The Man Behind Mini Footy

Most of you know me as Andy from Mini Footy

The one setting up cones.
Mini Footy kids playing indoors.
Doing the silly voices.
Turning a sports hall into space, pirates, dinosaurs, or whatever the theme is that week.

But I wanted to share something properly. Not for sympathy. For connection.

Because we’ve got a big change coming.

Coach Matthew, who so many of your children absolutely love, is leaving us in mid-March for an internship with Somerset Cricket Club in sports journalism. I’m proud of him.

But it does mean we need someone to step in on Saturdays.
And right now, I can’t do it physically.

So this is “the man behind Mini Footy”.
And also a community call-out.

Why Mini Footy exists in the first place

Mini Footy isn’t really about football.

Football is the tool.
Play is the language.
Confidence is the outcome.

We do this because children need places where they can build belief in themselves. Not through pressure. Through fun.

They try. They miss. They laugh. They try again.
They learn to take turns. To listen. To join in.
To feel brave enough to be seen.

And for a lot of children, that confidence doesn’t always come easily in other areas of life.

Mini Footy is a place where it can.

That’s the whole point.

A quick backstory (the honest version)

Sport was always my thing growing up. Even when I didn’t feel confident in myself, sport gave me a place where I could just be me.

In my 20s and early 30s, health became a major part of my life. After surgery in the early 2000s, I ended up with nerve damage that affected my arms and legs and left me wheelchair-bound for nearly four years.

That chapter was tough.

I was on strong pain medication, exhausted most of the time, and I had to adapt everything. At one point I even had to learn to use a computer by voice so I could keep working. This was back when voice control was nowhere near as smooth as it is today, and it tested my patience daily.

After redundancy, I retrained as a nutritional therapist, partly because I wanted to help myself get better, and partly because it felt like a path I could manage even if my health dipped again.

Then, in my final year, I was in a car crash and broke my neck, which knocked me back physically and mentally.

I worked different jobs to keep money coming in.
Then came the best part of my life. Zoe, and our two kids, Oscar and Harriet.

How football classes became my purpose

When Oscar was little, we tried kids football sessions and I got hooked on the vibe. Not the drills.

The confidence.
The structure.
The laughs.
The moment a child goes from hiding behind a parent to joining in.

Around that time I lost another job and decided I needed something I truly cared about.

So I started my local football-classes chapter in 2017, and by early 2018 we were properly up and running and growing quickly. Families came week after week and the themes became the thing people remembered.

Because it was never meant to be “serious football”.

It’s football plus imagination.
Football plus confidence.
Football plus connection.

The COVID chapter (green screen in the living room)

When COVID hit, we had to get creative or stop.

So I built a green screen setup in our living room and ran live weekly sessions for each class. We had backgrounds, graphics, and interactive themes. Space missions. Pirates. Cannons. Jungle adventures.

It sounds mad saying it out loud. But it kept children smiling, and it kept our community connected.

Losing one chapter, rebuilding another

Not long after that, my agreement for that chapter wasn’t renewed because the growth expectations going forward were bigger than I could realistically achieve.

So I rebuilt from scratch.

That’s where Mini Footy was born.

It’s been a graft. It’s had ups and downs. But it’s also been brilliant getting the brand going again and having you as our Mini Footy community.

We launched our Mini Footy kit at Christmas too, and seeing children wearing it has been such a proud moment. It looks amazing.

Where we’re at now

Since November, I’ve been dealing with an injury flare-up that’s stopped me coaching physically.

And coaching is more physical than people realise. It’s constant stop-start movement. Carrying kit. Setting up. Picking up cones. Demonstrating. Reacting.

Right now, that stop-start load aggravates my symptoms, so I’ve had to step back and support from the side.

The good news is the sessions are still running well. Coach Neil has been brilliant midweek and at nursery, and the children have taken to him really nicely.

But Saturdays are the challenge.

Why we’re asking the community directly

In the past, we’ve tried recruiting the normal way. Job ads. LinkedIn. The usual routes.

And what tends to happen is we attract people who think this is a standard football coaching job. Or people who are applying for anything and everything.

That’s not a criticism. It’s just reality.

Mini Footy is a very specific kind of role.
It’s playful. It’s energetic. It’s about connecting with children first and football second.

And the truth is, the right people are usually found through people who already understand the vibe.

So this time, we’re going community-first.

The community ask (and it’s hopeful)

With Matthew leaving mid-March, we’re looking for someone to join the Saturday team.

We are not just looking for a “football coach”.

We’re looking for the right person.

A mum. A dad. An aunt. An uncle. Someone who just naturally connects with children. Someone who’s happy to be playful, warm, energetic and present.

If you’ve done Brownies, Cubs, youth groups, drama groups, sports clubs, nursery work, teaching assistant work, or anything like that, you’ll probably get this straight away.

Football is part of it, but it’s not the main part.

Because the real goal is this.

Helping children feel confident.
Helping them feel brave.
Helping them believe in themselves.
So they can enjoy life more, and carry that confidence into everything else they do.

We train the right people. We support them. We build them up.

The role is Saturday mornings, and ideally they can help with transporting and storing kit (car preferred).

If you know someone like this, please message me or tag them.
Even if they’re not sure, a quick chat is the first step.

How it works

Message me

Short phone chat

Come and shadow a session

We build from there

Mini Footy has always been about community. It started that way, and it will keep going that way.

Thanks for reading, and thank you for being part of it.

Andy