FROM five-a-side to Futsal, Darwen Rangers have come an awfully long way since forming 20 years ago.

It was back in 1991 that Bill Stemp set up the club with just one five-a-side team.

Today, the club is unrecognisable to that solitary small sided outfit that turned out nearly two decades ago - although the ethos of playing football for fun has still remained.

The club is currently in the middle of another hugely successful Futsal coaching course which has seen more than 300 youngsters from reception class to year six taking part.

“The Futsal has been brilliant,” said general manager Neill Caville.

“It has been really popular, so much so we have had to turn children away.”

The club obtained funding from Sport Unlimited to run the out-of-school training in Futsal – the indoor football game which originates from the streets of Brazil.

Mike Leighton, the club’s schools liasion officer, has worked hard to promote Futsal with Rangers enlisting the services of Steve Watson and his Superstars Coaching team to run the courses.

“Mike has done a lot of work with the schools and has been instrumental in making the Futsal so successful,” added Caville.

“The whole point of futsal is to give youngsters a taste of football. So for so many of them to show an interest in joining the club shows we are doing something right.”

Darwen Rangers is a community club in every sense of the word.

Driven by a loyal team of volunteers, it is fast becoming a sporting cornerstone of the town.

It has forged links with primary and secondary schools, not to mention Darwen Cricket Club, and boats more than 250 youngsters playing football from under fives to under 16s.

Caville said: “The club has come a long way since it was first founded and now, thanks to a lot of hard work, we are a real part of the community.”

The club has worked hard to set up those links in the Darwen community, most notably with Aldridge Academy.

It has run – or in the process of running – courses for coaches and referees.

However, despite being a football club, it is looking at ways of introducing other sports.

“At the moment we do not have the facilities to start other sports but we would be more than happy to work with other clubs who may want to work with us,” added Caville.

“We have already held football coaching sessions at every primary school in the borough and there is nothing to say we can’t do that in other sports such as hockey or netball.

“We strongly believe that working as a community is the way forward and in the best interest of the children because, at the end of the day it is all about them.

“If we can introduce them to sport and enjoy it then we are achieving our goals.”