Norwich's Stacey wins Community Player of Season
"I was in two minds about going because you never want to make these things about you."Not many people would think twice about attending a glitzy ceremony to pick up an award of recognition for their hard work.But Norwich City full-back Jack Stacey's modest statement reflects his approach towards working for the club's Community Sports Foundation.The 28-year-old attended a CSF Takeover day at Norwich's Carrow Road home last season and met some of the children with physical and mental disabilities who attend the 'Realising Potential' group.And it led to him being named the Championship's Community Player of the Season at an event at the Houses of Parliament on Wednesday evening, at which Norwich took the Community Club of the Season award."The impact we can have as players because of our platform can really make a difference," Stacey told BBC Radio Norfolk."The majority of them are at Carrow Road every other Saturday cheering us on so, for them, it's amazing to be able to meet the players that are on the pitch and it's led to having some really good relationships with these children."They feel they can open up to me on things they maybe wouldn't have to other adults in the past."
The Norwich CSF was founded in 1992 and their goals include driving inclusion for people with disabilities - in Norfolk, the number affected is 20% of the population, which is above the national average - as well as boosting mental health and wellbeing and inspiring disadvantaged people.The award citation said the club engaged with a record-breaking 45,828 participants during 2023-24.As part of that, Stacey spends two hours a week with a pan-disability football group, providing coaching and taking part in other activities with the children.He has also provided advice towards the setting up of new Padel [tennis] courts."All the clubs I've been at, and a lot of the clubs across the EFL, do really great work but, for me, Norwich has been on a different level, in terms of the size of the operation, covering basically the whole of Norfolk," he said."I feel everyone within Norfolk sticks together and really looks after each other and because Norwich is such a big club within the area, we can use that to make a difference."
Stacey said that when he paid his first visit to the Foundation, whose members include TV presenter Jake Humphrey, he had not planned on being involved long-term.But he added: "Just by going down there and seeing the impact CSF have, seeing the progress of the children that go there - it gives them a safe space to enjoy, to come and play football and progress when they go back into the mainstream environments - and hearing those kind of stories kept me coming back week after week."Rotherham United and Fleetwood Town won the Community Club awards for Leagues One and Two, while Taylor Moore of Bristol Rovers and Doncaster's Joseph Olowu received the individual player accolades. For Stacey, though, attention now turns to Saturday's game against Plymouth Argyle, with the Canaries 10th in the table and five points off the top six following last weekend's win over West Bromwich Albion."That's our goal until the end of the season - to try to get into the play-offs, but it would be no use going through the whole fixture list and seeing where we can pick up points if we don't go and do the job on Saturday against Plymouth," he said."They're bottom of the league which, on paper, makes it seem easy but they are going to be fighting for every single ball so we have to be able to match that."
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