On 28th February Sky Blues in the Community had six first team players from Coventry City visit our Half Term Holiday Camp at The Alan Higgs Centre.
The players joined us in the afternoon, where they met all the children from each group and joined in with the tournaments. It was really exciting for the children to be able to meet some of their heroes and they particularly enjoyed being able to show off their skills and play football with them.
Some of the players also went head to head and competed in our Sky Blues Skills Challenges, which our holiday campers had been challenged with throughout the week. This involved testing different elements of the beautiful game, such as: dribbling, short passing, long passing, target practice and much more! One of the groups got to watch Callum O’Hare and Jamie Allen attempt the speed shot and finishing challenges, as the children watched on and tried to match their scores. Our new skills challenges proved to be a big hit with both the children and the players.
Callum O’Hare commented: “I think the holiday camp skills challenges are really good especially for the youngsters. It will really improve their skills with all the challenges set out through the day.”
Jamie Allen added: “The Sky Blues Skills School is a good chance for youngsters to check out their techniques. If I was a youngster coming here during the holiday break, I would love to do these types of things and challenge myself and against my friends as well.”
The chance to compete against other children and compare scores always adds a lot of excitement, not to mention being able to challenge themselves against their idols too!
Following on from the tournaments and challenges, the group then got the opportunity for a Q&A session with the players, asking things like “Who were your idols growing up?” and “What are the top highlights from your career so far?” amongst other things. The players also assisted with the end of week presentation, where they gave out medals to each child and our award winners for the week.
Jack Clemmons, Holiday Camp Lead said: “It was fantastic to meet the players and we would like to say a huge thank you for them coming along to meet the children. We received plenty of great feedback from both children and parents alike and it was great to see the children going home happy with some fantastic memories from the afternoon.”