Humans of Bloomsbury – James, Bloomsbury Bears Coordinator & Lead Coach “All of my earliest memories involve football. I’ve got two older brothers. Playing football at home, I didn’t actually win a game until I was 11 or 12, and that definitely developed my competitive edge. I was playing from the age of four or five, and ever since then, I’ve played football every week, I’ve been obsessed. I think what I love about football has changed as I’ve grown older. When I was younger, football was my main outlet, it was the thing that gave me the confidence to express myself and know that I could achieve anything I set my mind to. Now, it’s more about what football does- the power of it. For example, at Bloomsbury on a Sunday at Coram’s Fields, you have young people from different backgrounds, parents that would never normally be interacting all together in the same place. To be a part of that is really rewarding. Someone told me earlier this year that players don’t care what you know as a coach until they know that you care. That’s something that’s really stuck with me. All the players that I coach, they all know that first and foremost, I care about them as people. I’m always there if they need someone to talk to. Working for Bloomsbury can be a tiring job. There are early starts and late evenings. But it’s always worth it for the small victories- someone scoring their first goal, learning new skills, coming out of their shell, expressing themselves. These moments make it all worthwhile. I joined Bloomsbury in August last year. It’s been an incredible year; I’ve had the opportunity to work with some many different young people- that’s the best thing about Bloomsbury for me. I coach early years’ with the Bears, I’ve worked with children living with disabilities, with refugees. These experiences that I wouldn’t have had if it wasn’t for Bloomsbury, and if it wasn’t for football. It’s been such an amazing tool for me to access all these communities, learn from them and grow as a coach”. [CONTINUED IN COMMENTS]

Humans of Bloomsbury – Kez, Schools Programme Manager “I grew up around Enfield. I started playing football when I was six years old with a Foundation team. I remember watching Zidane on TV and seeing him do a roulette turn on the ball. It was back in the days when you couldn’t rewind TV, so to watch it again, I had to wait an hour on the plus one channel. I used to watch it over and over, practice it in training – it was all I used to do. I realised I wanted to work in football and be a coach when I bought a game called LMA Manager 2003. In the game, you take a club, and build a stadium, do transfers, tactics, and all that stuff. I loved it. It grew from there. Why did I fall in love with football? It’s the emotion, it’s everything that comes with it. When I’m watching football, I can’t sit still- I move around, there’s a lot of hand signals. There’s a lot of passion. I love that- how that passion brings people together. I’ve grown from coaching, being on the pitch twenty-five, thirty hours a week, to now being schools manager, being in the office and seeing how everything works. It’s so amazing to come and work in central London every day, to get to work with so many people from different backgrounds. It’s so good to see everyone mixing, all the young people that we coach with a smile on their face. I was outside one of our storage centres one day with another coach and I heard someone shouting, ‘Kez, Kez!’. It was one of the young people from my sessions shouting down from their window. I love being around this area of London, seeing some of the young people we work with out and about, saying hi- there is a real sense of community” [CONTINUED IN COMMENTS]

💥STORIES FROM THE SIDELINES💥 This month, to mark International Refugee Day on Monday 20th June, we are focusing on Bloomsbury’s Refugee programme. Our Academy manager, @josharnold1, supported us with this first Stories from the Sidelines series, talking to two Bloomsbury players who are refugees. We will be releasing content from today until the end of the month, so to learn more about how Bloomsbury welcomes refugees and the refugee stories in our community, watch this space. 💥

💥STORIES FROM THE SIDELINES💥 We are launching a new project today. It’s called Stories from the Sidelines. Each month, we will be telling stories from the Bloomsbury family that are focused on a theme or topic.

💥STORIES FROM THE SIDELINES💥 At Bloomsbury, we’re always looking for new ways to showcase all the amazing individuals that make up our community. Grassroots football is built on stories. Bloomsbury is focused not just on supporting young people to become the best players they can be, but the best people too. Our coaches go above and beyond to get to know our players and their parents and carers. We have young people from different backgrounds & nationalities – all of whom have their own unique stories. They come together because of one thing- football. The game unites us.