Somebody in your corner
Started by a redundant steel fixer in 2008. Still here every week for Sunderland's young people.
To be there for Sunderland’s young people, week in and week out, so that they grow up with a solid foundation and become good people. That’s it. Not football. Not sport. Being there.
North East Sport started in 2008, in the middle of the financial crash. I was a foreman steel fixer on big construction jobs all over the country, away from home most of the week, with two young lads I wanted to see grow up. When the crash came I was the last one on site to be made redundant. So I took the bull by the horns and started coaching my two and a few of their mates in Southwick. That became North East Sport Youth FC, and in November 2009 it became a Community Interest Company. From Southwick we moved to Hendon, and since 2014 we’ve been at Monkwearmouth Academy.
There’s a harder part to this that I’ve spoken about before. My son Callum was stillborn. After losing him I knew how important it was to be there to see my boys grow up, and I’ve never forgotten it. North East Sport came out of that as much as it came out of the crash.
Eighteen years on we’re with over 900 people every week, from toddlers upwards, with more than forty adult volunteers alongside us. We’ve been on the brink more than once. We’re still here.
Every life needs good foundations
For years my job was fixing steel. Before any concrete goes in, somebody has to tie every bar in place by hand. Once the pour is done, nobody ever sees it again. But get it wrong and nothing built on top will last.
Young people are the same. Good habits, respect, turning up when you said you would, and an adult who believes in you. That's the steel. We put it in early, so whatever they build on top of it stands up.
The jobs behind the story
Big construction jobs all over the country, like this jetty at Immingham Docks. Every one of them stands on steel that somebody tied by hand before the concrete went in.
Coaching my two lads and their mates in Southwick
Registered as a Community Interest Company
Our second home as the club grew
Moved to Monkwearmouth Academy
900+ people every week and 40+ volunteers
I left school with E grades at best and I’ve worked since I was fifteen. What put me on the right path wasn’t a classroom. It was my family, and a site boss called Kevin Kelly who saw something in me and told me to get on with it. That’s what we try to be for every kid who walks in: somebody in your corner who expects you to turn up. Sport is how we do it. It isn’t why.
We keep prices as low as we can and find funding for free places wherever possible, because no child should miss out because of what’s in their parents’ pocket.
If you want to know what success looks like to us, it’s a young person who comes back years later, on the right path, with a work ethic, who respects how they were treated here and does the same for somebody else.
That’s the whole reason we exist: to be there for Sunderland’s young people, week in, week out, so they grow up with a solid foundation and become good people.
Peter Curtis, founder
How we do it
Five things we do, every week, that make it what it is.
We stay
Eighteen years, same faces. We know your name and we notice when you’re not there.
We respect people and expect it back
Coaches turn up on time with the kit right. The kid who mouths off gets told and gets kept. Parents get a straight answer.
We give everyone a job to do
Volunteers, coaches, and a nine year old who has to turn up because ten others are counting on them. Being needed is half of a foundation.
We keep the door open
Prices as low as they’ll go, free places wherever funding allows, toddlers upwards, girls and boys.
We compete properly
Proper leagues, proper standards. Winning teaches a kid that effort has consequences.
Come and join in
Whether it’s football, a holiday camp or a Monday night volunteering, there’s a place for you here.