 Hello and welcome to the official AFC Bournemouth podcast coming to you as ever from Vitality Stadium. We're once again here to bring you closer to some of the personalities connected to the club, be it staff, players, former players or management. Now we've had a little bit of a win-to-break ourselves with the World Cup going on, but for those who are new to our podcast, my name is Zoe Rundle and I'm joined as ever by my colleague Neil Parrott. Neil, it's been a while, lots has happened. We're currently in the middle of the transfer window and at the start of a new year. How have you been? That'll be very well actually Zoe, but I'm just still waiting for my Christmas present from you as an arrived jet. That's funny, I think there's something to do with postal strikes or something like that that we can possibly blame that on. Really looking forward to the second half of the season, I think it's going to be a really exciting time. Absolutely, we're talking of exciting. We've got a really exciting guest today who is known as Mr Community. Having been at the club for 20 years and growing the community sports trust hugely over that time, there's plenty to get our teeth stuck into. More recently he's taken on management of the women's team who have also gone from strength to strength and we continue to climb up the female football pyramid. So without further ado, we're delighted to welcome Steve Kuss onto our official FC Bournemouth podcast. Steve, thank you for joining us. How are you doing? Thanks Zoe, yeah I'm very good, thank you. A little bit embarrassed for the Mr Community but thanks for the intro. We couldn't leave it out. We're going to actually start right back at the beginning so I'm going to ask you to cast your mind back. Tell us just a little bit more about your first job in football. I think Centre of Excellence Director at Torquay. Yeah, I went back at my hometown club Torquay. Started coaching there. Really, but goes back a bit before that in terms of playing there and it's a totally different system to what it is now with academies and development and at that age at 16, 17 I was trying to get into the Torquay Academy, Torquay youth team there and it was a straight letter with a, it was a letter because I still got that letter, I still hold on to it with a straight yes or no and it was a no for me at the time so you had a heartbroken young football player around, a little bit lost about what to do really so I took myself off to college, went on a sports course and really fortunate at that time that football and community just started and Torquay had appointed what turned out to be a great appointment in the Community Officer of Frank Prince and he was looking for some coaches to work at the first soccer school and I thought I put my name in the hat and hadn't done much coaching before, I was still fairly young and he asked me to do it and I absolutely loved it and got the bug for coaching from that day onwards and managed to do more and more within the community at Torquay to the day that they offered me a full-time job and that was a really special day because my dad takes me to go and watch Torquay and it's my hometown club and I went home and told him I got a full-time job but at his club as we all say our club don't we and you know it was a proud moment to be able to tell my dad that and worked within community for 10 years and had a great mentor in Frankie he showed me all the ropes and what to do and how to develop programs and engage with the community so I was always keen on the coaching and I was doing my coaching qualifications and got my UA for B license in the year 2000 and I think in Devon at that time there was only four other people that had that qualification so naturally it led me to some job offers in terms of that centre of excellence work and Torquay offered me the centre of excellence role of the manager there so again I big decision because I loved the community work but I took it and obviously we were fairly low down the pyramid and two years into that job they decided they were going to scrap the youth policy for a period of time and reshape it which meant I probably need to look for a new job and off I went looking for a new job and that's what got me here to Bournemouth the same week I went for an interview for a community job at Crystal Palace I've got to admit me and my wife and went up for the interview and we were totally lost I was a young lad from Devon in London and the bright lights and the busyness of it I was lost and the interview didn't go great later on the same week I came to an interview here at Bournemouth and I thought it went quite well I was reasonably pleased with the interview and as I'm driving back home I get the call from the club that they've offered me the job so it was a big move at the time I had a young family and I had to make some big decisions about whether we were going to up stick some move but 20 years later it's it's been a good choice. Steve did you keep playing when you'd had that rejection from the pro club but did you sort of keep playing non-league around there? Yeah I was playing non-league in Devon and in around the Torquay area but I must admit that the coaching bug got me and I wanted to continue to coach so I was I was going on many different courses I was going out and looking at different coaches I had Frank who I was working with and even when I was playing I still had my coaches hat on and I was thinking about what I would do as a coach and as a manager and I really got the bug for it and it was it was that it took me up there and then it was around about 28 that I probably really went for the coaching roles rather than who I signed for as a player because of I could see that that was where my future was going to be but difficult as a young lad because when you get and we see it all the time within football don't we when you get when you get that rejection there's that there's that big disappointment and you know you've got to bounce back from that but you need a little bit of luck in life as well and I probably think the football and community starting at that same time that I was having you know been rejected as a as a player was probably the best bit of luck that I could have had because it really introduced me to coaching. Steve I used to holiday quite a lot down in Torquay and you said that you didn't fancy the Crystal Palace move but even moving from Torquay to Bournemouth must have been quite a big decision for you. Yeah they didn't offer me the Crystal Palace one and I don't blame them the interview I think the whole day we travelled up to London and it was busy and you know Torquay is a nice quiet little place and I think we were like rabbit in headlights a little bit and we were out of our depth and yeah the interview I come out of it and we were traveling home and we said I'm not sure this is for us this is not right where we are in our life right now but I got a nice feel when I come to Bournemouth. The call back home when I got offered the job I stopped in the lay-by and my wife didn't come with me to it up to the end I travelled up here with my mum on that day and I phoned down my wife and there was a few tears because she knew that she knew that it was a good opportunity for me and she knew that we had to take that offer to come up to Bournemouth and take the job but all our family was in Torquay both and and my family so we were the only ones that were going to be moving away. I had three young children Gemma and my oldest was nine and then we had Amy seven and Robbie was only five so a huge decision to take them away from their family and friends and out of their school life but Anne wanted to do it and I certainly wanted to do it and she backed me yeah it was a big decision but it felt right if I always described Bournemouth as pretty similar to Torquay but a bit more modern and a bit more bigger but seaside places. Steve the the club had just been relegated into what was then division three November 2002 I think it was when you joined just tell us about the club that you walked into a very different club to the one we're seeing now and tell us about some of the people who were here then as well. Yeah it was really strange bit because obviously I had to go through putting a notice period in at Torquay and I put my mum's notice in to say that I was moving to Bournemouth and just a strange coincidence of the fixture as Torquay played Bournemouth during my mum's notice and Bournemouth were doing well in the league and they came down to play more and Torquay won 4-0 on the night and I was thinking wow you know what am I moving to here it's like this could be this could be an interesting season but I came up in November I actually don't think I saw the team lose until the last day of the season they were on an incredible season and it got to the to the playoff final and promotion against Lincoln at the Millenium Stadium so it quickly turned around but it was most definitely a different football club as you can appreciate obviously in the Premier League now to division three back then not so many staff around not so many of the departments that we've got now but some really great people and some of those people are still here at the football club as well which I think says a lot about the football club in the fact that people do want to stay here and work here it's a great place to be but yeah it was certainly a different place perhaps the stadium wasn't full every game I remember the free side to the open ends because I obviously do a lot of community tours and showing groups around and you know that was a big feature at the time was was the open ends there but my you know my initial feelings was I got made to feel very well I felt home straight away there was never I don't recall and it was a long time ago but I don't ever recall being homesick once I didn't think that we had a conversation about going back to Torquay and to be honest we call Bournemouth home now and I think that's down to the to the to the fantastic club that this is just before we move on to your role in the community Steve I know that and a lot of people listening will know that you've kept your hand in on the coaching side of it with with the non-league teams pool town and Wimborn town around here you say you're still very keen on that yeah it's interesting because I think the community roles developed you know I started in the community as a football coach and when people asked me what my job is I say I'm a football coach I think that's the hardest thing I'm still trying to explain to my mother-in-law what I do on a daily basis that it's a difficult job to explain when you say you're head of community but in a simple terms I consider myself as a football coach and that's what I love I tend to lose myself in the in the passion of coaching and I love coaching and when I came here to Bournemouth I got involved with the the academy the centre of excellence that was here various different age groups really enjoyed working with the under-16s and had a few good players in that under-16 period of time that have gone on and and done very well and then I got introduced to Tom Killick at pool and he was looking for a coach and they'd just gone into the West Six Premier Division and asked if I'd come along and help out with some coaching and yeah we did really well there and I enjoyed working with Tom you know we're opposites and probably that's what we worked well together but we you know we won the West Six League three years in a row and had some good success at pool town and I enjoyed working and the challenges with those players because it's a most definitely a different setup in terms of coming out of an academy where everything is very disciplined and perhaps going into the non-league you've got to deal with people's work-life balance and missing training for different reasons and obviously we've done well at pool town and again I'm always ambitious as a coach and got offered the job at Wimborn and yeah I took that really nice club Wimborn great fantastic people there probably I didn't have the budget that maybe some have had since then but it was a fantastic club to work for and I'm proud of our achievements there as well we got a higher Southern League appearance got to the first round of the FA trophy in a couple of senior cup finals as well so I've always enjoyed going out coaching and but I was ready for a bit of a break at Wimborn it came at a time when the club here at FC Bournemouth got to the Premier League and I felt like I was missing out on it I wanted to enjoy the Premier League like everybody did and I wasn't coming to games because obviously I was manager of Wimborn I've been manager there for a little while I needed a rest I think I needed to recharge a little bit I think Wimborn needed somebody else as well so you know it's time to step down from that and took a little bit of a break before then going into the women's job that I've currently got now tell us something about Charlie Austin that we don't know oh Charlie's a great lad absolutely fantastic lad I mean it is true when he walked in obviously he was a very very young lad who was 18 years old he walked into to the pre-season training and and Tom and myself it wasn't something that blew us away you know we were I remember the opening day of the season at Brockenhurst and there was a conversation between us whether we were going to select him or not is he going to start today is he not going to start and you know Tom as the manager makes those decisions and he made a good decision that day and starting Charlie he scored the goal that won the game that day and obviously the rest of his history went on but the night that Swindon come to to look at him wasn't his best night which is the interesting part of the story he's obviously been scoring lots of goals for Paul and there was a huge amount of attention and I'd got him in here with Eddie at the time to come in and train with the first team so he was having that experience although the club was under a transfer embargo at the time but yeah he came came to watch Danny Wilson and he didn't have his best nights Charlie so I think initially there was feeling a little bit of disappointment but obviously saw nothing in and made the offer and I think it was the big standout with Charlie was his last game I think it was a way at Munnerfields and I think he got five on that day we knew he was going we knew he was going after that weekend and he scored five on that day and what a send-off and obviously had a great career but yeah the young lad who'd worked really really hard to get back into the game and he's had a great career and obviously back at Swindon now. Moving on just tell us a little bit more about the community sports trust for those people who are listening who might not know as much about it. Yeah I think it's a developing role like I say when it started as football and community I've got this little phrase it's about a coach going out there with a bag of balls and just playing football and I think over the course of the 20 years that I've been in the world I've seen a huge change in it is so much more than just kicking a ball. We at AFC Bournemouth want to keep that we are a lot of our projects that we go out and engage with children and adults in Vova football but we look at what's needed in our local community now and we put on lots of different projects to meet the needs of our community which is fantastic when I do get a chance to just reflect a little bit it's with real pride that we're able to look at what our community needs and I understand what our community needs and then able to go and react to it. I've got to say I've got a fantastic team of what is now 35 full-time staff within the community department and when we started it was just myself and one part-time member of staff so to build it up to that level to the amount of people that we're working with and doing some of the work that we're working with now it perhaps when it first started it was just for the people that could access it who wanted to play football but now we've got the stadium open in the evenings and weekends and bringing people in and going out and engaging with different people on lots of different projects so you know it's a real developing role community and one that I'm very proud of. For you how much work goes into you know the off the field stuff as well because we always see you out there coaching sessions we always see the mini kickers the women's team whoever it may be but there must be people out there that you've coached that you've seen a real kind of growth within individually and also you do a lot of classroom work as well how important is the off-field stuff as such in comparison to you know what you do do on the grass? Yeah I think it's really important I get a little bit embarrassed when people say I do so many hours and put a lot of work in I like to be on the field that's where I feel comfortable in and people know me I'm not the normal head of community who wears a suit I put a tracksuit on every single day and I try to get out to at least one practical activity a day but obviously my role is to to oversee a lot of the governance I've got a really good team behind me that people just don't see so they just think that I do all the work and again I mentioned my my wife Anne who's part of that backroom team that do a lot of the organization and paperwork and making sure that everything's ready for us to go out there and deliver we've brought in some fantastic staff over that period of time and that gives me great credit as well or a great sense of joy and pride in seeing some of the young lads and girls that are working for me now because I've taught them in schools and I've seen their developments well and follow them and you know they've kept in contact with me and then they've asked for a job and we brought them into a community and developed and I'm seeing them turn into good adults first and foremost which I think is important but good community coaches which is vital for our development of our programs it's obviously a self-funding non-profit organization you've said how much it has grown over the last 20 years how much further can it grow yeah I'm not sure I'm not sure I hopefully it keeps going it surprises me all the time and I think that's the what gives me the biggest joy as well in terms of yeah I was the football coach but now we're running a business and it is a charitable business not non-for-profit so we've got to generate grants and bring in income and you know that's not something to come naturally to me so I've got to learn how to do that so I've learned how to do that and learn how to run a business and develop that but I see it developing every day and that's what excites me and I think that's what you know I've not fought once in the 20 years that I want to change my job you know I like I love getting up in the morning it gives me a a different challenge every day whether it's coaching those minikickers the four-year-olds that we coach on a saturday and sunday I've got to be there even before women's team match I just think that whatever goes on however stressful I am however busy I am being out on the pitch with the four-year-olds that minikickers shows what it's all about because we wore that four-year-old once and that's what it's all about so how about when it's snowing outside and it's minus four degrees there's not a single part of you that thinks oh today could be a long day no no no never I always want to go out there the only thing I would say is that I put a pair of trousers on now I used to be shorts every day of the year when I was started off and again I think you follow your mentor and Frank Frank at Torquay Frank Prince he gave us our kit but he didn't give us any trousers he said we're just gonna wear shorts every day and you know I was young lad then and we just and probably a little bit warmer in Torquay as well but it's a bit further down south but I came up here and I wore trousers every shorts every single day and I'm a little bit older now it's a little bit colder I put the tracksuit trousers on but I still love going out there every day and it's obviously a bit frosty and cold but training session last night and more training sessions today it's it's great and it's you know real privileged to do that you could get a job as a postman I think my postman throughout cold spell that we've had this month has worn shorts every day when he's delivered post it's just I think there must be some sort of competition amongst them to see who's the bravest or something like that Steve go right back to the very first day you walked in to your office wherever that was and just tell us your what you walked into your memories of what you were seeing there yeah I had an office on the back of the club shop the super stores it is now there was one member of staff part time who was working in with community there'd been a period of six months where no community officer was in place so the diary that was in front of me was three sessions so that's all we had for the for the whole of the week two after-school clubs and a disability session ability counts which was still running to this day so 20 years later that's still going which is great and that was it but that really excited me because it gives me the the blank canvas if you like to say right okay we can put our stamp on this or put my stamp on it about what we want to deliver so we quickly set up some some community sessions and got to know the local community but yeah the football club was was an interesting place then and like I say there wasn't too many people around I remember going out for lunch on day one and I thought I was underdressed but it was okay it was Sean a Driscoll the manager come and knocked on the door and said do you want to go out for lunch and and have a quick chat and off we went to the cafe across the road and we had a great chat but Sean was at that time really really fantastic for me he was he was somebody that really wanted to engage with community so to have a manager and lots of managers since that have equally been engaging with community but Sean was fantastic in the fact that you know he allowed me to use the players to enhance our projects and the players then understood about coming out into the community and they're willing to do that and some of those players now are on the coaching staff here at Bournemouth so I think it's again it shows what the club's all about that'll be the Kings Park cafe and other cafes are available Steve yeah Kings Park it's great cafe yeah we all go across the road there don't we to to use that facility but you know I think I came in and thought that you know the manager was taking me out for for lunch a little bit and that we ended up at the the cafe across the road which is like I say a great cafe and we've all been there Steve like I said it was division three we were in then it was the bottom flight Steve the Premier League must have looked an awful long way away in those days yeah I've got to be honest it's I don't think anybody ever fought with the Premier League I remember starting on the Monday I think we had a Johnston's paint trophy or Leyland Daff cup whatever it was called at the time against I think it was late in orient on the Tuesday night I think it was about 1700 people here for the game and you know you look back from there to going into the Premier League but we never we never ever thought about the Premier League I think we're probably in survival mode a lot of the times then I I remember a call with the the Football League when we were bottom of of the League and we looked like we were going out of of of the Football League I was having conversations with the the community team at the EFL of Football League as it was then about what does that mean what does it mean for our community department if we drop out because they only really support and funded at that particular time was the EFL clubs so we would have fallen out and if we'd have dropped out of that you know we may not have been here as as what we are now certainly not what we are now but it would have been difficult to carry on there and you know we are self-funding and when when you have all those avenues taken away from you that would have been very difficult so you know that was a real pressure time you know we're difficult to know when your future if you if you're living for you know basically today and not sure what tomorrow's going to bring that was difficult time and for somebody who was new to running the business as what we've talked about before it is a business that that's difficult that was difficult and you know I had to to rely on the strength of a lot of people and and the strong people that were here at the football club to get us through that but then we went on this magical journey didn't we and one that we could never ever thought that was going to happen and I think that goes back to when we first started and Eddie got given that given that job and we got on that roll that you know that great escape season was something else it was we we looked dead and buried and it was so far behind and I remember going into that January and thinking you know we've got not got a chance but fortunately one man thought we did and galvanized the whole football club and we got on this incredible run but it kept on going it kept on going and that night here against Bolton was probably one of the most memorable nights we've had at the football club when when we knew we were going to the Premier League and the scenes there and was was fantastic and I think the one that stands out for me is that that that just just to kind of like put where we were and in the map is when we played Manchester United here and I looked up at the big screen on 89 minutes and it said cherry's two united one and you think to yourself wow how's this happens we're beating Manchester United how does this happen so incredible journey and yeah but joy to a lot of supporters and a lot of stuff just tell us about how being in the Premier League impacts on the Community Sports Trust because a lot is made of all the money that football clubs get when they're in the Premier League but that has a trickle down effect for you I believe. Yeah it does the EFL do a wonderful job in supporting the 72 clubs but obviously they've got 72 clubs and the Premier League have their 20. They provide us with some funding to do some core activities that they want us to do and obviously the Premier League's funding for that is greater than that of the EFL so that provides us with a strong financial base to really push on and add to our community one staff in levels but to the amount of work that we do and the amount of projects that we offer so the the bit about being in the Premier League to compared with EFL it does have an effect on right down to community as well. Steve you said you did well not you but beforehand three sessions were in the diary in that first week when you came in how many sessions are you doing now? Yeah the last counts and we tend not to stop we just tend to keep going but I have as I've got a bit older tried to take a bit of time out to do a bit more reviewing of what we do but at the moment we're delivering about 150 sessions a week reaching around four and a half thousand people and as Zoe said earlier that's not just out on the field that's within the classroom setting as well. We know our fan base very very well and we know that not everybody wants to be active some people want to have a look at it through an education point of view. Currently we're running adult fitness classes and engaging with a lot of adults in helping them get back to or kick-starting them into a fitness regime so we understand what our community need and we adjust to that but yeah about four and a half thousand people a week that we see it on a weekly basis and that's every week of the year. I know you can't tell us about all of the sessions Steve but just sort of give us a taste of some of the sessions that you do. Yeah we have a strong emphasis on education we believe I believe strongly that if we can get young people off to a off to a really good education and that will set them up for a really strong life and I feel that football club can play a part in that probably 20 years ago I didn't quite realize what part they can play in it but I've seen some really good stories that we we can share then in terms of how we've helped shape young people's education because there was one a local primary school where just one young lad just wasn't conforming he wasn't wearing his school uniform and wasn't really behaving himself in class and I was able to take one of the players with me into into the school and it was Steve Cook who's obviously at Forrest now and we talked to Steve about does he get training kit that he has to wear I set it up a little bit obviously but does he have to wear training kit the same as every other players and he said yeah and I said what would happen if you didn't wear that training kit and he said well I'd get myself in trouble but more importantly you know I've let my teammates down and the young lad was listening to Steve's every single word I went back into school the week after and he's wearing his school uniform and that's the power of the player and that's what it can do and I've got a million and one of those stories where we've impacted those those individuals and the fact that we're going into schools now and helping on reading and numeracy and all aspects of school life is it's really rewarding that we're able to do that and we have Premier League primary stars that does that at primary school level and we have Premier League inspires that does that at secondary school level again perhaps years gone by the secondary school's got missed out a little bit but we feel that we can work really well with the secondary schools there and we've got Gareth our project lead who's doing some outstanding work and really helping young people to make some good decisions that for them they'll be better off in later life and that's down to the football club in allowing me to do my job that we're able to impact on that. There's someone that I want to ask you about not a school child or anyone someone that recently turned a hundred years old I think it was his name was Stan he came in he had a little bit of a tour here at Vitality Stadium just tell us about him and you know the work that you do with with those sorts of ages. Yeah we've got a really strong partnership with you know Rob Mitchell and the commercial team here at the football club and Care South project is one that was brought to the community to to go and deliver and we thought well how do we keep playing football with going into residential homes so we invented this chair football where we all sit down but we take the footballs in and we kick the footballs and we met Stan and we met some wonderful people in Care South but Stan was turning a hundred and he was really fit strong man and always joined in the football and his dream was to come back to to the Vitality Stadium and have a little look around so we had a we had a wonderful morning it was one of my favorite days of last year bringing Stan into the football club just sat in the change rooms talking to him about football that's that's what we did for 20 minutes with Neil Vacher showed him around all the change rooms he walked out through the tunnel we had a little kick of the ball just on the side of the pitch had a fantastic time and I was able to see him again through going into the care homes but also he came to our Care South Christmas party and yeah it was great to see him and give him a little mention but real kind of like the other end of what I mentioned with the mini kickers the mini kickers keeps me young and on my toes I've got to say when I'm out there with them but being able to sit down with somebody like Stan who's a hundred years old and just talk football and somebody other staff didn't know what we were talking about with somebody old old stories we were we were reminiscing about but yeah fantastic character Stan and great that we were able to welcome him to the football club Steve I was I was privileged to attend that Care South Christmas party and I found it quite a moving moving experience if I'm honest all the older people there and singing away and dancing and stuff like that you haven't been taught you've been taught as a football coach that's a life skill that you would have picked up to to deal with situations like that yeah absolutely I think that's again that's something that I can be when I do sit back and look back how I've been able to develop myself personally I will say that I wasn't doing any singing or dancing personally I haven't quite got to those levels yet I might need a bit more lessons on those before I start doing that but yeah the the bit that that I've been able to self-teach and being able to do that I've grown in confidence surprisingly to maybe a lot of people that I am quite a quiet person I keep myself to myself and certainly as a young man I was I was really shy to think that I can stand up and speak to presentations and conferences and assemblies that I do now I think I will look back and you know my mum and dad would have said no I'm not not sure he's going to have that confidence to do that as it as he goes through but I've been able to to teach myself how to do that didn't go to university probably not the same route as a lot of people as I mentioned before straight into a work environment but because the job changed I had to change and if I didn't change then I wouldn't be head of community now and I think that's the bit I'm passionate about working for AFC Bournemouth and passionate about being head of community so I had to change and I had to develop so I did that through teaching myself but again working alongside some really experienced people I study people in this is my kind of like now aside now if you like I I enjoy watching people give presentations and speak and I kind of like study that whether they're reading it off a piece of paper whether they're doing it from notes whether they're doing it from autocue and just try and pick up how they do it how they make eye contact do they look at the audience do not and over the years I've just added that to my own kind of like delivery and where I look to try and engage with people and yeah I wouldn't say I'm you know nowhere near perfect but we try and develop it all the time and most importantly be there ready for when the community need me in whatever that be given a talk delivering a lesson putting a football session on or just being there like withstand talking one to one just being ready for whatever they need do you find it easy or does it come naturally to you to sort of adapt to the different situations because I can certainly imagine in in your role as it is the same for for many of your coaches no two days are the same as you say one minute you're in a classroom the next minute you're out on the football pitch then you're perhaps in a in a meeting and at the stadium where you're talking to Stan or you're doing a care south coffee morning how how do you manage sort of that adaption throughout your day yeah it is a challenge it is a challenge and it's one that I've I've I've learned to understand I think the key to to my role without boring everybody is doing the preparation I think when when I took the women's team job my doubt was whether I'd have enough time to be able to to really give the job what it needs and and again I mentioned my wife a few times now but she killed me for mentioning her so many times but she was the one that told me to go and do the job and and take it but you've got to be prepared and I I spend a lot of time preparing myself for sessions so I never go into a school classroom under prepared over prepared I've got obviously now a bit of experience with the coaching so I can do a lot of different sessions but I I feel what I've really kind of like gained from working in community for 20 years is is reading the room and knowing when to change what I need to change if I need to move something on a little bit quicker or slow it down or change the angle of approach slightly I've been able to pick those skills up over the year but it's one that I'm still learning and want to keep learning and wanting to keep trying to improve myself and get better at now before we move on to more of the woman set up we're just going to go back to 2008 when the community sports trust gained charitable status just tell us a little bit about that yeah it was it was a directive that came from the football league around asking all their clubs to go to a charitable status I think one of the the main objectives was that all the money that was coming into the community then could be ring fence to go back out into the community and that was a really good opportunity for us then to have a pot of money that we could build up to really then plow back into the community to make a real bit big difference again someone said you've got to take an organization through a charitable status it was like how do I do that you know I had no idea how to do that so had to draw on again lots of people's experience and find a way of doing that but 2008 we got our charitable status and yeah that allowed us to to apply for a lot more grants and bring in different various kind of sponsorships and different money from different organizations to then be plowed back directly into the community so that was a big breakthrough in 2008 for I think a lot of clubs to go charitable status Steve I just want to ask you about two of your members of staff one who will be very familiar with all Bournemouth supporters and one who will be very familiar with all supporters of New Milton town so Ian Cox of course is on the on your staff and as is Ben Cooper now the reason I'm sort of asking you about Ben is because you've mentioned that he was an academy graduate here didn't get taken on as a pro but he's still having a career in football so just tell us about those two guys and what they do yeah two two really good staff members like I say I've got to say my staff are absolutely brilliant but talking about Ben and Ian Ian's great because we have staff five asides and he can still play so all the young lads want to be on Ian's team when there's any five aside matches going Ben is somebody who had that unfortunate bit I talked about myself different kind of era but Ben came and spoke to me about he wanted to pursue a coaching career and I thought he was way above his age and his maturity and about his sensible approach to what he wanted to do after being released as a youth team player so we offered him a we offered him a full-time job with us he works with our college teams 16 to 18 year olds and he's developed into a fantastic coach developing into a fantastic man manager as well off the pitch he's got some real real qualities about how he looks after the players that he looks afterwards and he's doing really well hard working hard working goes back into the academy and works with the younger age groups and also plays for for your your favorite second favorite team Neil New Milton and doing very well scores um he keeps telling us and lads about the free kicks he scores and everything as well so he's doing very well uh New Milton but yeah going up to Ian Ian a fantastic guy um brilliant for me um somebody who's got a huge amount of experience I love having conversations with Ian being able to run through things with Ian but Ian's got a real passion to work with youth engagement and some of the work that he does a lot of people won't know the work that he does he works with a lot of young people that have um slightly lost their way in terms of maybe um education um maybe gone into a little bit of crime he does a lot of work through our program and our Premier League kicks targeted program to help those individuals to get back and um into education into employment and can be no better person I've never seen Ian ruffled in any way he's Mr cool he's Mr calm and uh he was a rose voice of a player and uh yeah he's like that as a staff member for me as well going forward how do you think this new ownership will affect the community sports trust and and can it be a it can be a really good thing for it surely yeah absolutely I think like every member of staff here we're excited about the new era uh the new owners coming in I had the the privilege of meeting Bill who came out to have a look at the girls on the 14th training session that I was taking um really spoke well to the girls the girls were really infused to meet the the new owner and um of course as as Americans then they have a big emphasis on pushing community and women's sport as well so we're really excited about that we've got Jim Farola in as well who who again is going to really help us push that community and women's game side of it as well but again I've got to say you know we've we've we've had great support from from everybody at the club you know right for all those years in terms of Rob Mitchell, Liz Finney, Jeff Mosten all those people that have supported community and backed me to be able to go out and do my job but there's no doubt right now it's an exciting place and it's exciting era and one that we're very much looking forward to Steve I'm going to ask you to take that hat off now please and put your women's manager hat on now because we're going to move on to the second half of the podcast like you said you're a UA for licensed coach you obviously can't help that bug you can't let it go and you took on the role of managing the women's team at the start of the 2019-20 season just tell us about that what got you involved I know that the they are linked with the community sports trust yeah I think you'd go back a little bit before and I think they when I finished at Wimbledon I don't often say I'm tired because I don't like it because it's kind of like says I've been defeated a little bit but I was tired after Wimbledon and I needed a I needed a little bit of break but I think a year year and a half after leaving Wimbledon I think my wife knew that I was itchy to get back in I started looking at a few jobs and I kept on saying to myself not another non-league job don't take that that's not for you right now but then in 2015 I was asked to look at the women's set up here at AFC Bournemouth and it was being run at the time by Vince Taylor who's doing a great job but was slightly detached from the club and we wanted to bring it back into the club and we brought it back in with a back in a Neil Blake and we appointed a manager at the time in Steve Davis who did wonderful job in moving them forward but it was time for a new manager to come in we had a little look around I was yes I was interested in it but I was doing one that was doing the appointment so it was a bit of a strange one but so I almost like appointed myself to to run it because I felt that right there and then I was probably best place to do it I didn't as I said to Zoe earlier I didn't wasn't quite sure how I was going to do it because the I don't know how the players do it at times where they work and train in the evening and the commitment and the show to travel all around it on a Sunday but I wanted to make sure that I could free up enough time to be able to give that job the full value and what I do I do I make sure that I give that 100% every time in terms of planning preparation and trying to take on the team so yeah I put my coaching boots back on and took on the women's team and and coincided with my first season was was a Covid season but we were top of the league at the time and nearly nearly over the line in terms of promotion and and the FA decided that the leagues would be as they were when we got promoted and now play at national league level and carrying on developing the team and trying to move it forward which I think we've done year on year with the women's team to to where they are right now how different is it managing a women's team to managing a men's team or is there no difference there is difference yeah definitely there's there's the obvious difference around being in the changing rooms at certain certain times you know obviously when I was managing a men's teams you could stay in and around the changing rooms but we we have very like set procedures where I come in and speak to the players come out leave them they know what time they've got to be on the pitch and they come and meet us out on the pitch for the warm-up and the women's game is very much different at the end of the game as well there's always there's always a huddle in there where we do our bit of debrief at the end and any status and supporters that are watching the women's players always go over to them before going back into the changing room so there is a there is a little bit of difference but I'm sure the players will will say that you know I'm hard on them I want the best out of them I've got probably high standards and want the best out of the players all the time and drive them to be the best that they can be and we work really hard on the training pitch because I believe that's where you get better so training is a big big part of what I what I want for my players to then try and perform on on the pitch on a Sunday which you know I have to say over my three years now as the manager the players have been fantastic and have been a pleasure to work with Steve you've 18 months you've been in the national league set up now that was a massive step from tier five effectively which you were in just tell us how what differences you've noticed in the step up yeah we noticed a big difference in the set up there's the I'm sure the supporters have as well yeah I think there's gone a few results that we might have had in the league below where we were winning eight nine ten zero in some games the games are really really close we played Maidenhead who were in the bottom two on on Sunday and just won three two with a late winner the standard is is is definitely up and obviously when you go up the pyramid everything improves as well so we've we've been playing on better pitches we've been playing at stadiums and and enjoying that side of it as well but yeah the standard is is much better the challenge is really hard I think our first year in that national league we we probably overachieved we didn't think that we were going to be pushing for promotion because we were going into a new league that we didn't know much about but we started off very well we kept on going and finished second but in the women's league only one team gets promoted so we didn't get promoted and we are in the same league this year and currently sitting second place probably third place with a few games in hand on other teams but yeah the standard is very good the players have had to to to raise their standards we're signing players from different areas than we've signed before but we still got players that played for us five six years ago and we've got a big emphasis on developing our own players through our youth program. Steve I've just got to say when I was looking at the league table I knew I knew you were playing Saint Hostel but I mean that's somewhere I go on holiday for a week your guys went down there for for a game I mean that is commitment is it not? Huge commitment as well we made the decision to make that an overnight trip the first time the women's team had gone to an away match overnight so in itself that was that was a challenge because the players play on a Sunday so sometimes they work on a Saturday some of them got a Saturday shift so they need to get time off work for us to leave the Vitality Stadium here on Saturday lunch time and we traveled down to Saint Hostel yeah four and a bit hours down to their stayed overnight bit of doubt about whether the game was on as well so we thought that we might have to do it again if it was if it was called off but we managed to play and yeah I've got to say that it can't be underestimated what the players commitment that they show to play for AFC Bournemouth fans again non-league players and women's players across the country are all doing the same but I can't speak highly enough of my players who who make time to train because they know it's important and they make time to be able to go to places like Saint Hostel at the weekends and they love playing for AFC Bournemouth so you know it's real down to the players commitment and their desire to do well and I love working with them from that fact. I want to ask you about another competition we talked about the National League finishing second in our first season in the National League is is an incredible achievement but the FA Cup it's always been a really special competition for us last year and this year you know we've reached the second round popper for the first time in the club's history and it's a competition that everyone in the team really looks forward to how much does it give for you and the girls that play you know it's it's something that if you go far in it you can play some some fantastic teams. Yeah I think that's always the aim because at a level we play out we have to go through the qualifiers first so every every season we have to go through the qualifiers to get into that first round and every year we've we've pushed on and got further and further but for me as the coach in the changing room it's probably slightly different as though you know this because you played for me for the season it's it's that one where we can look at it and we start to talk about dreaming and you know I try and set the scene for what it would be like for the players we talk about having a dream getting through to that later rounds and and pulling out a super league team and having our cup final day and we're no different to any other club all the way through through the pyramids who who want to try and draw a plum tie and play a top team and challenge yourself against them so the FA Cup for somebody who who used to watch that FA Cup from the TV programs of nine o'clock in the morning till it finished at five o'clock at night and then going out and kicking the ball with my brother the FA Cup is is a is a big competition and one that we want to do well in and fortunately we have done reasonably well over the last few years in that but we still want to keep pushing for those for those big cup ties. You've spoken about the growth of the team and to the extent where we're you know some games were going the night before and and things like that where it allows how nice is it for you know when you can see the girls and how involved in community sessions player appearances they're in the kitshoot they're on the side of the stadium that's a huge thing. Yeah it is a huge thing and I it's a it's immense pride that I see what the work they do and you know we've got people that are working in schools we've got school teachers we've got people working in the NHS got people working in the community for me and I I see them grow I think within the within the women's game they're in the senior side a little bit earlier than they are in the men's game so I've got currently got two 16 year olds that are playing in the first team I've got eight of the first team squad that are teenagers and you have to adapt to that you've got to understand that we've got 16 year olds in the team and we've also got 28 year olds and 32 year olds in the team as well so trying to create the right environment for them is priority for me so they feel comfortable but seeing them develop off the field but on the field as well and I think that when you look at the 16 year olds and I go back to a little family's tale as well now I phoned my dad but unfortunately my dad passed away a couple of years ago but when I took on the job at the women's team I had a number of young players that were in the in the team and I was looking to pick the team for the first day and I wasn't sure whether to pick a couple of 16 year olds in Caitlyn Ward and Abby Jones that are still playing now and my dad was listening to me he doesn't know he doesn't know him he lived in Torquay and I said dad I've got you know a really promising fallback in Abby Jones but she's 16 and he said a few things and he gives me a bit of advice and he trusts yourself and we picked her and she's still playing now and you see see the difference they are when they're 16 to when they become 18 to when they become 21 and someone like Katie Scadan who's been our goalkeeper now for a number of years and been working in community the work that she does in community is absolutely fantastic and is is a great role model for the women's game that she's doing that out in the community and performing so well training every week and playing on the matches so credit to them for for what they do but yeah when you can step back and see the growth in them as people and players it's really satisfying. Someone I just want to pick out a 16 year old that we have Holly Humphries now she earlier this season became the first player that's played as the under 10s the under 12s the under 14s the under 16s and now the first team obviously a huge moment for her but that must fill you and the coaches that have brought her up with immense pride. Yeah I'm lucky I sit at the top of it and you know I get a little bit of credit for it but you know the credit goes to a lot of people I've mentioned our community staff our girls and women staff that work around that program do a huge amount of work and it was uh I go out and work with younger players as well I think it's an important part to know what's coming through and we knew that Holly was progressing very very well in her under 16s age group and as soon as she turned 16 we were able to bring her into into the first team environment and she actually played two days after her 16th birthday against the tier three side in the cup magnificent achievement for her to be able to do that and still be in the first team now but it was draw it was put to my attention that that Holly was going to be the first player to go through all four of the girls age groups in the under tens under 12s under 14 16s and if she makes a debut for the first team she'd be the first player to do that I was very conscious that that was coming but Holly had to earn it and I wasn't going to give her a debut just because it was great for the program but again Holly is somebody who's who's worked really hard uh a young girl that's trying to find a way in the women's game now and finding uh you know you get two steps forward one back and then you've got to keep learning and developing and I think that's an important part of what I keep saying to the younger players keep learning keep developing but yeah great achievement for Holly and hopefully she'll go on to even bigger things with us playing every single week as a 16 year old is is a good achievement for her talking of growth April 2022 a big moment the women's team played their first competitive fixture here at Vitality Stadium just give us your memories of that day it was it was fantastic I think in the tunnel we had all their uh you know their their squad numbers up their shirts up it was it was a great moment wasn't it oh it was it was a memorable moment we still talk about it now as as as as we do as as a squad um the build up to it was was incredible so many people including yourself Zoe and the media team and the branding and everybody here at the football club just got right behind the women's team and made them feel really special you know putting pictures of up in the tunnel or the interviews that were going on beforehand or the advertising of the game it was with mixed emotions for me because we were in second place in the league and um I knew it was a special day for the women's team it was a special day for the girls and women's program because we're highlighting what can be achieved and playing out on that pitch and we wanted the to be a real showcase event but we were getting close to the end of the season and we needed three points as well so I had this balance between trying to keep the team focused on trying to win and not let the occasion get the better of them but we kept on getting an update on the crowds and we're normally playing in front of 200 people and I think 200 was sold out on the first day and then jazz in a ticket office kept on speaking to me and we sold 500 we sold 800 we sold 1000 got the 1500 and you could just see it on the players faces it was the biggest crowd they've ever going to play on I think it finished up at 1600 was the attendance but again the players were unbelievable on the day to to to put the performance in that they put in with all that was going on for them to win 4-1 get the three points and celebrate and being able to celebrate with uh and they still talk about it now and uh fortunately we've got another game coming up this year and hopefully we can do as well in that game as well because I don't think we can underestimate what it means to play at the Vitality Stadium I remind myself every day I walk through the doors it's my job and I walk through here for for every day for 20 years and you can forget what a special place this is but when you get the opportunity to play out on that pitch or come in here for a community event it's a special place and the players really enjoyed that and again credit to them for a magnificent performance and handling the situation and where they've done and what they wanted to do is to inspire young people to be players for football players in the future and I think they did that well on that day. Is that another exclusive for the AFC Bournemouth podcast Steve there's another game at Vitality Stadium what can you tell us about that? There is we are playing a league match again um we we wanted to make sure it's a league match and moving on from the friendlies that we we've previously done um off the back of the Cheshire game last year so Sunday the 16th of April we are playing Maiden Ed here at the Vitality Stadium it would be fantastic if we could match the 1600 or even go better and beat that uh if you've never seen the team play before come along and have a look at them they're they're good players who who work exceptionally hard and are very proud to play for AFC Bournemouth and uh hopefully you enjoy it if you come along. Steve I looking at the league table I know you're second and I know the team that got relegated last season atop of the league card if that just shows you the strength of the women's structure what are your hopes for the rest of this season? Yeah I hope for the rest of the season is to put some pressure on the top two for sure there the the league is very much different to what it was last year as you say four teams got relegated down from the Premier Division which made our league really strong and Cardiff have started off exceptionally well with uh I think it was nine straight wins and put themselves top of the league they've they've recently lost the game and Exeter are a very very good side so they're the top two sides and I think there's a number of other good sides in the league in Southampton and Money Fields and Chelsea that are all putting some pressure on so you know without telling you too much what I say in the changing room I've said we're in a little mini league at the moment where we've got to try and win the games that we've got coming up to put some pressure on the top two and that's our job at the moment to try and just keep winning put some pressure on the top two and uh we were back to our first game on Sunday against Made in Head as it was without playing for six weeks and again credit to the players without playing for six weeks we managed to win that game with a late winner and now we've got a nice runner games coming up and hopefully we can try and win those games and put some pressure on the top two Steve England winning the Euros women's Euros in the summer and the the whole general um the women's game is just mushroomed and blossoming everywhere have you noticed that at our level massively yeah so my role as the community um so many phone calls so many emails so many girls wanted to come and play absolutely brilliant so again it's it's us adjusting to to what we need to our community so we have more girl sessions that we've we've ever had before within AOC Bournemouth community young girls from the age of five six seven being able to come along enjoy football play at a recreational level and then of course from there if they they want to they can go into teams and we've got a lot of connection with local uh youth teams those that show the the potential and talent come into our into our Bournemouth pathway and it allows us to to engage with nearly now 400 girls on a weekly basis during that pathway um and then hopefully we get more holly humphreys that going from the under tens all the way up through to to playing that first team but yeah the lioness is what a great summer that was and um I think everybody any every single person in the women's game has benefited benefited from that along with the men's game as well because it's uh it's been a magnificent achievement for them to to to win the euros and one that we've all benefited from with more spotlight on the women's game now you've obviously been around the men's non-league circle for a long period of time and we all know that players are getting paid some players are getting paid at that level now how does that fit into the women's game it must get to the stage where if you're going to progress you eventually may have to think about paying players is that fair to say yeah absolutely and we're at a level where some of our opposition do get paid so there's another challenge in terms of of trying to be competitive in the league that we're in um we are certainly always looking at how we restructure the women's team and go forward with that so it's it's something that's being looked at right now in terms of what the structure might look like for next season and yeah that might include some kind of budget it may not but it certainly that's where the women's game is going in terms of of matching what some of the men's non-league teams have but also at the top end more professional contracts for the women's players because that will allow them to focus on football as I've detailed before some of our players are are working long shifts at work jumping straight in their cars getting changed coming to training working hard at training eating their evening meal at 10 o'clock at night and trying to be prepared for games at the weekend which is credit to them but anything we can do to help and move that forward that's certainly something that I'm looking at all the time to try and help with and traveling to st. Ostall maidenhead and Cardiff and places like that Steve yeah there's a few that fall asleep on the bus on the way down but yeah there's uh there's some traveling involved in our league as well obviously where we're positioned uh on on the south coast we have to do a little bit of traveling but I think that's nice because the girls get on well with each other and get on the bus together and socialize and um yeah it's good to be able to do that along with the which is a little bit of a joke with one or two of the younger girls doing their homework so that's the that's the age range we have on the on the squad one or two got to do the homework and one or two are catching up on sleep from work both hats are going to be needed for this one Steve I know that you play your home games at ringwood towns long long lane headquarters just tell us about this developing relationship with ringwood town yeah I think it's um something that we wanted to to have for a number of years in community when when I come up with an idea around a community project the first thing I have to do is find a venue to be able to run it from we've never had a the the joy of having our own facility so the opportunity came up a number of years ago to start talking to ringwood town about developing their facilities and um delighted to say again different business skills different hats I've had to put on in terms of developing a football foundation bid that has been accepted for us to to redevelop ringwood town and Andy works for me has worked tirelessly on putting those bids together as well and we are very very close to having the first part of it finished in the build which is a full-size 3g pitch and again that's crucial for the development of community activities and girls and women's program because of the weather that we have and so many matches being called off and only being able to play it on artificial pitches we we now own our artificial pitch which we hope will be open from mid-february and then we go for phase two which is the building of the new pavilion and changing rooms at ringwood and then updating and modernizing the car park so we can accommodate everything that we need to and with a hopefully a finish around uh november time of this year but for me so excited uh you know I say 20 years in a job and I'm still getting excited about a new venture and it's a new venture where we got our own facility we can decide what goes on there I can do even more community work now I can do even more girls and women's sessions if we can find some time but we will find that time because that's what we're passionate about in doing so it it allows us to be able to really shape and and drive it forward and I suppose you know again in reply to Zoe's earlier question can we expand and can we go and where's it going hopefully this will take us to another level as well now I'm going to ask you the same question that I asked you earlier about the community sports trust but I want you to put your women's hat on how do you think the new ownership can affect the women's side of the game we've heard Bill speaking about it you mentioned that he's been down already to watch under 14's training session again it must be hugely exciting yeah having the opportunity to speak to Bill I can see his passion for it I can see his passion for the women's football but women in sport and we had a great conversation and about what he would like to do with the women's team and you know we'll work together we'll work together on that and we'll work with Jim who's in post as well now to really drive that forward alongside Neil Blake and others to really kind of like push the women's game on and provide opportunities it's it's that's the key bit for me it's about providing opportunities we've done that with with our current setup but continuously trying to open up doors provide opportunities and let people reach their potential you know we've got some really good players within our when our girls and women's program we want them to fill their potential here at AFC Bournemouth and not feel that they need to move on to perhaps a super league club or higher perhaps our ambitions are to keep moving the club forward so they reach their ambitions as well Steve just give us a message for any AFC Bournemouth supporter who hasn't watched a women's game how much you want to see them down there yeah come along come along and watch them yeah you've heard a little bit now about their backgrounds and their commitment levels that they put into it they've got a huge amount of pride in playing for AFC Bournemouth they love wearing the shirt they love saying that they are AFC Bournemouth players they would love the support as well the support we get is fantastic we'd love to see even more of you come down that hopefully won't be disappointed you'll see some good football matches and competitive football matches and a team that is trying to play the AFC Bournemouth way and what I will say on that is all Bournemouth women's fixtures are available on fcv.co.uk entry is always free every Sunday two o'clock down at Ringwood here at Vitality Stadium wherever it might be I couldn't agree more it's a fantastic team to get behind Steve we've thoroughly enjoyed having you here on our podcast thank you so much for taking the time to come in talk to us we've heard some great stories and thoroughly enjoyed your company thank you now if you've enjoyed listening to our podcast we'd love it if you could like and subscribe on whatever platform you're listening on we'd also be very grateful for any shares on social media so that other fans be at the AFC Bournemouth related fans or the general football fan can enjoy it too. Our thanks again to Steve Koss and from Neil Perrett and myself Zoe Rundle thank you for tuning in to the official AFC Bournemouth podcast