On a mission to produce the next world-class professional goalkeeper
How it all started…
Darren played in goal throughout his childhood, but was never fortunate enough to have someone teach him or show him how to be the best.
It is so frustrating for him, even to this day, because Darren knows how much better he could have been if someone could have helped him. He thinks about how far he could have gone if only he had a coach to guide him…
After having been taking his son, Josh, to play football every weekend since around 2005, Darren saw that there were goalkeepers that played really well and seemed to love playing in that position, yet weren’t being able to fulfil their potential because they were just treated like any other player and the attention was very rarely focused on improving their ability. This was an issue for Darren as in every one of those young goalies, he saw himself as a boy.
He decided to start helping out in warmups and training for the keepers in Josh’s teams to try and have an impact
This was when he had the idea
One day, he got a message from a mum asking if he could do some training with her son.
Darren’s first student, Thomas, who started being coached after his mum asked Darren
He did this 1 on 1 for some time until the boy decided to play rugby instead. Now he was left with a choice…
Do I continue and be the mentor I never had, or stop and just be happy with the one-off coaching?
As you can see by the picture, he decided to try and turn it into something and eventually had got his first 5 lads!
This is when…
Club GK was born!
Darren was asked by other parents to teach their sons who were goalkeepers as well, and this is what kicked off the club. He found the perfect venue at William Law School and started doing weekly training sessions with the 3 boys at the time that had joined. He absolutely loved it.
10 years later and here he is:
This has been one incredible journey so far and he is more eager than ever to help and guide a young child to becoming one day a professional goalkeeper.
He is so thankful that he gets the opportunity to follow along in his goalkeeper’s journeys, and see the results of his hard work and dedication come to life.
This is what he never had, and now it’s his mission for every young goalkeeper.
Darren invites any young child, who has the passion, the drive, and the urge to become the best, to join the club and become a part of the journey.
