football to the local community.

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Gary Stone is the coach of Phoenix Youth U11 Wildcats. When the club were asked why he stands out they have said it’s because of his unending quiet patience with the girls. It is no mean achievement on training nights to gain and to keep their attention over the level of noise that they seem to generate. Also, to be able to rein in the number of cartwheels being completed during the warmup. However, somehow Gary has managed this, and the girls have gone from strength to strength. They are now competing with other teams which they were not able to do at the start, but due to Gary’s quite encouragement their individual and collective development has made significant strides forward. 

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Adam Day has coached in Dorset for 20 years, firstly at Handley Sports and now at Blandford United Youth. He has coached several teams at various age groups and has recently become the youth club secretary for 28 teams. He has also willingly accepted the role for coaching the Comets at Blandford United Youth. The Comets is a football initiative for children aged between 5 and 11 who have disabilities. It is a recreational form of football which encourages children to enjoy the game and gain confidence, and Adam’s group is one of the first in Dorset to get the initiative up and running. He has personally supported a child who has joined Blandford United Youth after fleeing Ukraine, this has included finding kit and making sure that there has been a welcoming opportunity for the child within the club.

Coach of the Year - Disability Pathway: Shaun Hearn

Shaun has grown the disability provision for both youth and adults in and around Dorchester over a few years.  He commits many hours to going into local schools to run taster sessions for young people with disabilities, with the aim of bringing them into the current club provision and supporting them as they begin their development. He has also supported families with children who have disabilities to take the opportunities that are on offer for their children to play football in a safe and fun environment. His work has led to families being able to interact with other families who have experienced similar challenges in everyday life. Shaun has also been instrumental in the formation of the Walking Football team in Dorchester which continues to grow under his guidance.

Grounds Team of the Year: Mark Bailey - Lyme Regis FC

Mark Bailey has been the groundsman at Davy Fort for the last 20 years. He prepares, cuts, and marks out the pitch every week. He is always seen at the ground after taking time out of his own working day to make sure that things are just right come Saturday. Not only does he prepare the pitch each week, but he then graces it with his playing abilities as he often makes an appearance for the Reserves.

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* collected on Mark's behalf by Philip Evan's

The Dorset Youth Football League is responsible for all U11 to U16 football within the county. This includes both male and female pathways. The League has doubled the number of female participating teams from 40 teams in 2019 to 80 teams at the present time. The League has ensured that its entry fee has not been increased for 14 seasons and have also created a League Cup competition for all age groups free of charge in both male and female competitions. In a footballing world where poor behaviour is readily accepted as part of the general deterioration in social behaviour, The Dorset Youth Football League have taken a very strong stance in trying to maintain traditional values of offering football for everyone but expecting a higher standard of behaviour and responsibility. During the 2023 - 2024 season the League have in association with the DCFA delivered a club assistant referee workshop to support club assistant referees on match days. Following on from this initiative there is now planned three club referee workshops scheduled for season 2024 - 2025. The Dorset Youth League continue to support the DCFA Centre of Referee Excellence group and actively nominate league referees to be part of this FA referee programme. The Dorset Youth League move from strength to strength and have set such a high standard of administration and supporting positive behaviour that clubs from Somerset, Wiltshire and Hampshire are queuing up to move over to play in Dorset.

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Over the last season the club has grown to having a team in every age group from U7 to U16, along with two adult teams. The club hold weekly Wildcats sessions which have led to the creation of two new girl’s teams at U9 and U11s. These sessions are also supported by mini kickers opportunities from players aged 4 to 6. As a small island community, Portland United Youth have committed to increasing their playing opportunities for girls in a welcoming and positive environment. Not only have they achieved this, but they have also fully supported their referee workforce and promoted the FA Play safe initiatives.

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The recipient of this award is a former semi-professional player who took up the whistle only recently. Starting later as a referee however has not delayed his fantastic journey so far, as he has been promoted twice in a short period to become a level 5 Dorset Premier League referee. He is already on his way to becoming promoted to FA level 4. Steve has a professional attitude towards his match preparation and ensuring that his performances are of the highest standard. His strongest attributes which have been well received throughout the Dorset Leagues are of a vast knowledge of the game and how it should be played together with a deep understanding of players feelings and intentions. He also successfully refereed the 2023-2024 DCFA Intermediate Cup Final, and the DCFA are certain that there will be more to follow.

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Toko is a coach from Lilliput who coaches the under 9 girls at the club. After attending the Equal Game Workshop, she decided to set up a female walking football session. The walking football opportunities have grown and now the club are very proud to be represented with players from the ages of 18 to 60. Due to Toko’s infectious enthusiasm the group are now looking to enter the new Dorset Women’s Walking Football League. Toko has supported other ladies to take their first steps in becoming coaches, and they have already attended the FA Stepping over the Sidelines workshop which has recently been delivered. Toko is now working with another local club Dexter Sports and is opening her Lilliput sessions as joint club sessions to help Dexter Sports in the creation of their own women’s walking football opportunity. Toko stands out as a very special volunteer, she has passion and drive and always makes football truly inclusive.

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Team Gryphon can best be described as a grassroots club but with a very high ethical approach by treating their players as people. We need to go back to 2020 during the pandemic to see the work that the club achieved to make sure that everyone at the club was contacted and supported to make sure their mental health was at the fore front of importance. This approach has spread amongst all the players, and their positivity to ‘looking after each other’ has now become the expected. A small act of kindness started by the club has grown and has been taken forward by all the Team Gryphon players. They may not have won all the leagues or cup competitions that they have played in, but they have made a difference to those around them so probably a more important trophy to win.

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The Bobby Moore Award is made to someone who has made an outstanding contribution and is particularly someone who represents the very best in grassroots football. This is the first time that this award has been made open for public nomination and Team Gryphon have nominated their captain Tom Hargreave for this prestigious award. Tom has not only been a player and captain but has also been groundsman, kitman, handyman and assistant manager. When he has had a little spare time, he has also been the club’s social media officer and club welfare officer. If it has been wet, he can be found forking the pitch to ensure the match can go ahead, and when the club had to leave their previous home pitch, he battled day and night until a suitable replacement was found. Tom has now also moved into the youth game with Bradford Abbas, and so they too will be very fortunate in having Tom to help them to progress.

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Philip Evans – or Pip as he is known to many - has been football mad his entire life. He joined Lyme Regis Under 14s when he was 13, playing as a left winger in the East Devon League and was chosen for the ‘Pick of the League’ side, before playing many seasons for the men’s reserves side at the club’s former Sidmouth Road site. He also played for the First Team and briefly for rival club Axminster which the Lyme Regis faithful don’t want to mention. His playing career came to an end in his mid-30s after breaking his leg but Pip was still keen to remain involved with the club and, despite his leg still being in a cast, he was among those from Lyme Regis  to make the ferry crossing for what would become a bi-annual trip to Creully in Normandy – the beginnings of a unique twinning arrangement between the football clubs in the two towns, which lasted for more than 40 years.

Pip moved away from the area in the late 80s/90s for work, but later managed the Reserves and helped manage teams in the youth section – before the days of mobile phones he would send a postcard to players who had been picked for that weekend’s game. He was eventually elected club chairman in 1998 – a position he held for 10 years. During this time, he must have raised tens of thousands of pounds for the club through his imaginative and tireless fundraising efforts, including sporting dinners, regular theme nights and what has now become known as the legendary Millennium Ball – an all-night party at the Davey Fort to welcome in the year 2000, complete with casino games, fireworks, and breakfast for the last few stragglers. We still remember him and other club stalwarts on the dance floor at 5am doing the routine to ‘Tragedy’ by Steps! 

Pip has put in hundreds of hours and raised thousands of pounds while leading the Strawberry Field project during the 2000s, with the aim of moving Lyme Regis to a new home further up the hill, which would have provided unrivalled sports facilities for the local community – this unfortunately was eventually turned down due to local planning objections, which Pip describes as one of his greatest regrets. He stood down as chairman in 2008 and was made a life-member of the club and later President following the passing of Barbara Austin in 2013. He never took a back seat and threw himself into making the Davey Fort – now our forever home – the best possible ground for Lyme Regis FC, helping to raise funds to extend the clubhouse, build new changing rooms and improve the pitch, including bringing the Arsenal Charity XI to the Davey Fort on two occasions.

He was instrumental in securing a £100,000 grant from Lyme Regis Town Council in 2016 for further major improvements at the clubhouse and ground, including the new kitchen extension, grandstand, drainage work and car parking. The club had to match fund this three-year grant and Pip once again played a large part in helping to raise the necessary funds, while overseeing the project and negotiating with the council. The project was held up by Covid but eventually completed at the beginning of the 2023/24 season, with the council invited to a special plaque unveiling ceremony and lunch to celebrate.

Meanwhile, in 2018 Pip was awarded the MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List for services to the community – his work with Lyme Regis FC playing a large part in this. Over the past four years, Pip has served as club treasurer during its most financially challenging period, steering the club through the pandemic and huge increases in energy bills and running costs. He organises regular Sunday lunches, mans the car park and helps at the club’s main fundraiser of the year, the Sausage & Cider Festival – once doing a six-hour stint on the barbecue! This year he also organised a weekend of 50th anniversary celebrations for our home ground Davey Fort – once again pulling on an amber and black shirt at the age of 75 to captain a one-off over 50s walking football match, as well as arranging other friendlies, a kid’s tournament, reunion party and anniversary dinner with special guest Lawrie Sanchez. 

Throughout his 60-year involvement he has worked tirelessly to support the Seasiders – and has done so alongside a busy career in journalism and community commitments – chairing the local branch of Cancer Research UK, president of the Royal British Legion, his involvement in many other local groups and organisations over the years, and now a town councillor and deputy mayor. His wife Jackie has always been at his side (no matter how many times she’s threatened to never cater an event again), as well as his two daughters, Zoe, and Francesca, who has followed in her father’s footsteps and is now vice-chair of the club. Philip has loved seeing the club grow – helping to introduce one of Dorset’s first ladies’ teams in the early 2000s and watching the club’s youth section flourish. He always says he is most proud when watching a four- or five-year-old pull on an amber and black shirt and then watching them progress through the youth section to men’s football.

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