When James Carter took a phone call at 7:30 on a Monday morning, it wasn't the kind of wake-up anyone in grassroots football wants. A coach walking his dog had found a pair of brand-new 9v9 goals - bought with leftover fundraising money and a Football Foundation grant - with the stability bar snapped clean off. A £1,300 investment, used once.
For most people, that would be the moment you ask yourself why you bother. For James, club secretary at Linthwaite FC, it was just another Monday.
"These things are here to test us," he told Jordan Elgott and Rohan Anand on the latest episode of The Grassroots Hotline. "You hope by sharing the negatives alongside the positives, the people who've done it see the effect it has."
What happened next said more about James and his club than the vandalism ever could. Other local clubs offered help. Parents rallied. One parent's employer - an engineering firm in Huddersfield - took the damaged part, replicated it exactly, sprayed it white, drilled the holes in the right places, and handed it back looking brand new. They made spares too. No charge.
That's the community James has spent the last five years building. And the goals are only a small part of the story.
From the sideline to the secretary
James's journey into grassroots football started the way a lot of people's do - standing on a touchline watching his eldest son play. What happened next is less common. Midway through an under-8s match, a parent started shouting at the coach. At half-time, the coach had had enough. He walked off the pitch and asked James to finish the game.
He hasn't stopped since.
James moved from parent volunteer to treasurer to club secretary, inheriting a club that had been displaced from its home village for 15 years due to a lack of facilities. When the high school they were using pulled the plug mid-season, Linthwaite FC were forced further away. Grass fees tripled from £3,000 to £9,000. Player numbers dropped to around 100.
What followed was an 18-month campaign to bring football back to Linthwaite - negotiating with the local school, the landowner, and the facility management company. The pitches hadn't been maintained in years. James and a group of volunteers spent two months digging out blocked drainage systems by hand, pulling out crisp packets from the early 2000s just to get somewhere for the water to go.
Then came the planning battle.
The school had a 9v9 all-weather pitch that would have transformed the club's offering. But the local council rejected the planning application, viewing it as the school trying to monetise the facility. One resident complained about noise, with children climbing the fence and kicking balls against it unsupervised.
James spent 12 months fighting it. He knocked on every door on the street, including the home of the resident who had objected, and explained exactly what the club would bring. He got the FA involved. He got the Mayor of Huddersfield and Sport England behind the application. When it went to a formal hearing at Huddersfield Town Hall, he brought 40 to 50 parents to sit quietly in the room.
The moment that tipped it came from a parent who explained how her son, who has ADHD and autism, plays in mainstream football through Linthwaite FC - and that it is his only outlet to be with his friends. Planning permission was granted.
"I just wanted it to be over because it was so stressful," James said. "But once the pressure was off, a year later we started disability football - which we couldn't have done without that foundation."
74 volunteers, 26 teams, and a million views
Today, Linthwaite FC has 26 teams, three disability sections, five girls' teams, a tots section, and 74 DBS-checked volunteers. James is now working towards an open-age women's team, building on an under-16 girls' side he wants to carry into next season.
The club has grown from 100 players to over 400 - but James is clear that numbers were never the goal.
"The plan is to grow organically and not just chase numbers," he said. "Ensuring that children and adults enjoy being with us and build good people for the community."
He runs the club's social media himself. Last year, Linthwaite FC hit a million organic views - as a grassroots club run entirely by volunteers.
For the 2025–26 season, the club won West Riding FA's Club of the Year. But when asked what makes the work worthwhile, James didn't mention the trophy.
"We took our disability team to St George's Park on a coach. Fifteen children from our disability section - and the excitement thriving off them when we drove through the gates is what makes it worthwhile."
Santa Claus, 10k a day, and £23,000 for food banks
Grassroots football isn't the only place James gives his time. Every December for the past six years, he has dressed up as Santa Claus - Bluetooth speaker, Christmas music, flashing lights - and run 10 kilometres a day for 25 consecutive days to raise money for local food banks.
It started during COVID, when his employer launched a "run a kilometre, plant a tree" initiative and James discovered that running gave him something he hadn't had before: an hour of free headspace every day. His boys asked why he was lighting himself up for dark winter runs, and the Santa idea was born.
He announced Santa's retirement last year, even holding a local press conference. But when he realised the food bank would struggle in December because donations dry up, he brought him back out of retirement and raised another £3,000 - bringing the five-year total to somewhere around £23,000. He now has a tattoo on his left leg mapping out five years of running routes.
Wembley, and what comes next
James's contribution was recognised with a special award that took him - and his eldest son - onto the pitch at Wembley.
His one regret? Not filming a recreation of the Chris Schindler penalty at the end where Huddersfield Town were promoted.
When asked whether he plans to continue, James was honest. There have been wobbles. Five years of fighting for facilities, navigating planning battles, and running a club of 400-plus players as a volunteer takes its toll. He has tried to step down twice.
"Nobody wants to take it on," he laughed. "So I'm stuck."
But this season, for the first time, has felt like football. No crises. No planning hearings. Just coaching, community, and the game.
"It's a special kind of people involved in grassroots football. The amount of children playing football in the UK wouldn't be possible if it wasn't for people putting in the hours. What we do shapes young people's futures." he says. We couldn't agree more.
Listen to James's full conversation with Jordan Elgott and Rohan Anand on The Grassroots Hotline.
