I am delighted to confirm that Stalybridge Celtic's academy has entered in to a two year deal with Hopwood Hall College from Rochdale and Middleton.
Gerald (the Chairman of the academy) in particular has worked extremely hard on this new deal and although we already have 40 students for the forthcoming year, there are actually still around 10 places left for new students to enrol as academic classes start on Monday.
<>Hopwood Hall have had a sporting academy now for 14 years and actually have an association with Manchester City too. Our students (16-18 year olds) will have a mixture of academic studies and on field coaching. They will have excellent fully qualified teachers in the classroom, and our very own maestro Briggsy (who will be helped by Danny and Paul Bennett) on the coaching side. The students will train at the fabulous Woodley Sports facility alongside our first team.The deal with Hopwood is tremendous as it gives us the financial stability required for us to develop the academy further. We have some promising first year students that this year, coming up to 18, will hopefully be knocking on Briggsy's door - and given that Keith will be coaching them week in, week out - he will be able to see which ones are likely to go on and be involved with the first team.
I have been asked about the gap between the first team and an academy in the Conference North. It is true that the Vanarama North gets more and more competitive every season and is - in terms of quality and fitness - more like the Conference was 15 years ago. However, the key for the academy is to get better and better quality students in at the start of the programme. We are - in reality - only in our embryonic stages of developing the whole academy concept and we have learnt a great deal over those past few years. We are also hoping that Briggsy's coaching will develop a number of these promising young lads.
But I shall add this. We already have two academy players signed on to the first team squad, but even in the unlikely event that not one other single player over the next century makes it even to Stalybridge Celtic's first team, let alone in to the football league, I shall still always feel proud that we've given 50 young lads, each year, the chance to either make it as a professional footballer, or, failing that, given them an education so they can take their academic qualifications on to university and pursue a course there that could help them in their career.
The board is thrilled to have entered in to this relationship with Hopwood Hall College and we hope that, in time, we will both see the fruits of the hard labour.
PS.....I forgot to mention that the lads this year will also be joined on the training ground by Shaun Goater, who is studying for his own UEFA badges and will hopefully be a tremendous experience for the City fans amongst the students.
