It’s fair to say Coplestoninans are on a crest of a wave.

Off the back of the club’s best-ever finish in the SIL Senior Division, Cops are currently unbeaten again this season, ahead of their home clash with Benhall St Mary on Saturday.

But there is so much more to the story than just having an ever-improving first-team, Cops officials believing that theirs is the first club to field four different teams in the SIL set-up – a first-team, reserves, A and B team.

Currently, the club has 547 players and fields 25 boys’ teams – spearheaded by Junior Boys’ director of Football Dave McGregor, five girls’ sides and two vets teams.

The club also hosts walking football and plans are in the pipeline to introduce wheelchair football too.

Cops’ vice-chairman, Tony Robinson, said: “The whole club is absolutely booming.

“In 2010-11 we had three teams and were struggling for players at that time and the number of children coming to the club through the schools was petering out.

“We formed a youth section, with under-eight and under-10 teams and it’s just really gone on from there.

“The youth section has become a great source of pride and I am really pleased for our chairman, Wolfe Powell, who has been at the club since it was formed.

“Now, on Saturday mornings we have kids come from all over the local community, all in their Coplestonians tops and we put on free training for four to seven-year-olds (on Saturday mornings) between 9 and 10am.”

Cops’ first-team are aiming to maintain their unbeaten start to the league season today, with a team made up mostly of homegrown talent – a result of the successful youth system at the club.

“We have provided a pathway for the kids and they can play all the way through to the vets’ teams,” added Robinson.

“The majority of our first team are kids that are in their mid-Twenties that have been with us since they were in our under-18s.

“It’s been a massive success to go from where we were 10 years ago to where we are now.

“There is a lot of loyalty at this club as there is at a lot of other teams in the league – the likes of East Bergholt and Old Newton United.”