Club Structure
At the club we have age groups from U5s and U6s, through to a men's team. Here's how it all fits together...
Board of Trustees
We are officially a charity - Langton Green Community Sports Association - and as such, we have a group of trustees, headed by the chairman, Guy Lambert. Our trustees are a mix of long standing club officials (some of whom have been involved for 20 years or more), newer football (and netball) managers and coaches, local council members and parents. We feel getting everybody's point of view on any relevant issues is important, so this structure ensures everyone is represented and discussion on any matters is open and reflective of the diverse cross section of people involved in the club.
Head of Football - Chris Allen
Our Head of Football is Chris Allen. Chris has run a Langton Green team from U6s through to (at the start of 2017/2018 season) U16s, so he has plenty of experience dealing with all the issues involved and can help you with any problems you might have. He is also one of our most FA-qualified coaches, having completed the FA Level 1 and 2 courses as well as the youth modules 1 and 2. As well as running 2 teams of his own, he has coached our girls' team, the Belles, over the course of the last season and run numerous training sessions with our U6s, so it's safe to say he has a broad view of the needs of all the people involved with the club.
Chris also deals with the all new kit, training equipment, pitch allocations and about a billion other things.
It's Chris you will almost certainly deal with on the majority of matters that your own age group leader or head of mini soccer (see below) can't help you with. If you are one of the age group leaders, then Chris will be your main point of contact.
E-mail: [email protected]
Age Group Leaders
Each age group has one team manager designated as "Age Group Leader". This person will oversee the entire age group, be a first point of contact for Chris with regard to any messages filtering down to coaches and parents within that age group and be a contact for new player enquiries within that age group.
They would also be expected to help any new teams settle in and get on their feet initially, deal with any minor "issues" that might arise within their age group and generally make sure that everything within their age group is running smoothly and fairly. It might sound daunting, but it really shouldn't be. If the age group leader is unsure of anything or comes across a problem they aren't comfortable dealing with, then of course they can speak to Chris, who will happily assist. A list of the age group leaders can be found on the who's who page.
Team Managers & Coaches
Each age group has a number of teams, each of which will have (usually) one "manager" and in many cases, one or more other coaches. How you structure this is up to you - in some teams the manager does everything (admin, coaching and runs the team on match days). Other teams may have someone handling all the admin, whilst someone else handles the training and match day preparation. It's up to you - whatever works is fine, as long as everyone knows their role and there is one clear point of contact for the age group leader and the club in general who has responsibility for the team.
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A full list of all useful contacts is on the who's who page, but a couple of other relevant people you may need to have contact with at some point are:
Child Welfare Officer - Millie Woodliffe
Millie has taken over as the club's CWO as of Christmas 2019. She is the person who handles all CRB checks, deals with any enquiries from our coaches or parents with regard to any potential child welfare issues and can advise on any safeguarding questions.
E-mail: [email protected]
Coach Development Coordinator - Ian Knapp
Ian has completed the FA Levels 1 & 2 and the FA Youth Modules 1, 2 and 3. He was working towards his Uefa B license but the pandemic rather scuppered that. He began coaching at LG in 2012 and has been through the process with his team, from mini soccer, through 9 a side and to the end of 11 a side in the U18s. He is now assisting one of our U15 teams for the 2023 / 2024 season and regularly runs coaching sessions for different teams across the age groups at the club. He is also the point of contact for our membership to the excellent The Coaching Manual website that all LG coaches are given a free "pro" membership to.
Ian started the Langton Green Coaches Forum, an initiative designed to allow our coaches to get together, share information, ideas and training methods, both in person and online via this website, the idea very much being that we can all learn from each other.
Ian also works with Chris to bring FA courses to the club and help our coaches become qualified.
He is more than happy to talk about football / football coaching all day long and will gladly answer any questions you might have!
E-mail: [email protected]