Men’s football team appoints female assistant-manager ahead of 10th anniversary season

Back in 2016, a group of friends sat under a tree to discuss the idea of starting a football club.

That tree ended up being the main element of the club badge, a badge that is turning gold for the 2025/26 season to celebrate the 10^th anniversary of Wrexham-based Bellevue Football Club!

The region’s first and award-winning, league-registered all-inclusion football club has achieved a lot over the last 10 years and are showing no signs of slowing down.

Starting as just a men’s team, the club now boasts a thriving junior section with teams from U9’s to U14’s as well as the ever-present men’s senior side. To sum up 10 years of Bellevue Football Club in a few numbers:

• The club has 19 awards and recognitions for their work in inclusion football including winning a prestigious Sports Industry Award in 2024.

• More than 40 different nationalities have worn the yellow shirt at both junior and senior level.

• Last year the club registered over 100 players for the first time.

• Founding member, Tiago Ginja, completed his 300^th game for Bellevue in all competitions at the final fixture of last season.

Looking ahead to the birthday season, Bellevue have another night to look forward to as they have been shortlisted for the BBC Make A Difference Awards taking place this September which could potentially add a 20^th off the pitch title to this unique club.

Continuing their work off the pitch, the club are currently working with the National Eisteddfod of Wales, which comes to Wrexham in August, on a community piece showcasing the inclusive nature of Bellevue FC alongside plans for an exhibition in the city to celebrate their anniversary season.

The club is also adding more to their brand on the pitch as all the junior kits carry the flags of the player’s countries of birth on the back of the neck, celebrating the variety of different backgrounds in the teams and how they all come together under one badge.

This theme is continued with the training kit which features the player’s flags on all of the teamwear for all of the teams.

Ten years after starting the club, founder Delwyn ‘Sheep’ Derrick is back on the sideline for the men’s team.

Called out of retirement towards the end of last season and helping the coaches steer the club to their highest ever finish of 12^th place in the table, Bellevue have asked Sheep to stay on for the campaign ahead.

Alongside an old face, the sideline will feature a new face as Anne Marie Withers is named assistant head coach becoming one of the first (if not possibly the first) female-assistant manager of a men’s senior football team in the area.

Speaking of the appointment, Sheep said; “When the Chairman asked me to stay on for the season ahead, asking Anne Marie to be my assistant was the first phone call. She’s a very smart and talented coach who I enjoy working with. She’s got a very bright future ahead of her, but for now it’s amazing to have her on the team.”

Adding to this Anne Marie said: “Coaching football and the growth of the women’s game is something I am incredibly passionate about – that will never change!  In a previous podcast interview, when asked about coaching and my stammer, I alluded to, instead of chasing fluency, finding that feeling of being content with myself and my stammer.

“I felt I achieved it as a player, and I’m confident I’m on a similar path as a coach. When I was approached to coach Bellevue men’s team, it felt like a positive step out of my comfort zone and where better to do it than in environment I know it’s safe to stammer.”

When asked about being a female coach at a men’s senior team, Anne Marie explained: “I understand why this is a topic of discussion and I am proud to be stepping away from the ‘status quo’, but there isn’t an answer.

“Regardless of if it’s the men’s team, or I’m helping with a junior team, I turn up, I coach, I go home. I get the same handshake or high five on arrival, the same work rate and effort and the same respect of other coaches and players.

“I think, male or female, everyone’s pushing in the same direction, we just want to play the highest quality football we can.”

Sheep had similar thoughts on the matter, saying: “To be quite honest, when I asked Anne Marie to join the men’s team, I did it because of her talents as a coach. Her gender didn’t even come into my thought process and I hadn’t considered that any of our men’s players would have a problem with her either, because regardless of her gender, she’s a great coach, has a great sense of humour and has always gotten on well with everyone at the club.”

With so much going on at the club after 10 years, the question inevitably has to be what comes next, however very little is being given away.

Club Secretary, Samantha Mullins, is very careful not to give away any spoilers on the future plans of Bellevue, saying; “We do have a couple of projects to work on in the background and I’m sure that we’ll be able to talk more about them when plans are a bit further along. What I will say is that our main objective for the last 10 years was simply to survive, now our plan is to thrive.

“It’s amazing that the club has been around for a decade, but now our responsibility must be to ensure that it’s still here in another 10 years and even beyond that.”

The club seem to have a clear vision of what comes next for Bellevue and are confident of achieving it, but Samantha still has one lingering question; “The thing I’m most looking forward to, is finding out when Sheep will retire again and whether he’ll stick to it this time.”

I guess we will have to wait until 2036 to find that one out.