Blog: Celebrating five years of walking football in Dearne 

Adam Kent talks to us about how these weekly walking football sessions are pulling people together with purpose belonging and hope, and how it all came to be:  

It all started with a conversation in Swinton Library with Paul Cummings who was looking after the Active Dearne programme. We wanted to get players back in the game whose knees had gone, had been replaced in teams by younger players, had nowhere to play but still loved the game. 
 
After our first couple of sessions, where only seven people turned up, we put a Facebook live video out which was shared on local groups and numbers grew from there.   
 
We had help from SJD Sports Coaching for a while to help with stability and rules. After that we carried on with the help of Andrew Hale, who has been volunteering and helping me since.  
 
Since then we have had payers come and go who have built up their fitness and had fun. We now have a walking football team in a local league.  

We had a lady from the Philippines who lived in Leeds with her husband give it a go. She has gone on to join a local women’s team and it’s great to be a stepping stone to that success. 

I think its 20% football and 80% is just having a laugh, talking, getting out and seeing different people. Covid stopped us for a while but as soon as we were out allowed back out, they were raring to come out. 

It's meeting people that matters and just having a chat about results or what happened at the weekend.  

Sometimes it's hard to get started playing because they' too busy chatting. But they turn up every week and we give them up a ball, put them in teams and there they go.  

It was out 5th anniversary in October 2024 and we held a free two hour session, paid for with money from the kitty and had a great time. Thanks to Rowan Holmes Watson for coming along and taking photos.

Walking Football sessions start again in the new year on January 6. 
Sessions are Monday evenings 7-8 at DVC Sports Dearne Valley College and cost £3 
Go to the Active Dearne Facebook page to find out more.