Five of the Trust’s SEND football team have recently been nominated for MENCAP England Disability Football Trials.
The five players who attended the trials were: Jamie Bray, Frankie Curylo, Daniel Sheehan, Ben Rowley and Luke Atkinson.
Following the trials, Ben was chosen to represent MENCAP England not only as a player, but as the captain of the team, out of 60 trialists.
The Trust’s SEND football coach Craig Dawson spoke about the importance of these opportunities for participants with special educational needs and disabilities.
Craig said: “A lot of the footballers that come to us, they might have anxiety, they’ve got autism, ADHD, schizophrenia, so this is quite a big deal for them.
“I wanted to nominate more, but I could only nominate five, and the reason why I nominated these five is that from where they started to where they are now is a massive change.
“You see a lot of our players looking at the first-team players and getting excited about watching the game, because they want to do something like that, and a lot of them say to me, ‘How cool would it be if I get to play on that pitch?’
“Being able to give them that opportunity to do that is a real step forward towards, and how cool would it be if they get to turn around and say to their kids or their family members, I represent England in disability football, it’s impressive.”
The trials took place on the same weekend as Chesterfield FC and the Trust’s designated Unite for Access fixture against Shrewsbury Town, earlier this month.
Craig also spoke about the impact of the work that Level Playing Field does through their Unite for Access campaign. He said: “I think it’s important that people take everything with a pinch of salt.
“They don’t know what stuff people are going through; they don’t know what disabilities they have. A lot of the time with a lot of our players, you wouldn’t know they had a disability.”
