This #FlashbackFriday, we take a look at WO Sports, who became a FA Charter Standard Youth Club in May 2020, and their journey to gaining the Charter Standard accreditation. 

WO Sports started at Forest School in 2014 by Wale Ojelabi for his two sons. After being a player/manager at Waltham Forest since 2009, Wale wanted to combine his playing experience, his coaching qualifications and his certification as a nutritional therapist to promote healthy living and build better lives through sport, nutrition and diet. 

Since he moved to Leyton Sixth Form College in the summer of 2016, Wale went into partnership with the sports manager Amy Turle to send sports students to the club on work experience and many have been retained into paid coaching roles after the programme. Five of Wale’s current coaches have come from the scheme and many students are now in paid work or gained admission to university. 

For Wale, it was important to create these volunteering opportunities for the college students so they can gain their first job and provide support through their studies. Amy Turle from Leyton Sixth Form College had this to say about the partnership:

“We have always been very happy to host WO Sports in our facilities. We have always been particularly grateful of Wale’s commitment to support a number of our students gain access to work experience and volunteering opportunities in football coaching through WO Sport programmes. Throughout recent years, Wale has mentored a number of our students and many of them have gone to secure part-time employment as football coaches with WO Sport. It has been great to see our young people develop their skills and confidence through these experiences”. 

WO Sports main objective to setting up an U6s and U7s mixed league is to give both boys and girls an early start and develop their game understanding through fun actives. WO Sports continues to pioneer innovative, engaging and inspiring programmes for many hard to reach and disadvantaged young people in the community. 

To find out more about WO Sport, you can check out their website here. 

Do you want your club to become Charter Standard? For information on how to get accredited, click here.