Chris Warren our Managing Director shares his inspiration behind the philosophy of Rocks Lane.
It all started on a chilly Saturday in Yorkshire when I was 9 years old.
I’d just finished playing for my school team and I headed down to the local park with some mates.
We arrived at the park and there in the distance were 6 massive football pitches with big goalposts and even more exciting …… something we’d only seen on TV …. NETS!
So we sprinted over to the nets and smashed the ball in to the back of the net, what a thrill seeing the net bulge and then recoiling, arm in the air and my index finger pointing to the sky in celebration ( just like Alan Clarke on Match of the Day).
Then, all of a sudden, we hear a shout “Oi, get off of that pitch!’ and a man in a donkey jacket is running our way.
So we all leg it as fast as we can in to the woods and then sneak back on at half-time, while they are distracted eating their oranges, to re-live some more of our goal scoring dreams.
The full time whistle goes and we can get our last 5 minutes of fantasy football before the groundsman comes along and takes the nets away ….. and the goals don’t seem special anymore, so we wander off in the twilight for our tea.
When summer arrives the groundsman takes the goals down for the whole summer and begins marking out a little pitch on the grass, with little goals and shiny white nets.
Perfect for us, we think.
So we run on to the pitch and try out a few moves and dribbles. But, before long an irate groundsman comes running up to us and tells us to ‘Get out of here’.
‘But, the goals are the perfect size for us’
‘No laddy, they’re for the grown ups, off you go’
So we reluctantly wander off and throw our jumpers on the ground waiting for a chance to sneak back on and score the winner in the Cup Final!
We have based our philosophy at rocks lane on those feelings, desires, hopes and dreams of that 9 year old boy.
So you can Play, Learn, Compete and Have Fun at all of our centres whenever you feel like it and I promise that no irate parky will chase you off when you’re about to win the Cup!
