Jude Townsend - Jaguars U13

Recognition for outstanding sportsmanship.

To the best of our knowledge our club has never published such a post as below.

Perhaps we should have done, however sometimes there are fantastic acts of kindness and sportsmanship which ensure that there is a "first time". There will only ever be one "first time".

Sportsmanship, kindness, thoughtfulness and respect are all huge values at AFC Stoneham. Yesterday 12 year old Jude Townsend displayed them all in abundance.

Please see below three messages received which illustrate what happened..........

Message received from the oppositions goalies parent:

My son played against your U13 Jaguars yesterday.

Things took a turn when our goalkeeper got injured after 20 minutes. Our backup goalkeeper/defender had to step in.

At halftime, the backup goalkeeper got injured too, and my son volunteered to go in goal thinking it would be easy and fun, but guess what? The Jaguars started scoring goals left and right, and our team went down to 10 and 9 players!

My son was so frustrated with the poor defence and his own performance in goal that he started crying.

But then, out of nowhere, the Jaguars’ centre-back, Jude, ran from his half to comfort my son. He gave him a pep talk and said some encouraging words.

It was so heartwarming to see! that moment of support was truly incredible. It was one of the strongest positive actions I’ve ever seen in youth football. Even at the end of the game, the Jaguars were the first ones to rush to my son to comfort him despite having just won the league.

I don’t know if there’s an award for respect in the club, but if there is, Jude definitely deserves it!

He showed incredible kindness and support to my son during the game.

Jude's Father

Wow what a message!!! Thank you for saying so.

Jude is my son and I’ve never been more proud of the young man he’s becoming.

All parents were confused as to what he was doing running over there as everyone else ran off celebrating. He showed a real touch of class and I’m beaming with pride.

I take my hat off to Luke in goal today for stepping in as a 3rd choice goalie. He showed tremendous team spirit.

You should be incredibly proud also.

Thank you

Lee - Jaguars Manager

Since I’ve been at AFC Stoneham for 5 seasons now so I’ve seen a lot of games not just in our age group,today was a true testament of what our club stands for

Jude sacrificed his own enjoyment of winning the league to make sure that the oppositions standby GK was okay after being on the other end of an onslaught.

I personally think that players like Jude should be praised for acts like this and also shows how well the club is portrayed.

I was just wondering if there were any way of decorating Jude for his passion for AFC Stoneham and what it means to play for the club.

Following on from Jude's example the club will now be recognising other acts of sportsmanship amongst our players allowing our managers to recommend to the club an award for such outstanding behaviour as they see fit amongst their players.

JUDE TOWNSEND - We salute you young man and are very proud to have you on board at AFC Stoneham.

Thank you

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