WCSFA
History of WCSFA
In 1975 the bulk of Warwickshire was transferred to the newly formed West Midlands County, leaving only Nuneaton & District under the stewardship of Roger Jaques as a thriving association. Mid Warwickshire then a separate association, had become active for only 12 months with one representative team run by Keith Bunting. Plans to abolish WCSFA were dropped when Roger & Keith persuaded Council that continuing WCSFA was viable. First they enlisted Dick Vale to manage a County Under 15 team and then they took steps to develop inter school & representative football at Primary & Secondary age groups throughout the County. Soon Rugby, South Warwickshire Primary & Central Warwickshire Primary had affiliated to WCSFA. Arthur Blades was the President, with Keith Bunting as Secretary/ Treasurer and Roger Jacques as Chairman. Dick Vale was the U.l5 County Manager with only one side being run during the first year.
Rugby & District joined the association in 1976 and several Middle School Associations were also accepted during the year. (At that time the age of transfer to Secondary School was 12, with Middle Schools catering up to that age).
1978 saw the introduction of a County U.19 side, this being initially run by Geoff Williams, later to be joined by Paul Fowler. At this time, although the association was new, it wasn't strong financially, and struggled against the bigger counties, they ran a tour each year. Initially these were to Devon & Cornwall, but they soon went to France (1980) and one trip went to Russia in 1982 with a combined U.15/16 squad.
An U.14 team was started in 1981 complementing the U.l5 and U.19 teams already in existence. Arthur Blades resigned from the position of President at this time and he was eventually replaced by George Pankhurst.
In 1983 the U.19 side reached the final of the Bukta League. Having lost the first match to Staffordshire, they then defeated West Midlands and Shropshire to qualify for the semi-finals where they beat Merseyside (A) and met Greater Manchester (H) in the final. A 2-2 draw after extra time meant a replay in Manchester, with the home side finally winning 2-0.
In 1983 Keith Bunting began a 22 year stint as Midland Counties SFA Secretary. He continued as Warwickshire Secretary until 1984 when John Hyslop agreed to take on the role. By this time Ian Garrod was attending meetings as a representative of Rugby Schools. Lyn Bird took over as Secretary in 1986, but soon after resigned and Roger Jacques took over. At the same time George Pankhurst became the Treasurer and on his death Arthur Barnett was drafted into the Association to take over, having been the Warwickshire Youth Service Treasurer for many years. Alan Perry was by now heavily involved with the Warwickshire teams, both running sides and organising coaching sessions at Honiley Hall.
Ian Garrod became the new President following George Pankhurst's death, while Dave Gellender started in 1993, becoming the U.19 Secretary the following year.
After Alan Perry's death in 2000, Arthur Barnett felt that it was time for him to leave, too, and the Treasurer's work was undertaken by Roger Jacques. Ben Pateman started helping with teams at County level in 1999 and Dan Watts joined the Association as U.l5 Team Manager in 2001 and the following year Mark Brannan also started.
Changes were made in 2008 when Stuart France took over as Secretary, Ben Pateman became Treasurer and Roger Jacques took over as President. In 2009 Ian Garrod retired after 25 years involvement with Primary Schools football and Bob MacVie became the new secretary and in 2010 Dave Gellender became the current County Secretary. In 2011 Bob McVie resigned and responsibility for Primary Competitions passed to Competition Secretary, Dave Gellender and Stan Harding joined as a Council Member.
In 2014-15, Dave Gellender relinquished his posts prior to his move the north east and became a Vice President. Rob Heath took over as Secretary and Steve Lloyd took responsibility for Secondary Competitions. Ben Pateman resigned as Treasurer and was replaced by Mark Franzoni. Geoff Williams took over the Child Welfare and then Chairman post previously held by Dave Gellender.
