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Chairman's end of season speech at presentation night

Chairman's end of season speech at presentation night

Racing Club15 May 2018 - 12:08
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The intended speech (some may have been missed or of course 'misheard' due to the infiltration of shots).

First of all I would like to thank you all for attending this, the Racing Club Warwick Presentation night.

I welcome the Players, Coaches and Management staff of our first and youth teams and of course our fabulous Netball teams. I offer my personal and sincere thanks to you all for your hard work and effort. We have a good team spirit here and we have stuck together and have shown great patience and support to this Club. A fact that sometimes is often forgotten and not appreciated is that to have successful teams you must have the right infrastructure and strategies in place.

To my Vice-Chairman, Phil Haycock, Treasurer Rob Horley, Secretary Pat Murphy and all committee members, I would like to thank them for their invaluable assistance. I appreciate the hard work and commitment they along with the many staff and volunteers continue to show RCW and the support they afford me personally.

I would also like to thank all our sponsors who over the last few years have shown faith in the club.

Many of our younger players have progressed through Junior into the youth team and others have improved and developed their skills and growth. Others have experienced trials at professional clubs. This season has seen some truly wonderful football being played by individuals, by teams and as a Club in general.

Many of you here tonight will be individually honoured for achieving and fulfilling your potential, and long may this continue. I would however like to acknowledge each and every one of our players irrespective of the team and part they played, for the contribution and support you give this football club.

Success is a difficult measure and not a simple task. I was always told to do my best and work hard and I would succeed. That is a trait I want to see undertaken by all the players and management. Success is never easy but always achievable.

Our progress will continue. A lot has been done and a lot more to do. RCW will remain committed, focussed, strong and most importantly 'Together'.

This season has seen personal challenges for many of us of alongside the football. It is important for people to realise that everyone involved has a life and a family and at times there will be conflicts of priority, interest and importance. They will always have my complete support, faith and trust.

I am honoured to be Chairman. And I have a confident belief in this club like so many of you here.

RCW is a great football club. On the way back up. We are not a boastful Club but we have real strengths. Great people. Strong values and a proud history.

Since becoming Chairman three years ago we have finished in the top ten after years of relegation battles and enjoyed FA Vase runs, and this season a cup final. RCW are, out of the hundreds of clubs in steps 5 - 7 of the non-league pyramid, the 50th best-supported team in England. We were the fourth best supported Club in our own League and in the top 10 for the whole Midland Football leagues.

We have a local and developing youth and first team with the proven experience of some very special individuals.

We have 12 junior teams. Our under 12s have just secured the League and Cup double, our U14’s runners up in the league and our U17s reached the Cup Final.

Our youth team has had numerous problems this season, none of them any fault of their own and despite this they have shown their true value and will, I believe realise their potential next season and I thank them for their perseverance.

We have a first team manager Scott Eastlerlow who will help RCW build on the progress made so far and continue our quest to fulfil our potential. Over the season we have continually added to the squad and Scott with the help and assistance of his great backroom support staff are developing a culture of professionalism and improving the football at this Club.
There have been and will no doubt be again be some tough decisions, but we will make them. The right decision is usually the hardest one and the hardest decisions are often the least popular at the time or most misunderstood. We have had to release managers when we knew it was not in the best interests to keep them, despite how it seemed externally perhaps. It must be said that although that they are no longer with us they were always committed and helped us be where we are today, so I thank them for their part in the story.

I hope that the nucleus of the first team remain with this Club next season. I am more than aware of the supposed bright light attractions of other Clubs, and yes there are places where the grass is greener. I fully understand the reasons that some may choose to move on and they would go with my best wishes, and of course support. But I will fight to keep them and demonstrate that this is a club where the heart is - there is no greater heart than that of RCW. I hope they can see where we are going and that they can fulfil their footballing ambition with us.

Three years ago, even two years ago, none of this would have been guaranteed. The club was on the verge of extinction. We had to put in place business plans and rebuild bridges with our landlords the council and indeed the FA. We removed the debt and added sustainable incomes to the club. We grew the Junior section and added the necessary infrastructure to enable us to continue and grow. This work is still happening. We have doubled turnover and increased revenue streams several fold which allows us to add more and more activity and to hit our aggressive targets. Our new clubhouse will take shape over the summer along with the physio room and gym and of course the artificial training pitch which will elevate the club to new heights.

Pessimism is not the strategy of RCW. That would be to destroy the belief that we can collectively achieve anything, to drench cynicism and to sully the hope from which energy, action and change all spring.

There's no cause for pessimism, we should believe in ourselves and use that self-belief to thrive.
I ask the ever growing people, businesses and community leaders to join and support us on our journey.

To retreat now would put at hazard all that we hold dearest, turn RCW backwards, stifle the huge steps of progress we have made and leave the Club to the mercy of events and previous declines.

The future is bright and sets out a path strewn with challenges to cherish, both for RCW, the non-league and the game generally.

Come On You Racers!

Gary Vella

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