HIGHFIELD GRANGE F.C.

THE BEGINNINGS

The club was first formed in August, 1982 by three people; Peter McNeil, Cliff Pike and George Edwards and was just simply called Grange F.C. (We wonder if they thought then that the club would be still be in existence some twenty-five years later with the number of teams and the age span it now covers).

Peter McNeil's house was the venue for the first impromptu gathering of the club, quickly followed by a meeting in the St Aiden's Club for the parents of boys looking to play football in the Winstanley, Highfield and Marus Bridge areas of the town. Out of this meeting came the first Highfield team at under 13's level with eighteen players and the first constituted committee of Peter McNeil (Club Secretary) Cliff Pike (Chairman) and Phil Nealan (Treasurer) with Keith Harris (current WJL Chairman) and George Edwards forming the rest of the committee in the club's inaugural mile stone season.

In 1983 Grange FC were instrumental in creating the Wigan Sunday Junior League for under 12's with Keith Harris, Joe Monaghan from St Judes and Kevin Long from Captains Lane forming the management committee.

Grange FC were also founder members of the Wigan and District Youth Football League which was established at a meeting in St Matthew's Parish Hall in June of 1985

The club continued to grow following the initial set up with more teams being formed at different age groups within the Winstanley, Highfield and Marus Bridge areas. At the time these teams played under a variety of names as more and more teams were formed.

The Club changed its name to Highfield Grange in 1986. The committee had been meeting at the Highfield Parish Hall for the previous three years and felt that the Club name needed to reflect the main Highfield and Winstanley catchment area to attract more players.

The folowing seasons saw consolidation with all the teams embracing the Highfield name in their respective leagues.

In 1992/93 the club held its first 5-a-side competition on the St Matthew's Primary School playing field. The competition attracted teams from the Wigan and District Youth League and fittingly a Highfield 'A' team won the competition

Also, in this season the club started the first sportsman's dinner which was held in St Matthews Parish Hall, Highfield and has been every year since apart from an away day at Wigan Cricket Club in the following season.

The sportsman dinners have been the main stay of fund raising for the club over the years bringing in vital funding for the club's annual player trophies and the initial running expense funding needed for the beginning of the coming season by the club teams.

The first open age team was formed in 1993 with joint managers in Bill Drake and Alan Gooch. It was possibly the start of another chapter in the club's history by taking forward a team that had progressed through the junior ranks into the senior domain of football, plus keeping the band of players that had grown up together. It started in division four of the South Lancashire Counties league.

In 1994/95 the founder members of Keith Harris, Peter McNeil plus Dave Wilson left the club after a ten year stint to take positions and become stalwarts on the Wigan Youth League committee, positions which they hold to this day.

In 1999/2000 the first mini-soccer teams operating for the club were formed. These teams played at under 10 level at Robin Park in the Football mini-soccer (7-a-side) league.

Football had started to boom particularly following Football Association initiatives and the increased coverage of the game on Sky . Highfield as a club needed to establish a mini-soccer stream because if they did not other teams would pick these players for their own development at these early years.

In 2003, Joanne and Mark Hickey were instrumental in starting to push the club towards FA Charter Standard Status which involved a review of club policy, procedure and the constitution. The process also involved making sure that a fully qualified Level one FA coach for every team was in place.

There was great news in February 2005 when the club gained the coveted FA Charter Standard award after the adjudication of its documentation submission.

Our academy was formed in the late in the 2006/07 season to train young year 1/2 children ready for the following year into under 8's mini-soccer teams. The establishment of the academy has provided the club with a base to provide football from the 4/5 year olds right through to open age football, thus making the club one of the largest in the area.

The Club has been in existence for 25 years and to celebrate this achievement a football competition and social event were organized.

The competition finally got started for under 7's – under 14's age groups at Winstanley Primary School on the 4th and 5th of August after an aborted attempt the previous week because of the weather. 50+ teams from locally, Warrington, Preston and Ashton (Manchester) entered the competition and a great weekend was had by all. A special word of thanks should go to the sub-committee organization team of Jim Twist, Geoff Cauldwell, Gary Pennington and the ladies who kept the refreshments going on both days in making the event the success it was. The competition was played on a group basis in the particular ages with either just a straight final between the top teams or play offs between group winners and runners-up were there were a lot of teams competing.

The club is contemplating making the event an annual competition but possibly earlier in late May /early June starting next year.

More celebratory events continued with a social event in the parish hall attended by current officials from the club and some of the original committee members, official's and players of the 1983 team. Picture below is Keith Harris, one of the founders of the club giving an address and some of the club's officials and WAGS enjoying the night.

THE PRESENT

In early November 2007 the club learned that the LFA had not only renewed the club's Charter Standard application but upgraded it to development status. A great deal of work had been put in place by Mike Wynn our Charter Standard officer in order for the club to be successful - including a three year development plan that the Highfield will need to put in place.

Highfield has never been stronger, currently boasting 22 teams from mini-soccer level up to three open age teams with possibly three hundred and forty players and over thirty officials's and coaches. The club came out of a period of transition in the early years of this century and this is reflected in the number of teams we run and the committee being more strategic and innovative in its thinking. Hopefully, this will be reflected eventually in success on the field.

I hope that if the three gentlemen who founded the club in 1983 could see the Highfield Grange organisation today that they would be justifiably be proud of the club we have today in relation to what they created.

THE FUTURE

The growth of the min-soccer section (under 8's -11's) has been phenomenal over the last three seasons. The club now operates twelve teams in these age groups and this obviously the fastest growing area of the club. These teams will hopefully develop all the way through to open age to give the senior team fresh players or teams in years to come.

Through the Charter Standard scheme and the local football development officer the club is trying to forge links with the local primary schools in our district to attract players to Highfield into out Academy set-up.

Possibly, we can develop a football complex for the majority of our teams to play on rather than the scattered sites we currently occupy.

Hopefully, Highfield can continue for another twenty years in existence and provide a vehicle for players to continuously progress by competing in organised football from under eight's right through to open age through its teams. Possibly with the influx of local and well trained players we could achieve the holy grail of Wigan football by winning the Lancashire Sunday Trophy.

During the 25 years since formation the club has won a number of honours. These honours are listed elsewhere within the site

ACKNOWLEGDEMENTS

In compiling this history I would like to thank the following people for their help: -

Keith Harris
Jim Twist
Allan Gooch

TEAMS

CLUB NEWS

CLUB EVENTS

LEAGUE TABLES

CLUB OFFICIALS

HIGHFIELD GRANGE F.C.

THE BEGINNINGS

THE PRESENT

THE FUTURE

ACKNOWLEGDEMENTS