Kent Phoenix ‘Building A Nest’ To Grow American Football In the Region | Aviva Community Fund

Earlier this week we took a look at the efforts of the East Kilbride Pirates and Iceni Spears to bring some much-needed funds into the British game. Following this, the Kent Phoenix got in touch to share their efforts to ‘build a nest’ to enhance the development of the sport in their local area.

Based in Maidstone, the Phoenix sit at the centre of an amazing hotbed of British American Football in the county of Kent, home of some of the best player development stories in the game.

The Phoenix are seeking your support to help them earn Aviva Community Fund assistance to develop a Centre of Excellence for American Football, as Director of Coaching, Ian Miles, shared:

“We are a Youth only organisation that is working hard to build in the Maidstone area. We have secured sole use of a local community facility where we are based and offer weekly training sessions with access to great facilities including classrooms, a community centre, indoor hall as well as having three marked flag pitches and one youth-sized gridiron pitch.

Our pitches are maintained by the council and allow us year-round training and development opportunities. We are working with the local authority, schools and other organisations to work towards developing a sport-specific facility.

We also work with other local American Football teams to provide joint training sessions and are looking at developing regional coaching development and ultimately would like to create a regional facility that would offer support to clubs in and around our region.

We have submitted our funding bid in order to obtain equipment to help continue to improve the facilities and increase our membership in order for us to demonstrate to the local council and sports partnership that further investment and support would not only improve local facilities but help get more young people active and involved in American Football.

Our goal is to provide our players with skills and development to enable them to progress within the sport to whatever level they wish, we have players who have moved on to university, local teams and even into the GB squad. We may be a small fish but we are making big waves!”

Supporting the Phoenix is incredibly simple!

• Head to the Spears’ project on the Aviva Community Fund website. 
• Register to vote - you must be at least 13 years of age, and share some details such as name and email address. If you’ve registered previously, simply log in.
• Cast your 10 votes in favour of the Phoenix or potentially one of the other Britball teams participating this year - easy!

The Phoenix are one of three teams that have gotten in touch asking for support, but it’s worth noting there’s a number of other Britball outfits also eager for the Britball Nation’s help in bringing some much-needed funds into the sport.

Other projects you may also be interested in include:

The Kent Exiles - looking to provide fresh new game shirts for the adult team as they begin life in the Premiership

The Essex Spartans Academy - seeking to fund additional equipment and maintain existing kit, to increase participation

The Birmingham Bulls - ‘Bull’ding for the Future’ by purchasing new training equipment, allowing them to reach a greater number of people within the community

The East Kilbride Pirates - Are looking to bolster their incredibly successful Under 19’s outfit by hosting a player training camp

The Iceni Spears - Women’s American Football team based in Norwich are seeking funding to help them build an inspiring and challenging programme that encompasses both tackle and flag football.

The Wembley Stallions - ‘Stallions in the community’ project is a phased initiative to increase participation in American Football amongst 14 to 18-year-olds across the London borough of Brent

Inverclyde American Football Community Club - are seeking funds to enhance their equipment in order to cater to the large amount of interest they’ve received in their region

The Merseyside Nighthawks - The Premiership North outfit are looking to continue the development of American Football in the Merseyside area, particularly through their expansion to an U17s team and increasing participation through having more readily available kit and equipment

The Solent Thrashers - are looking to invest in several avenues to help grow and develop American Football in their local community - including new uniforms and new training equipment.

The Kent Phoenix - ‘Building a Nest’ - the Kent Phoenix are looking for support to improve local facilities, including developing a regional centre of excellence for the sport.

Whichever project you wish to support, the important part is to make sure you step up, sign up, and vote!