User:SS Raiders

South Shields Raiders are a Youth Football team based in the North East coastal town of South Shields in England.

The Club was founded in September 2004 by Martin Urwin.

Parents of children leaving Cleadon Kindergarten to continue their education in various schools in the borough of South Tyneside were asked if they would be interested in building on the friendships created whilst attending pre-school by setting up a Saturday morning kick-about for their four year olds.

With twelve children attending the first session the bonds made at an early age looked set to continue. Many a happy Saturday morning was spent enjoying the young children finding their feet on a makeshift football pitch at Brinkburn Community Association while parents looked on.

Word off mouth resulted in the sessions becoming popular with children around the area and the playing membership soon grew to include older children too.

A decision was taken not to enter the children into a local league at the under 7 age group as it was believed this would be counterproductive to the children's development at this stage. Instead the children continued their Saturday morning coaching sessions and played friendly games against local sides to begin to understand the competitive side of the game.

Aaron Fitzakerly became the first player to score a competitive goal for the team in a friendly with Whiteleas Amarillo (a team founded when the Father of one of the original members decided to set up a team of his own)

Club membership grew to the point where it was necessary to split the group into three teams. The older children were then coached by John Baxter who volunteered to assist one morning never suspecting it would lead to years of commitment. The younger children were split into two groups and again eager parents stepped up to run one of the groups.

As yet the Club had no name as it had been run solely as a Saturday morning coaching session for over eighteen months.

Founder Martin Urwin then came up with the name South Shields Raiders. the name Raiders being borrowed from the NFL Football team which Martin had admired in the 1980's.

Under the stewardship of Martin, John, Richard Palmer and Richard Hall South Shields Raiders entered the Chase Holmes Youth League based at Monkton Stadium, Jarrow, Tyne & Wear for the beginning of the 2008-09 season.

Two of the teams competed in the under 9's section with one team entered into the under 10's league. So as not to confuse the teams entered in the lower age group AC Raiders were formed to play in division one with SS (South Shields) Raiders selected to compete in the Premier division.

After an exciting season adjusting to life in a competitive league all the teams had settled in with SS Raiders under 9's winning the award for the most improved team in the under 9's Premier League and one of their players (Sam Attewell) was nominated for the player of the year award at the League presentation evening. AC Raiders also had a player nominated as player of the season for division one of the under 9's league, founder Martin Urwin's Son Sam was pipped at the post for this award. While the under 10's had top scorer Michael Booth nominated too.

Season 2009-10 will be remembered as the first season any Raiders team won through to a Cup Final with AC Raiders defying the odds by playing opposition teams of the park to stake their claim to a Cup Final appearance in front of hundreds of supporters at Monkton Stadium. AC also welcomed an addition to their coaching team as Karlie Davies took her place in the dugout. Unfortunately even Karlie could not help the lads as they lost out in a fantastic game of football to the narrowest of defeats to an impressive Jarrow team 2-1.

The under 11's gained their first taste of eleven-a-side football and worked very hard to adjust to the bigger game. The highlight of their season being a fantastic 9-0 victory on the last day of the season.

With Keith Hogg and Phil Henderson joining Martin Urwin as Coaches SS Raiders under 10's again won the most improved team award for finishing third behind Wallsend Boys Club and Jarrow Real Reds. Players from the club were again nominated for individual awards at the league presentation night with Edward Gilchrist, Captain of SS Raiders under 10's picking up an achievement award for his performances.

At the end of May 2010 the first silverware won in competition was delivered as SS Raiders under 10’s won the inaugural South Shields FC Cup played for at Filtrona Park.

Season 2010-11 currently finds SS Raiders under 11's top of the Premier Division with AC second in their own table. The Clubs under 12's continue to improve and have just recorded their record victory (15-3) against one of their nearest rivals. The club has also welcomed a new under 7's team to the league this season.

The end of Season 2010-11 saw South Shields Raiders under 11’s crowned as Champions of the Chase Holmes League with a record of; Played 18, Won 18, Drawn 0, Lost 0. Scoring over 130 goals in the process. Whilst conceding only 13 league goals all season. Top goal scorer for the season was Sam Attewell. Sam has been top scorer in each of the three seasons the team have entered the Chase Holmes League. Alas a clean sweep of trophies was denied when the Raiders lost 1-0 in the league cup final to a strong Monkton Reds side who deserved their victory on the day.

The under 7’s team won the most improved team award for the premier division at the presentation night and both AC Raiders and the under 12’s team have recruited some good players for the beginning of next season.

Season 2011 kicked off after only a one month break as this time round the teams with the exception of the soon to be under 13's were involved in the brand new under 12's summer league. Again the venues were to be be Monkton Stadium Jarrow and Hebburn Comp. The under 8's continued their learning curve in the mini soccer league playing some fantastic football and scoring over one hundred goals throughout the season. AC Raiders again battled hard in the first division of the 9 v 9 league and have the makings of a very good side. The story of the summer league must be the continued success of SS Raiders as they marched on to a second league title in a row. The team again won every league game played scoring 90 goals whilst only conceding 5 in the entire season. It was to be another frustrating time in the cup as the lads once again went out to Monkton although this time on penalty's after an entertaining 60 minutes and extra time. To win two titles in a row and to win every league game over that period is remarkable when taking into consideration the age of the players(11 years old). James Hogg finished as SS Raiders top goalscorer one ahead of the versitile Harry Pounder on fifteen goals. The most pleasing aspect of the winning squad is that each one of them understood it was about the team and not the individual. The defence including the goalkeeper played a major part in contributing to this; Elliot Stephenson(GK) Scott Rafferty(RB) Edward Gilchrist(CB) Harry Kitching(CB)and Aiden Hutchinson(LB) were outstanding all season. The remainder of the squad also deserve a name check too; Sam Urwin(HM), Tom Hockings(HM), Jamie Miller(RM), Ethan Henderson(CM), Connor Malley(CM), Josh King(CM), Ben Haynes(LM) Sam Attewell(CM), Sam Carman(RM)Jake Robinson(LB) and Reece Blakey (CM). The club website www.ssraiders.co.uk has all the details plus match reports.