Power of Football

Why do people care about football so much, like seriously come on! Its just a game. You take the ball away and its just a load of men or women standing awkwardly on a pitch together. Give us that ball and all negative emotions or frustrations are eliviated as you desperatly try to get a touch to take on the nearest person, or in my case smash the ball as hard as you can towards the goal. "what a shot James" someone would say, boosting my confidence to extreme levels.

Arsenal, more than any club in the world is a community of people who experience every kind of emotion known to hamanity. If you support arsenal, you are a true fan. I mean if you still have a heartbeat, well done! To me my arsenal community were the 12 Guys and one Lady who made the short or extremly long journey to take part in the programme. The word legend is branded about to easily these days. YES Thierry Henry is a legend dont get me wrong BUT for me these guys on the programme were my imediate arsenal family and everyone of them over 5 months gained legendary status to me in more of a way than Thierry will. However, if Thierry did walk into the building i would shove everyone out the way to get to him first. What made the programme so good over these 5 months was that every single person was unique and so interesting to listen to. Spending each day with my arsenal community i felt motivated to do well. Be it Fabian's life lessons or Kerstin's day to day caring nature, the whole group were here for each other in a way that would make Arsenal and what the club stands for very very proud. "Victoria Concordia Crescit"- Victory through Harmony.

August. Each day spent at the warm sunny St Aloysius, learning the coaching conduct from a genius that is Dean Millar. We learnt many drills... wait not drills I mean sessions. The main influence Dean had on me was the manner he coached in. He had the same calm voice throughout each explanation. Why do i feel like i need to shout or raise my voice to get attention. Dean had a natural way with people that could get there attention in an instant. It obviously helped that we had immediate respect for him. St Aloysius was the perfect environment to develop the togetherness in the group. What a month! A round of applause for Scott Bloom (the oldest member of the group) broke out when he emotionally explained his reasons for giving up mortgage advising to become an arsenal community coach. At that moment, i knew this group were on the same page.

Kits on and we were ready to go! Mikey was my partner in crime for the next 4 months. Time to move on from the day to day joys of St Aloysius, with the Meat of the dinner being upon us, Schools were on the Horizen. Mikey was like me, not a dictator but a learner. Everyday was a learning day for us in schools. However confident you are as a person, you will experience many kids with personalities that are out of sync with the rest and what you might think is best is different to them. Obstacles are there to overcome. We gave a small amount of time each day, but the smiles and positivity we gained from looking at the faces of the kids we taught was very fulfilling. No kids should be dismissed for bad behaviour! Kids are the future, so lets not mess it up yeh, we can shape anyone with a few positive approaches. School's were great and Mikey will always be my partner.

Shout out to all the boys in Muswell Hill. Me, Jamie, Armando, Nick and Albin got a house together and this would be the Hub for alot of our social meets with the rest of the group. We would pretend to know Londons Nightlife like we have lived here for years. James Banathy recomended a club called Scala one night, our very first night out together. We all felt like we had a hero amongst us, a man who would lead the group to glory. However the false hope that James had any knowledge of london Nightclubs soon came to the surface when we entered Scala. A heavy metal night that just made the majority of the group feel slightly uncomfortable. With a few more drinks we came round and decided to embrace the heavy metal pushing and shoving culture. A good bit of nostalgia.

Stage 1- Nice one yeh!

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