Meet The Chaplains Of Reading Football Club

Pete sits down with Steve Prince and Angy King for a lengthy, in-depth chat about their work at the club.

As football fans, we know that if we go behind the multi-million-pound business facade, there are a number of unsung heroes that go about their business quietly, efficiently and voluntarily - and at no cost.

These individuals - although they don’t seek it - undoubtedly don’t get the recognition and reward they deserve through their tireless support and dedication to others, and to the club as a whole.

Steve Prince and Angy King are two such individuals - and names you may not have previously heard of. They are the Reading Football Club chaplains, for both the men’s and women’s football team’s respectively. Between them they have a combined service in excess of 30 years, and are an important and integral part of the club’s framework, providing a wide support network (and so much more) to many people.

They kindly gave up some of their busy time to sit down for a chat to explore the important role that chaplaincy plays in football. Our discussions included managers who welcomed them, with more praise for Ruben Selles (our chat was before his departure); their different journeys to Reading Football Club - including a great story of how Steve passed his interview (involving Sir John Madejski and Royals antihero Alan Pardew!); the challenges to the values they’re used to since Covid; and the seemingly never-ending ownership worries and uncertainty.

We also confirmed that it’s not a requirement to have a royally linked surname to be considered as a chaplain of the Club - but it helps!

The journey to Reading Football Club: Sir John Madejski, Alan Pardew and a pioneer

As a Reading fan since the age of 13 (back in the days of the Elm Park yo-yo years of divisions three and four), Steve Prince - recently retired as pastor of Brookside Church - now finds himself in his 21st year as chaplain of the men’s team, since joining in the 2003/04 season.

“It’s been a joy to serve as a chaplain - since being invited by Barry Kirk (the outgoing chaplain) to take over the role,” Steve says. But this was, of course, subject to Sir John Madejski’s acceptance, with the Royals’ flamboyant ex-chairman setting a particularly amusing and wry challenge for him to pass.

As Steve explains, his inaugural match in the role as chaplain saw the Royals pitted against West Ham United and the return of Alan Pardew - who had left earlier in the season to join the Hammers - despite Sir John refusing him permission.

The proviso to getting the job was set by Sir John - with the challenge that, “if we beat West Ham you’re in, otherwise God may not want you to do this!” Thankfully, Reading won (thanks to two goals from Dave Kitson) and the rest is history.

For Angy King the route was, thankfully, different but equally unique. As a PE teacher of 30 years, she found herself looking for a pathway out of teaching, when a chaplain at her son’s football club spoke to her about undertaking a sports chaplaincy degree - which she completed in 2013.

At a conference Angy was introduced to Steve, who suggested taking on the role for the women’s team - leading the way as the first chaplain for the modern women’s game (when Jane Ludlow was the manager and Kelly Chambers her assistant).

As a pioneer, everyone agreed to learn together - “spending the last 11 years learning how to be a chaplain and, since then, I’ve continued to learn every day”, she recalls.

Angy is an advocate, her duties including being a pastoral coordinator for women’s football in England. As the game grew, so did the numbers, with chaplaincy positions in women’s football peaking at 23 - but it has recently fallen again. Angy explains that “finding replacements has been particularly difficult, with women’s football matches being played on a Sunday”.

“In recent years we have had a few Christian players and, because the matches are played on a Sunday, they were unable to get to church. Some players asked for bible study and prayer time on another day - so, after training (and once a fortnight), we retired to a nearby garden centre cafe, where we’d meet as a group.

“Although we’d start off with the intention of study and prayer - with training still in the forefront of their minds - we would sometimes end up with discussions about what happened in training - with a prayer at the end.”

“Sports Chaplaincy UK are Christians and some players want a prayer on matchdays about any issues they have [on their mind], which might not be connected to football, but might affect how they play - to help them forget, whilst they played the match.”

When asked about their role as Christians in a multi-cultural, multi-faith world, Steve and Angy are both in agreement, saying: “People having a lot of respect for us - and our role.

“We’re not there to make people Christians - we’re there to give people life choices, to choose for themselves and support them in whatever decisions they make - guiding, directing and signposting them to professional help, whatever their particular religion, whenever and wherever that’s needed.”

The role of chaplaincy within a football club

“Chaplaincy is an old-fashioned term, in many ways, a military term - a pastor,” Steve says. When he took over the position some 20 years ago, the role of football chaplaincy was described as being ‘a friend of the club’ and, to date, he and Angy still refer to themselves as ‘guests of the club’ - of the players, the staff that work behind the scenes, stewards and supporters - offering pastoral care.

“As football chaplains we operate on the basis of being ‘pastorally proactive and spiritually reactive’, providing care, empathy, listening and support - together with any guidance, direction or advice that may be sought,” Steve explains. “Importantly, if there are any spiritual requirements, these must be led from the individual and not initiated by the chaplain.”

There is a calmness and comforting stillness about Steve and Angy - making it easy to see why the players and staff feel safe in their confidence and conversations. As Steve points out: “Most people don’t want a spiritual conversation - so removing the worry and confirming that they don’t have to talk about God means that people start to trust you a lot more, and the respect follows.

“When players first join a new club they can often feel isolated and quite lonely to begin with and they don’t know who to trust. As chaplains, we can help by providing friendship, listening well to people, building trust and confidentiality - and, when asked, giving advice.”

The topics of conversation are varied and wide-ranging. Steve recalls a time when a player - many years ago now - asked him for help for his neighbour, whose marriage was struggling, and whether Steve could help equip him to help his neighbour, with any advice or for a book reference to help out.

“When Eamon Dolan died, that was a big moment in the football club - everyone (even the sports psychologists) were traumatised by this,” Steve recalls. “Eamon was such a big values-based person and I found myself talking to all sorts of people - many far better qualified than I am - but the bereavement was just shocking really - as Eamon was such a father figure around the club.”

For Angy, the role has been far-reaching too, as she’s done pretty much everything! Her duties have included supporting the first team, as well as extending her support to the Emerging Talent Centre and Regional Talent Clubs from the under-10s through to the under-16s and under-21s.

On the sidelines, she quickly found herself being an ear and support for the parents watching - understanding what they are going through (hoping their children can make it in their career) - and also as a mum who has been through it - and spent a lot of evenings supporting her son’s footballing journeys.

Steve jokes: “Apart from manager, Angy appears to have done most roles.”

In the early days she was on turnstile duties (at Farnham), she helped with hospitality (at High Wycombe) and continued this role when the team moved to the SCL Stadium where - similar to Steve, she also visited the boxes, in a role as an ambassador for the club.

With the women’s team rebuilding from scratch come even more new duties: getting to the ground early to help first-team manager Pedro Bruno set up the changing rooms, greeting the players and talking to the fans.

How the values around the club have changed since Covid and the ongoing ownership issues

“When we got to the Premier League the culture was so strong, in terms of valuing people, honour, respect and family - which they sustained throughout both excursions to the top flight - under Steve Coppell and Brian McDermott,” Steve explains. “It’s the succession of ‘not very good owners’ which has eradicated the value system.”

Covid has had an effect too, with Steve saying his matchday experience has completely changed since the pandemic.

“Pre-Covid I would get there early, be allowed into the changing rooms, greet the players - check they are OK - go pitchside, talk to the managers and have some great conversations. The club would ask me to visit one or two people (guests) in the boxes - being pastorally proactive on matchdays.

“Post-Covid, everything has changed. I couldn’t go to the training ground for 18 months and it was like starting again afterwards. Since then, I haven’t been behind the scenes, I haven’t been in the changing rooms - and part of that is, unfortunately, indicative of the ownership issue and paranoia around the club in the background. I’m hoping that, once the ownership issue has been resolved, I think that could be easily resurrected.”

“I used to go into the referee’s room and welcome the officials - in the role of a club matchday host - but that’s also stopped with Covid.”

How the chaplains have been received by Selles and Bruno

“Most managers are very positive about chaplains - occasionally you will get one who feels a bit more insecure and feels slightly threatened and concerned that the players may be divulging things - but that’s very rare,” Steve says.

“I’ve worked with some good managers over the years but Ruben’s probably the best in terms of his openness. With everything stripped away there’s a need for pastoral support - and people are real and honest. Believe it or not, there’s a positive to all this nonsense [that’s going on with the ownership] and we’re seeing that [togetherness] on the pitch.”

When Selles joined he asked Steve for help in understanding ‘what were the values in the football club - which had previously helped to build success - and what was needed to help to rebuild this again’. “It was a great question because you immediately knew that he was going to try and encourage people to build the foundation on the values that have always worked.”

When Steve asked the Reading coaching team how they were helping everyone through these difficult times, Tobias Loveland’s reply was, again, positive, stating that “they often start off with a gratitude session - what are we grateful for - in order to refocus our minds” - which is a great quality and attitude to have.

For Angy it was Jane Ludlow who gave her the opportunity - with Kelly Chambers an advocate for this role to continue. Current manager Bruno is very positive about the role and the values this brings.

He’s so positive about it that he has asked if the role could be expanded - to include cover just in case Angy can’t always be around - and invited her to be part of the matchday team, sitting on the bench, alongside the other coaches and substitutes.

The effect of the current struggles the club finds itself in

“When you’ve got owners that don’t live by the values [we’ve discussed], they gradually dissipate,” Steve explains. “There is, however, still a lot of reality - and with players and staff wondering if they are going to be paid - it makes you hugely honest and real.”

It’s easy to forget that the chaplains, seen as pillars of strength, are human too. So it shouldn’t be surprising that Steve says: “Personally, I’m a fairly level and emotional person, but I’ve also felt quite low, for a lot of people, because it’s not a fair environment for people to work in.”

And as you’d expect, he bounced back quickly with a more upbeat message: “But there are positives. Sometimes when life is tough it can go one way or the other - and there are strengths to that - if you survive the distance.”

It’s been dark times for the women’s team too: dropping from the heady days of the Women’s Super League to the Championship, only to be followed by the shock news late in the summer that funding had been stopped and everyone within the club was to be made redundant, with Reading relegated to tier five of the pyramid.

Angy speaks of resilience and the fight to rebuild - led by the efforts of more unsung heroes in the form of Emma Hopkins and Dave Evans (Community Trust) and for the younger teams to be included too.

Equally as positive in her outlook, Angy beams when saying: “Now, when you look around and see that we do have a first team (who train twice a week), we do have a pathway - with teams ranging from under-10s to under-15s - it’s lovely to see that [after all the hard work and effort] it’s actually happened and we’re still here! We’re still not at the level that we were, but we’re still here - and I get a thrill from that.”

The difficulties, however, continue. “Only recently we found out that we could no longer use the pitch behind the Dome - so we had to quickly find somewhere else [for the younger teams] to play and train’ - finding Forest School as the alternative.”

It’s a vocation

“Working with people is a privilege - but it can be tiring,” Steve admits. “There’s a lot of areas that can have a deep effect on professional sportspeople: loneliness, isolation, a relatively short career, injury - and sometimes with the added perception from some fans that ‘it’s alright for you, because you have a lot of money’.”

When asked about what they do with any free time - they are both keen walkers and cyclists (Angy an ex-triathlete) - it quickly becomes evident that their duties, as well as their pastoral and spiritual work, never stop - as well as support for their families, with their grandchildren occupying much of their time.

Although Steve is now technically retired, he and his wife continue to work for, and with, Transform Reading (bringing together churches and charities across the town).

There is also a steady stream of people wanting to hold committals in the Garden of Remembrance (at the football club) - for which Steve duly obliges.

Angy can often be found using her - supposedly free - time on a Saturday morning watching the under-13s and under-15s play. And with both the women’s first team and pathway sides not training until after school, college and work, she’s usually not home until late most evenings.

And finally, let’s also not forget that, like us, they are Reading fans too - so have been on the rollercoaster journey not only with us, but also with the players, coaches and staff at the club - together with the parents of our young aspiring talent within the academy and wider pathways.

So when you next see them, please take a moment to say hello (they’ll enjoy that) and thank them for all the work they do behind the scenes.