The sheer joy of playing football should be open to everyone as Paul Bird reveals to TONY KELLY

FOOTBALL for all – that’s a creed which Paul Bird not only lives by, but inhales and exhales. And his consuming passion is helping to breathe hope into the lives of many dozens of would-be players who, for years, will have been denied the simple pleasure of kicking a ball.

Now indulging in a game of footy might be a doddle for most of us. From toddlers to even fifty-somethings ever reluctant to give up the sheer joy of leathering a ball, crashing into a tackle, executing a defence-splitting Hollywood pass, or rippling the onion bag with a drive or a header, it’s relatively easy.

Buy a ball, find a space, even better – get some mates, and well...start playing.

It’s not so easy though when you have a disability. What if you’re hard of hearing, blind or visually impaired, suffer from cerebral palsy, are an amputee or have learning difficulties?

Not so simple now, eh.

Well, if anyone can negotiate the seemingly insurmountable barriers that stand in the way of the disabled then it is Bird.

For the past four years he has helped create a disabled section at the community-driven Copmanthorpe Football Club, a section that has thrived.

Since last July he has also headed the North Yorkshire Centre of Excellence for Disabled Football.

And it is that latter institution, backed by funds from the Football Association as well as a substantial cash donation from the Skelwith Business Group, which is widening the horizons of football to a spectrum of youngsters previously dealt a watching brief.

Based at York’s Oaklands Sports Centre in Acomb, the Centre of Excellence is one of 19 nationwide offering football for the disabled at under-14s and U17s.

The nearest equivalent centres are Newcastle and Sheffield which leaves the North Yorkshire sphere covering an extensive territory.

But Centre director Bird, and his three coaches – Simon Wood, Peter Renton and Bird’s own 19-year-old daughter Amy – is determined to relay the message across the entire region that there are places available for disabled footballers to play.

It’s a sizeable challenge, but milkman Bird has never shirked battling against the odds to broaden the appeal of ‘the beautiful game’.

Seven years ago he was at the forefront of establishing a girls’ team at Copmanthorpe FC. That is now a healthy and integral part of the village club.

Four years ago he was invited by the FA to attend a Schools’ Sports Partnership meeting to examine the possible provision of football for the disabled.

He and his wife Paula went on an eight-week coaching course. They took the message directly into local schools with resilience and zeal. Soon after, a pioneering disabled section took root at Copmanthorpe FC, where two teams now play in the Yorkshire Ability Council League.

Now Bird’s remit spans the entire North Yorkshire heartland and that same evangelical passion is burning.

Just a few weeks ago he and his North Yorkshire Centre cohorts organised a trials session featuring the seven centres across the North of England. The day-long event which featured players in coaching sessions across the various areas of disability – visually impaired and blind, hearing impaired and deaf, cerebral palsy (cp), amputee and learning difficulties (under-17s and open age), drew an overwhelming feeling of positivity from players, coaches and parents.

“That’s one of the big barriers, getting the parents onside,” said Bird. “You need them to be involved and to see that what you’re offering will genuinely help.

“You show them that the kids are treated like any other youngsters in any other football club. That’s what we do at Copmanthorpe, where we have our annual awards and now the club acts as a feeder to the Centre of Excellence.

“We now have players coming to Oaklands from Malton, Scarborough and even from Middlesbrough.

“These youngsters want to play football but for a lot of them they feel excluded. We give them the means and the coaching that they need.”

As a youngster Bird himself never played much football, only occasionally at school.

Originating from a farming community at Walton, he was more into running and cross-country.

He even took that up as an adult in the West Yorkshire League to act as encouragement for his three children – Amy, 16-year-old Oliver, who plays for Copmanthorpe FC Under-16s, and 13-year-old Lauren, who is making a name for herself as a promising athlete at Tadcaster Grammar School.

Now the big buzz is introducing football to youngsters, who, because of their disability, have been restricted to the margins, consigned to the sidelines.

“When you put on a progressive session and they get the benefit from it whereby they are enjoying the game, that’s a massive incentive,” he said.

There’s even more of an incentive too. Disabled players do not have to just be confined to North Yorkshire, nor even the North of England. On the horizon is the 2012 Paralympics and the two national football teams to aim for, said Bird.

“There are always new barriers, new challenges. That’s what we all have to aim at.”

There could ne no better advocate at the core of a movement aimed at extending football’s all-encompassing appeal to the disabled. Football, indeed, for all.


Centre of Excellence operation

THE North Yorkshire Centre of Excellence operates each Friday at Oaklands – seniors from 5pm to 6pm on the all-weather surface; juniors indoors from 6pm to 7pm.

There are also a series of matches against centres like Sheffield and Newcastle.

For more details phone Bird on York 704256 or 07721 672976 or by email sportscoach@talktalk.net