Today is World Down Syndrome Day - a day the world comes together to celebrate, raise awareness, and wear odd socks to support and advocate for the rights, inclusion and well-being of people with Down Syndrome. 

Within our County we have 2 clubs that currently have Down Syndrome football sessions, Midlands Down Syndrome United and Solihull Moors Football Club. We also have a Sunday League club that raises awareness of Down Syndrome playing in one of our County Leagues, Down Syndrome Awareness FC.

Midlands Down Syndrome

Midlands Down Syndrome host sessions the first Friday of every month for those who have Down Syndrome at Rigby Hall School in Redditch. Starting in 2016, Midlands Down Syndrome was created to fill the gap in the provision in the Midlands. Having attended the 2015 National Down Syndrome festival by DS Active, it was clear there were no teams in the Midlands offering this provision.

Lead Coach Luke Bowles said “Having started with three participants, we now have over 25 participants aged 5-33 years old attending monthly sessions. We have also played in National festivals too as well as playing fixtures against Bristol City and Solihull Moors”.

Anyone who wishes to join the sessions should email midlandsdisability@outlook.com.

Solihull Moors FC

Solihull Moors host a football session every Friday, 5pm – 7pm at the Solihull Moors FC Stadium Astro turf pitch (Davisons Law Community Arena)

The aim of these sessions is for there to be a place where Down Syndrome can be a superpower on the football pitch. They aim to give everyone the opportunity to get what they want out of the sessions, whether it's to just run around, practice shooting, dribbling, or throwing; the coaches and volunteers are there to support everyone.

"Volunteering at the Friday night session is a really rewarding experience. The first hour is spent with the younger children, encouraging them to use their boundless energy to practice dribbling the football and shooting into the goals and it's wonderful to see their progress and confidence grow around me. When I've had a bad week at work and it's raining outside, just seeing their faces light up on a Friday as they do their best to tire me out makes it all worthwhile. The second hour is spent with the older participants who are just completely mad about Football! They love playing small matches and absolutely smashing the ball into the net and again the feeling I get when they all arrive and are pleased to see me is brilliant. Some of them have such quick feet and a lovely dribbling technique and we always have a laugh when I just feel too tired and old to try and keep up with them! It's great to see the camaraderie between them and I think it's fantastic that Solihull Moors Foundation provide these sessions to the community." - Chloe Molyneux – SMFC Coach

Anyone interested in this session can email Paul Miller at pmiller.cucina@gmail.com or Derek Jefferson at sportsp@yahoo.com.

Down Syndrome Awareness FC

We also have a Club within our adult male Sunday League system playing in the Wolverhampton & District Sunday League Division 1 called Down Syndrome Awareness. Based in Bentley, DSA was formed in 2019 by Shaun Spicer who wanted to raise awareness and funds for the Down Syndrome Association as he has a young son Jaxon who has Down Syndrome.

DSA had great success in 2021 when they won the League title and the League Cup whilst just missing out on a treble, narrowly losing in the final of a County Cup that year. The club has attracted a good following on social media having almost 2000 followers on Twitter and over a million views on a video which went viral in the football community.

The support for Jax and the Down Syndrome Association has been fantastic and working with different clubs foundations, Jax opened the sensory room up at Wolverhampton Wanderers with legend Steve Bull.

Shaun, the founder of the club said “I’m immensely proud to see the growth of this football club, since starting the club 5 years ago, it’s gone from strength to strength, we’ve had some incredible moments, like featuring on Soccer AM. My vision alongside the first team is to provide coaching sessions for kids and adults with Down Syndrome and other disabilities to ensure these players have a route into football”.

You can follow the above Clubs on Twitter (X), with their handles below:

Midlands Down Syndrome - @club_midlands

Solihull Moors - @MoorsFoundation

DSA - @DSAwarenessFC