Southam United may have been starved of action on the field in the last few weeks, but chairman Charles Hill and his committee have been as busy as ever planning and working for the future development of the club.
Hill is proud of the club's commitment to the community and the intensive use of the Banbury Road facilities, saying: "Our active youth section represents the future lifeblood of the club as we seek to develop quality players to come through the rank
s and ultimately graduate from our Mini Soccer School (five-and six-year-olds), through the youth teams and academies into our men's and ladies' first teams."
Southam's ladies' team is having a particularly fine season under the management of Lee Constable and sit atop the Birmingham County Women's League with a 100 per cent record as they look to achieve their second successive promotion.
Meanwhile, this season has seen the establishment of the first academy team under the management of coach Ian Ray.
The under-15s are playing in the Midland Junior Premier League and in the early- season regionalised exchanges were ranked first out of the 28 teams in their age group.
They are currently top of the national division, sitting proudly above clubs such as Burton Albion, Gloucester City and Bristol Rovers.
"We will be launching more academy teams in the future," said Hill.
"Taken together with our active community programme which sees many of our teams doing well in their respective leagues, this means we are continually on the lookout for more players and coaches to supplement the 22 FA-qualified coaches currently within our ranks.
"The club has a financial programme in place to assist coaches in obtaining these qualifications."
With first-team manager Barry Shearsby charged with gaining promotion to step five for the first time in the club's history, Hill is looking even further ahead with Zamaretto League football for the men and Midland Combination level for the ladies seen as realistic target.
"We are already one of the largest clubs in the area, but we want to do more, so are looking to recruit quality players and coaches to achieve our ambitions," added Hill.
"Barry has done a great job and it was a fitting reward to win our first piece of silverware for 11 years last season when he guided the team to the Birmingham County FA Midweek Floodlit Challenge Cup.
The Midland Combination is very competitive this year but we are still hopeful that we can go on a run and challenge for the title and the one automatic promotion place."
Anyone interested in joining the success story at Southam can contact Hill on 07802 949781.
