The residents of Kings Hill will have fantastic new facilities to use when Heath Farm opens to the public in time for the new football season.

Work is well underway to provide local residents with state of the art facilities including a 3G surface and five grass pitches that will be used by Kings Hill Football Club.

Set to also be used by other sports, Liberty Property Trust have ensured they have developed the site once used as an airfield to be of the highest standard including a new pavilion that is likely to be used by thousands of locals over the coming years.

Heath Farm’s main resident team, Kings Hill Football Club, celebrate their tenth anniversary this season and is like a lot of clubs around the county, a community club run by volunteers.

It all began when two dads, Andy Krangel and Simon Jewell, frustrated with alack of opportunity for their sons to play competitive football decided to form a football club in Kings Hill.

They decided the club should be formed with the emphasis on participation for children of all abilities and this was written into the club constitution. Training quickly started with 7 children at Manor Park and in a short time a full U9s team was established.

Kings Hill Parish was consulted who agreed to convert one of the full size pitches to two 7 aside pitches and thanks to a donation by Norman Krangel their current home pitch was secured for the year.

Unable to gain access to league in the first year many friendlies were arranged and a team at U8s was established. In 2004
Andy and Simon secured the club entry into the Invicta League and rest, as they say, is history.

With the club set to have a new home as of August, Kings Hill FC Chairman Dan Mason is keen to see as many locals as possible use the facilities at Heath Farm, both for football and other sports:

“Our main ethos is to ensure that our players continue to develop and play football regardless of their ability. We firmly believe children develop more effectively when playing with others of a similar ability, which falls in line with FA guidelines.”

“To facilitate this we have a comprehensive streaming policy in place. We also use the knowledge and expertise of our coaching partnership with Soccer Elite FA to help our coaches in making decisions on how best a child can develop.”

“In 2012 we changed our policies with regards to player recruitment which we feel will achieve a higher retention of players and allow us to offer football of all levels. We are committed and will always provide development football and our goal over the coming years is to provide Kent Youth League status to our most talented squads.”

“2013 is our 10th Year anniversary and we have come a long way in that time. This season we have 26 teams ranging from Under 6’s right through to vets containing over 300 players.”

“My goal is to increase the “Club” feel amongst the local community as opposed to individual teams playing under the Kings Hill FC name. The new community sports & leisure facilities being built at Heath Farm on Kings Hill will go a long way to make this a reality.”

“Across a week every single Kings Hill FC squad will be training and playing at this fantastic new development, that in it self is an exciting prospect. Liberty Property Trust has gone above and beyond their requirement in providing the best sports facilities for miles.”

“Kings Hill Parish Council who the club has a fantastic relationship with will be managing the facilities. The facilities will be gifted to the Parish Council by Liberty/KCC development partnership.

“The club has a very passionate and dedicated Executive Committee who is very excited about what the future holds for the club. The new facilities, which KHFC will be a main user of is the icing on the cake, which will take the club to the next level.”

Meanwhile, Mason is hoping to build the links the club have forged with Maidstone based Soccer Elite FA who should help raise the quality of coaching for years to come:

“Our plans for the future from next season are to put a coaching structure in place whereby we have the platform to raise the level of coaching within the club. We have some very good and highly qualified coaches at the club who we will be using to forge a plan to develop others. In our opinion the more we develop our coaches the more those coaches can develop our players.”

“The club is growing and has an exciting future and we want Kings Hill FC to be the club people want to play for.”

“Heath Farm will allow us to offer our players’ unrivaled facilities that coupled with our Soccer Elite partnership for player development plus our planed coach development program will allow us to offer the best footballing experience for miles.”

Kings Hill Football Club will be having a family fun day on Saturday 18th May to raise awareness of the club and you can find out more information about “Fun on the Hill” at www.kingshillfc.org