My name is Darren James and I’m a Wolves disability adult player. I’m married to my beautiful wife Emma and we have two gorgeous kids – Liam, who’s 12, and Esmee, who’s six. To say this lot keep me busy would be an understatement. By day I’m an operations manager for a manufacturing company in Telford.
I’m born and bred in Wolverhampton, and very proud of the fact. I’ve been a Wolves fan all my life. I got the Wolves bug when my dad took me to see the team win the 1988 Sherpa Van Trophy, (might be giving my age away there!) and I’ve followed the team ever since, through the bad and good.
I was born with an abnormality to my right leg so I wear an artificial limb but I’ve never let this stop me when it comes to sports. I’ve always been very active and enjoy all kinds of sports, from basketball, tennis, jogging, cycling to, obviously, football.
I’ve always been a pretty good basketball player if I don’t say so myself, and while at school I got picked to go and train for the then Paralympics. Unfortunately I didn’t go as I didn’t realise the opportunity and the Paralympic wasn’t as cool as it is nowadays. I would say turning that invitation down is a massive regret of mine, but everything happens for a reason.
Through my school days I used to play either in goal or in defence and I’d much rather block a shot or win a crunching tackle than score a goal. I like to see the game from the back where I can help the team with organisation and positioning. Maybe that’s the manager side coming out in me!
Once I left school my job and career became the focus but me and my close group of friends would meet every week to play football at the local community school. This was just a bit of fun, nothing serious, but kept us all together and still playing.
As time went by the weekly football started to slow down and eventually stopped. I was still after that fix for keeping active and that competitiveness, so took up running. Nothing mad like marathons, just small distances from 2.5k to 5k. I found myself competing with myself, trying to get personal bests every time I went out. I regularly ran the charity 5k at West Park, and this was fine for a short time, but I still wanted to play a team sport.
It was only by chance that I got involved with Wolves Foundation. It was when me and my son saw the disability team on the pitch at a Cardiff game a few years ago. I got home and told my wife that I was a bit annoyed to be fair as there wasn’t anything like this when I was younger, but she insisted I get in touch. So, I got hold of an email for Gav (inclusion lead Gavin Jones) and got in touch.
Gav was so welcoming. He told me to come down and train with the lads and to be honest that’s all I was after in the beginning. Just to keep active and play football again. But it didn’t take me long to get back into the swing of things, I’d got that competitiveness back, the banter with the lads was there and in no time at all I was part of the team.
This was made so easy due to the coaches. Gav, Carl, Luke, Mark and the one and only Matt are so good at what they do. For me, coming into the team at lets say a slightly older age than the rest of the lads, they just made the transition easy. I signed for the team the following season, only for that season to be postponed due to the Covid pandemic.
During 2020, with no football in sight, I set myself the challenge of walking the Yorkshire Three Peaks for charity. Don’t ask me why I chose to do this, I’ve never done anything like it before. So, I set off training for this up and down the Wrekin in Telford. I also went up Snowdon as well but nothing prepared me for the day of the Three Peaks. It rained all day, the wind was howling cold, it was horrendous, but I did it and raised a few funds for the Shelter along the way. Gav and the Foundation also got behind me, raising funds from the other lads.
Soon footy was back on, training outdoors at West Park as initially we were not allowed in the Arena. But we were back playing football with the lads and training for the new season. And before we knew it, we were back in the Arena. Things were good.
But just around the corner we were locked down again and football came to a stop.
So I wanted something else to do! At the start of the year Wolves launched their Feed our Pack campaign and I knew I needed to help out and do my bit. I’d recently taken up cycling, I wasn’t up to Tour de France standards but was using it as a way to keep fit.
I spoke to one of my friends who is an avid cyclist and asked him what a good target would be to cycle through the month of February so I could raise funds for the campaign. He said if I could do 250 miles in 28 days, that would be good for a beginner with a full-time job and a young family. So that was it, the Just Giving page was launched and the target was set.
Every day throughout February I clocked up the miles. It was hard as my job is very high pressured, so getting on my bike every day after work was the last thing I wanted to do. It also meant missing valuable time with my family. But my wife and kids supported me and made it easier for me by just doing the little things.
Also, I cannot explain how bad the saddle sores were and the blisters I got on my leg. But it was all worth it. I got some massive love from the Foundation on social media, I also got support from the local radio and I managed to get a big donation from work too. As I entered the last week of the month it was obvious that I was going to clock the 250 miles. Some of my friends had sponsored me per mile, so I wanted to get as much as I could from them. In the end I achieved just over 300 miles and raised over £1,000 for the Feed our Pack campaign.
Soon we were back together as a team and in the Arena. Training was in full swing with a new season approaching. We all couldn’t wait for the new season and Gav and the coaches were really putting us through our paces in the build up.
It’s now almost Christmas, we’ve played a few games in our new league. Some results haven’t gone as we would have liked but it’s nice to be in a good quality league and just playing competitive football is brilliant. I can’t express how much I enjoy being part of the team and the Foundation. My son is involved with the PL Kicks project and my daughter can’t wait to get going either.
I’d love to continue my diary and fill you in with how the season turns out!
Until next time, peace & love.
Daz!
