Welcome to the Haverhill Rovers Under 8s web page. My name is Matthew Austin and i am the manager/coach of this new team for the season 2009/10. I am also new to the coaching side of football though with my FA Level 1 coaching under my belt i am looking forward to having a great first season and ensuring that aswell as making the experience enjoyable for the kids i will be helping them improve on their skills to help them as they progress to the best they can be.

Haverhill Rovers Youth FC has been offering organised, fun and structured footballing experiences for children in the local area for a long time. The boys section has undergone name changes and was re-founded under the Rovers' name in 2006. The girls and ladies team have been going just as long too. With the current increase in awareness and popularity of girls football, they are growing all the time.

We provide a safe, organised and stimulating footballing experiences for boys and girls of all ages and all abilities. Our focus is on the players enjoying themselves and learning, not only football skills and techniques, but also valuable social and life skills too. In order to do this effectively, we ensure that all members of the club are CRB Checked in accordance with The FA's guidelines and we are seeking to ensure all of our managers and coaches have attained at least their Level 1 Coaching badges. We have professional coaches who also help the club with specialised training, such as goalkeeping, and more advanced drills.Our aim is to provide a quality, stimulating and fun footballing environment for the entire community.

The youth section is a well supported subsidiary to both the Men's and Ladies Senior teams. At present we have 13 youth teams and a new Mini Soccer Development School which bridges the gap between starting your love of football and playing in the team environment. We currently have 250 members from the local community, and we are always looking for new players, managers and volunteers.

The creation of the Academy soon after the Millennium gives our kids something to aim at. The academy is an Under 18's team and plays in a floodlit, midweek league at Hamlet Croft. The standard of football is very high and, with a UEFA A License coach at their disposal, performs an integral platform towards the Reserve and Senior teams.

The club is also looking to build its current team base. Within the next two years the club will be relocating to a new sporting complex consisting of a new stadium, 2 floodlit pitches, mini-soccer pitches, a large club house and social hall for hire and much more.

Our Football Development Plan, compiled with the expertise of Suffolk FA's Development Team, aims to add a team at every age group from the very youngest all the way to the Veterans! It is important to the club that our players never feel like they have to leave the club, there will always be somewhere for them to play. This even includes creating Senior A and B teams to compete in the lower leagues of the Senior competition or a Sunday league, the creation of a second tier to the academy, and more Mini-Soccer teams.

Are you interested in joining the club? Do you want to be a coach, manager, referee or member of the support committee? If you would like to join Haverhill Rovers at this exciting time, please contact us using the link to the left! We welcome all the volunteers we can!

The club is affiliated to Suffolk FA and all our youth teams play in either the Cambridge and District Colts League, the Cambridge Girls Football League or the Cambridge Mini-Soccer Leagues. We are a FA Charter Standard Club and are looking to achieve the prestigious FA Community Standard Club in the near future.