Lymm Piranhas JFC was founded by Graham Sweeney in 2002. Graham was a forerunner of the futbal de salao phenomenon started by renowned football coaching Guru Simon Clifford. FDS as it was known, was a way in which kids in Britain could experience Brazilian style football methods. The name Piranhas stemmed from one of the main clubs playing in the Brazilian League.
Graham coached youngsters across Warrington and was keen for a team to emerge from these coaching classes, with the emphasis on passing, movement, appreciation of the ball and most of all having fun.
From it’s early beginnings new teams continued to be produced by the club each year. The team first played at Little Manor in Thelwall, where to this day some of the clubs older teams still play their matches. Each year since then, new teams have formed and from this tiny acorn the club has gone from strength to strength. We now have over 440 children representing the club on 34 teams from under 5’s up to under 18’s. We offer mixed gender football teams for both boys and girls. Lymm Piranhas is a grass roots football club that celebrates all footballing ability. The teams now play their matches across a number of venues within the Village.
We are run entirely by volunteers and this is integral to our philosophy. We are committed to long term player development, which runs in parallel to supporting parents in becoming FA qualified coaches. We believe this combination provides the best way to generate a fun, positive environment for nurturing talent whilst facilitating strong links with our community.
In 2009 the club was awarded FA Charter Standard status, the forerunner of the current England Accreditation system. In 2023 the club was awarded Two Star England Accreditation, England Accreditation is awarded to clubs who can demonstrate they have policies and procedures in place to run the club safely, in line with FA guidelines. Plus every volunteer coach has the required qualifications to coach the children.
Our football journey starts with mini football with the under 5s and 6s development squads enjoying fun games and ball mastery skill sessions during school term-time (September to July). This prepares the children for the transition to mini soccer matches played in the U7 – U11 age groups. In the foundation phase, aged U7-U8 our squads are mixed ability, and there is a gentle transition to streamed teams at U9-U11 so that players can have extra time to develop ground-work skills where needed, or receive extra stretch if their ability requires it.
At the foundation phase football skills are allowed to develop and flourish within the full range of positions and without the pressure of published results or league tables. The teams celebrate our victories but coaches praise effort and attitude, whatever the result, and above all, have fun. Winning isn’t everything as we want our players to be confident in experimenting and taking risks as they develop their skills. Resilience and social skills build over time, whatever the score-line.
From U12 – U18 is the youth phase where players begin to establish their preferred positions whilst still being given opportunities to experiment in others. The club maintains a policy of equal game time for all (measured across the season as a portion of games attended) and different players start as substitutes each week. Results from secondary aged teams upwards are published in league tables. Most seasons there is a league-winning team to congratulate, but winning isn’t everything – there are many other reasons why children play, with fun, enjoyment team skills and friendships being as important to our squad members and to the coaching approach too.
We are affiliated to the Warrington Junior Football League (WJFL) and Warrington Saturday Football League (WSFL) and play our matches at a number of venues around the village. A small number of our teams play outside of WJFL in Bolton and Bury District Football League (BBDFL) and Timperley Junior Football League when this is a better fit to their needs.
The club has a fantastic 4G home training ground at Lymm High School on Tuesday and Wednesday nights 6-9pm which provides a great focal point for our activities and it is a delight and a privilege to see the children training together. We thank the Football Association and the Football Foundation, Lymm High School and local club Lymm Rovers who worked together (with ourselves) to make the local 4G pitch possible.
The club has partnerships with two adult squads who play Tuesday and Wednesday evenings 9-10pm respectively. These squads always welcome new players! For more details see the adults football pages.
Lymm Piranhas JFC 