Because Elcock, currently celebrating a year as a full-time member of staff now employed as a cohesion coach, has embarked on one of those fantastic journeys from being a participant on one of the sessions to actually delivering them, trying to help young people find their own path in much the same way as he did many years ago.
As PL Kicks celebrates its 15th anniversary over the coming fortnight, it is a project which Elcock readily acknowledges he has a lot to be thankful for.
“I was probably around 17 or 18 when I first heard about these sessions Wolves were running on the Ashmore Park estate,” he recalls. “I was very quiet as a young person and didn’t have a lot of confidence, so I would go along to the sessions and just sit in the corner.
“I wasn’t just quiet, but I was also struggling because I had been bullied at school and that made my confidence even lower.
“I was going along to the session for teenagers and the coaches must have seen some potential in me as they then invited me along to observe the session for the younger children, to see how it was run.
“They thought I was someone who might be able to coach, but I really wasn’t sure, so I ended up sitting in the corner at those sessions as well!
“The coaches encouraged me to referee a game in one of those sessions, which was still a bit daunting to be honest. Even just refereeing a children’s football game, people might not think that is too difficult, but when you were like me, quiet and low on confidence, I was thinking how on earth I could approach that? I would rather have been sat in the corner!
“But the coaches there encouraged me, I had a go, and really enjoyed it, ended up completing my Level One qualification and it all took off from there.
“Going to those sessions and the support from the coaches encouraged me to take a path into coaching and youth work and the job I am doing now – without them I really don’t think it would have happened.”
Elcock did once inform his teacher at Coppice High School that he wanted to work at Wolves – as he was reminded on a visit back more recently.
But a lack of confidence had proved a barrier to really pushing for and pursuing those ambitions whilst at school.
“I found it difficult to tell my Careers Advisor that I wanted to be a football coach,” he recalls. “There were so many better footballers in my year at school that I thought people would take the mickey if I said I wanted to go for a job like that.”
But that is where PL Kicks can be so important and influential.
The initiative was launched back in 2007 with the aim of using football to bring communities together and engage with young people, especially those who had been difficult to reach, and guide them towards a range of healthy and constructive activities.
When Elcock first attended, the project was known as the Dusk Twilight Midnight League before soon coming under the Kicks umbrella, after which he then turned from participant to provider.
Starting out with what was then Wolves Community Trust as a part-time casual coach delivering community projects including Kicks, Elcock completed his weekly portfolio working in youth services in Wolverhampton and then Walsall.
He completed his Level 2 and Level 3 qualifications in youth work and spent a year studying youth work at Newman University in Birmingham, adding invaluable experience which increased his skillset beyond just coaching football and saw him move into providing additional support on inclusion projects.
As time went on Elcock also became far better equipped to deal with different challenges and an increased responsibility, not least when he was suddenly thrown into the environment of leading a feature on local TV!
“I remember once being called by Will (Clowes, head of Foundation) to be told that the next day I was going to be meeting then Wolves manager Mick McCarthy,” he explains. “I was still a fairly young, shy kid and was very nervous, and when I came in the next day there was a tactics board in the office.
“’Central News are coming down and they want to see you coaching at the training ground’, I was told. And Mick would be watching.
“Well that probably made me even more nervous than I was, with all these anxieties in my head, coaching these kids in front of Central News and Mick McCarthy. But I did it, and got through it, and once again it was a great experience to help me learn and develop.
“It wasn’t too long since I was that shy kid hiding in the corner, but now I was coaching in front of the Wolves manager and being filmed on television.”
Pushing himself out of his comfort zone played a key role in Elcock’s development, and he is now passing on the benefit of his knowledge and experience to participants not just on PL Kicks but also other inclusion projects including the Changemakers programme for girls of secondary school age who recently hosted a visit from Foundation ambassador Jacqui Oatley MBE.
Kicks in particularly remains such a vital initiative in opening doors to young people who could otherwise end up travelling down a very different path.
“Kicks is so important as it gives the young people a safe place to attend sessions and an opportunity where they feel they can come and talk to us about anything affecting them,” Elcock explains. “I still think in society young people can be painted in a bad light and get the blame for a lot.
“I saw a quote recently from a guy called Mark Bracewell, who had been both the victim of crime having been stabbed in the face and a perpetrator during his time in a gang in Manchester.
“He is now a motivational speaker and anti-knife campaigner and his quote was that young people are not bad, they are just making bad choices.
“I think for anyone involved in youth work it is trying to educate people in the choices that they make, getting them to think about what they might like to change about themselves.
“It’s not about telling them or forcing answers on them but passing on advice and guidance and informing them about those decisions.
“In many ways I think youth work is just a different style of coaching but without getting the footballs out – I find it really enjoyable.”
Elcock is certainly a shining advocate of how projects like PL Kicks can help shape not only short-term development but, on some occasions, an entire career.
Lee Smith, senior manager (operations), has worked with the Foundation throughout Elcock’s coaching and youth work journey, and has seen at first hand just how well he has progressed.
He says: “Matt was at a stage in his life where he really could have gone down a different path but attending these sessions and then starting his coaching journey gave him a focus and a new self- confidence.
“It was so important that the coaches were able to spot something that prompted them to work with him and develop his skills and that is such a strong part of PL Kicks in that many participants have so much potential but just need advice and guidance to move in the right direction.
“Another feature of Matt’s story and one which does him great credit is that ultimately it took him 14 years to land a permanent full-time role within the Foundation.
“With his move into youth work, and the balance with his coaching experience, the role that he carries out now is perfectly suited to his skillset.
“To think of Matt now, doing such great work and helping so many young people across the community, it is one of the great success stories of PL Kicks considering he arrived as such a quiet and unsure participant all those years ago.”
The change in Elcock from those early days has been transformational.
Spend a few minutes in the Foundation office, where Elcock is very much at the centre of the general hubbub and particularly some lively banter, it is almost impossible to believe he was once that young, quiet youngster hiding in the corner.
For a lifelong Wolves fan who grew up attending matches with his Dad, landing a full-time position with the Foundation this time last year has been the icing on his Molineux cake.
“It’s been a dream come true,” the 35-year-old admits. “It was a dream to get a part-time role but to then become full time is even better.
“When Jacqui spoke at that Changemakers sessions she talked about never letting yourself be told that you can’t do something or think that you can’t do something. That was something which really resonated with my own experiences.
“To go through the journey that I have been on makes me feel very proud and all I try to do now is help and encourage young people in the same way that the coaches once encouraged me.
“A few weeks ago, a young person came up to me and she said that I inspired her, and I was taken aback. She said that the way I was with young people had made her want to get into youth work when she is older, and that was such a proud moment – to have someone say that is just amazing.”
When it comes to job satisfaction, there can surely be no greater seal of approval.
And it all began at PL Kicks.
