Member Article

Team work creates new South Shields FC Academy

A UNIQUE collaboration between a North East coaching company, college and football club has created the new South Shields FC Academy, which will offer a new route into the game for talented youngsters.

Improtech Soccer Elite, run by former Premier League footaller Martin Scott, has joined forces with Sunderland College and South Shields Football club to create the new Academy which will take up to 40 footballers aged between 16-19-year-olds on a two-year course.

And businessman Geoff Thompson, owner of the club, which has won three trophies this season and will contest the FA Vase later this month, believes the move will help secure the long-term development of the club.

The first sign of that came with the announcement that joint South Shields managers Lee Picton and Graham Fenton will go full-time at the club, helping run the Academy alongside Improtech and the college.

Mr Thompson said: “Our ultimate goal is to become a Football League side and being able to have Lee and Graham working with us full-time is only going to help us.

“They will be working within the Academy to help develop and bring talent through and while we’re very much aware that these things don’t happen overnight, the idea that we can build and improve local young talent, who would have a route through to our first team, is very exciting for the long-term development of the club.”

Scott, who is one of the leading football coaches in the country, is looking forward to the challenge posed to his Improtech Soccer Elite team.

He said: “Previously we have worked on going into education establishments and introducing an elite football coaching element to courses so that really promising young players, with the potential of becoming professional footballers, can get both a good education while still pursuing their football dreams.

“The academy at South Shields will be slightly different, in that being largely based at Mariners Park, the ethos is probably going to feel like football with an educational element, rather than education with a football element!

“That’s because the players will be training at the ground where one day they could be playing first team football and carrying out much of their studies inside a football ground.”

Improtech Soccer Elite now has four bases in the region - at the football club, at Sunderland College and two schools - Kepier Academy in Houghton and English Martyrs in Hartelpool - making it the biggest providers of elite football in education in the North.

John Rushworth, faculty director for sport, health and well-being at Sunderland College, says the Academy programme will replicate that experienced by scholars at professional football clubs.

He said: “We are delighted to be working in partnership with South Shields Football Club and Improtech on the new Academy.

“It is something different for sport in the College - working with a third party and delivering education at multiple sites.

“But we think it is something which will be good for everyone involved and the most important thing is that young footballers in the area of real promise now have another option to consider without compromising their education.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Graeme Anderson .