Junior Takeover Day provides opportunity of a lifetime to Club Doncaster Foundation partner schools

Children from Club Doncaster Foundation’s partner schools were given an opportunity of a lifetime to see behind the scenes of a Doncaster Rovers matchday, after applying for various roles within the club. 

The annual event, which brings club and charity organisation together, saw over 20 children involved on the day as Rovers faced Mansfield Town at the beginning of April.

An exclusive opportunity for partner schools, children from years 4-6 were invited to fill in application forms with Foundation coaches, expressing an interest in the jobs they wanted to do and the reasoning behind why they thought they’d be suitable for the role. 

Those chosen as media manager, first team manager and first team player were invited along to the pre-match press conference prior to the game, to experience what happens in the run up to a matchday, where they got to ask questions to both Grant McCann and Neill Byrne, as well as being interviewed themselves. You can see how it unfolded here.

Rovers players wore specially designed warm up t-shirts to mark the occasion, with the t-shirts designed by one of the children at Hatfield Woodhouse Primary School.

On the day, there really was a full takeover of roles from children across Doncaster. From painting the penalty spot and centre circles as groundsman, announcing the teams to the crowd as stadium announcer, preparations to officiate the game with the referee and his team, creating content and posting on social media as media assistant, selling Rovers merchandise as club shop assistant and watching the warm up from the stands as manager, there was plenty going on throughout the day. 

Speaking of the event, the Foundation’s Youth engagement manager, Tom Butterworth said, “Junior Takeover Day was a huge success this year! 

“The whole point of the day is to inspire children from our partner schools to step outside their comfort zone and try something new. 

“In the build up to the day itself we received over 400 applications for young people to get involved, an absolutely incredible effort from the community!

“Those taking on roles on the day, did themselves and their schools proud, they not only carried out their designated jobs perfectly, but also gave us a unique perspective on quite a few things through the eyes of a young supporter.

“There’s definitely some future staff members in the making!”

For more information about how your school can get involved with exclusive events like this, please contact tom.butterworth@clubdoncasterfoundation.co.uk. 

Take a look at some photos from the day below!