Thursday 5 March 2009

The community of Cowie, near Stirling, are celebrating today thanks to an investment by sport scotland in Cowie United FC to upgrade Berryhills Pitch in the village.

The investment of £79,598 will see the pitch, which is currently an unplayable red blaes mineral pitch, upgraded to a modern grass pitch providing a good quality playing surface. This pitch is a much-needed facility for Cowie United FC, the local youth football club in the village.

The sport of football is central to the small community of Cowie and involves a large number of local children. Cowie United provides children with a quality introduction to football, giving them the opportunity to develop their skills and offers a clear pathway from junior to youth football and ultimately participation in games in the Forth Valley League. The club also provides opportunities for volunteers and coaches to develop through specific coaches courses.

This thriving local club, established four years ago, currently caters for 85 boys and girls in the 5-12 age group. The new pitch will enable the club to grow and develop, allowing them to continue to recruit volunteer coaches and develop children’s and youth football locally. In the future the club also has plans to have a number of teams playing 11-a-side football. To make this happen the club are required to have a ‘home’ pitch to host games and the new facility will provide this.

The club have been working closely with the Scottish Football Asociation (SFA) to help develop their club and coach development plans, They are working towards SFA Quality Mark Development Club Status, which is promising to be another positive achievement for the hard work of the club. They have also been working with Active Stirling in providing after school clubs and activities and these will be developed further following the creation of the new facility.

Clare Stevenson, Treasurer with Cowie United FC said: “The sport scotland award is helping Cowie United secure our children's football future. Without this award we would not be able to develop our growing club and our age groups beyond children’s football. The award is being used to renovate a disused abandoned red blaes pitch which has become overgrown and left an area of our village an eye sore. The award will allow us to bring this area back to life, with a full grass pitch.”

“It will also allow Cowie United to develop our teams into youth football and 11 a-side games with a home pitch. All our coaches and players are very excited at this major development for the club which provides football opportunities for over 85 local children. Grassroots football is a major part of our community, this is a fantastic achievement for the whole community. '

Louise Martin CBE, Chair of sport scotland said: “ sport scotland believe that providing communities with good quality, accessible facilities is essential in developing grassroots sport in Scotland.
“We are delighted to provide this investment of £79,598 to Cowie United FC to assist with the much-needed new pitch. The new facility will see the club continue to grow and develop, which will benefit local children by providing them with more opportunities to take part in football and increase their activity levels.”

• Between the 1 January and 31 December 2008 sport scotland has invested £7,090,470 million in sports facility projects of all shapes and sizes and benefiting the length and breadth of Scotland.
  
• The sport scotland Sports Facilities Fund has two strands: Community Facilities and Training & Competition Facilities.

sport scotland Sports Facilities Fund - March 2009

Project Title: Berryhills Pitch
Applicant: Cowie United FC (nr Stirling)
Award: £79,598
Contact for Press: Clare Stevenson
Tel: 01786 815835
To upgrade a 102m x 69m red blaes pitch to a grass pitch and install drainage.
Community Facilities Strand – one award awards totalling £79,598