Estudiantes London received an award for national amateur football club of the year, reports Olivia Opara
A local football and futsal club has been recognised as club of the year for its community work and its dedicated inclusion league.
On Wednesday, 21st June, Estudiantes London received the Amateur FA Club of the Year award at the Amateur FA 2023 Recognition Awards. The award ceremony recognised the achievements of grassroots football clubs and organisations in England for the 2022/23 season with some special praise for members of the Amateur FA community.
Levin Dookhun, an alumnus of Estudiantes, won the ‘Young Volunteer of the Year’ award for his outstanding achievement, voluntary support within amateur football and futsal – encouraging those with special educational needs and physical disabilities this season. Levin joined the club four years ago and is now a fully qualified referee, working full time at his secondary school, Riverside.
Co-founder of Estudiantes Darren Wiltshire told HCP that he is extremely proud of Levin and the progress that he has made.
“The club is set up to use the power of football to empower the lives of young people and for a young boy to come through at 16 four and now at 21 he has managed to get full time work – he’s become a role model for some of the younger students,” said Darren.
“And for us to win club of the year because of the idea behind why we run the club is amazing.”
Levin has been nominated by The FA National Youth Council for the Joel Richards Inspire Award 2023 Winner and will travel to Warwickshire in July to attend The FA Leadership Academy Graduation 2023.
Estudiantes is a sport-for-development club based at Haringey Sixth Form college and was founded in 2018 by Darren and his wife to encourage educational excellence and employability through sport. It first started as an idea to create a high quality sports provision with an emphasis on education when Darren used to work as a lead coach and coordinator at Tottenham Hotspur Foundation within the college.
The club currently offers a free range of football and futsal development programmes alongside the FA North London Inclusion League open to SEN, Asylum seekers and refugees. The majority of its members are students at Haringey Sixth Form with approximately 30% of the students attending other schools and colleges in the local area such as a Latymer School and Highgate Wood School.
“The club is my passion and the core base of the club is education and we like to feel like we drive improvement in education,” said Darren.
The club’s Futsal team is the tenth best team in England, playing the second league and the team winning two trophies including the London Youth Futsal Cup. 27 young people from the club have made their first appearance in senior football this year with 85 members having achieved football coaching qualifications and 19 with referring qualifications.
Going forward, Darren hopes to possibly expand into other sports and set up a girls team and programme.
Jason Kilby, chief executive officer at Amateur FA said: “The Amateur FA are in awe of Estudientes FC. Estudiantes use the power of football to improve the education and lives of students in Tottenham, providing a free programme of football and futsal to those young people who show a commitment to excellence in their education.
“This season we awarded one of their participants, Levin, our young volunteer of the year award. Levin has been instrumental in helping Estudiantes develop their inclusion football team, inspiring 15 other young people with special educational needs to take part in football through creating a positive environment where young people can grow in confidence and enjoy their football.”
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