BUDDING referees and football coaches are honing their skills in a scheme being championed by the West Riding County Football Association.

And helping spearhead the work in Skipton is Katie Hoggarth of Skipton Town Football Club, a one-time player with Skipton Town women's team.

Katie, who is a qualified teacher of business studies, is helping co-ordinate the Young Leaders initiative which is being sponsored by John Oxley opticians of Skipton.

About 25 people - boys and girls - aged between 13 and 24, turned up for the scheme's launch night at Skipton Cricket Club which focused on refereeing.

Long term, it is hoped to tackle coaching and working with teams, to hold running events and courses on how to promote and develop the game and to explore the importance of "respect" within football.

Among the people taking part were Katie's mum, Anita Hoggarth, a teacher assistant at Greatwood School, and Ji Mukherjee of St Stephen's School, who were there to see what opportunities were on offer to develop Young Leaders at schools.

The refereeing workshop was led by Steve Rhodes from West Riding FA and a number of young people have taken up the challenge of volunteering as overseers of junior games.

"The young people involved log the number of hours they put to the scheme as milestones along the way and they are catalogued by the FA up to 50 hours," said Katie.

"Every three months the FA make contact and note what hours they have done.

"They are encouraged to attend a three-day refereeing course after which they are qualified to referee 11-a-side matches.

"We are trying to get some funding together so that we can put on a refereeing course which would encourage people to keep coming," she said.

She is also planning to organise another workshop later this year which will concentrate on coaching techniques.

She was pleased to see so many girls getting involved in football which was particularly relevant because, this year, girls were able to play with boys up to the age of 16.

"Although, I think, because there is a growth in the number of women playing football, most prefer to play in women's teams," said Katie.

On Sunday, November 23, Katie is taking a group of 41 to see the England women's side play German women at Wembley.