Nick Thatcher: Hepworth United – early days

It seems like a few months ago that I first took Huw down to Hepworth Training as a 5 or 6 year old – I’m not sure if it was 9 or 10 years ago!  Anyway – I was introduced to the club by Martin Bland who I was working with at the time.  Within a few months I was involved with training the 6 year olds – with Pete Atkinson.  And that’s when I first met people like Bambi and Bob Wright. 

It’s been a wonderful 9/10 years with Hepworth and I plan to keep involved in the future.  Huw and I formed a bond with the club immediately – the banter between all the young lads running round with Town, Sheff Weds, Everton, Leeds kits (and of course one little Cardiff City strip) was great fun. 

One amusing aside that developed at the time was the coaches and some of the Dads deciding that if their sons could play football, then they could as well.  So we started weekly 5 a side sessions which I still go to and are still well attended 9 years later.    In fact Huw and Sean B joined us a few times between December and February when we were short of players.  I really enjoyed playing 5 a side with Huw on those few nights – he was fantastic out there on the pitch – so I made sure he was on my team!

Hepworth is a great club, that has produced some fantastic players – it’s the people that make the club – the players, coaches, parents and so on and I’ll love Hepworth United all my life.  Huw felt the same.  We had a conversation about a year ago when I asked Huw what he’d do if things went wrong and some of his mates left Hepworth.  Huw said the lads wouldn’t leave Hepworth – and then he looked me in the eye and said “Are you kidding?  I’ll never leave Hepworth United”.