We are delighted to announce the launch of our new Academy Emerging Talent Programme. This weekly coaching will be available for Under 6’s to Under 16’s to underpin Academy recruitment for players who live within an hour of Lincoln. The programme will be closely aligned to the Academy, in terms of staffing, coaching syllabus and the host venue at Riseholme College.
The programme will also complement the existing player pathways, ensuring that we can provide an appropriate opportunity for every young player within Lincolnshire, from a participation level to the Elite Development Centre within the Foundation onto the Academy Emerging Talent Programme and the Academy. Our aim is to help every young player fulfil their potential and that is achieved by the Club’s Development Pyramid which transcends the Academy & Foundation.
With the Academy’s progress over the last 2 years, the bar has been significantly raised for all the players in the Club’s schoolboy programme (Under 9’s to Under 16’s) to earn a Scholarship. To develop as many Scholars as possible through the Club’s own Academy, increasing the reach of recruitment and talent identification in the younger age groups is crucial, hence this initiative.
Head of Football, Jez George, explaining the rationale, said “In a changing football landscape, which has seen Lincoln City’s progress in 3 years from the National League to League One, while other clubs have been on the opposite journey, the Emerging Talent Programme will enable us to throw the net wider geographically in identifying and recruiting players across the younger age groups for our Academy. This is vital if we are to consistently develop a high proportion of our own scholars rather than relying on recruiting players released by bigger clubs every year at 16. In the long-term we want the majority of scholars each year to come through our schoolboy programme, but we have a lot of work to do before that can be a realistic aim. This is the next step.”
Jez also explained the background work that has already been put in place for this programme to start in September. He continued, “Obviously, with current situation around Covid-19, we face unprecedented uncertainty. However, this programme was already being put in place by our Head of Academy Recruitment, Lincoln Christer, so everything is ready to start as soon as there is a return to all Academy activities. We have worked really hard over the last 18 months on the coaching provision and fixture programme for our Academy players to enable them all to fulfil their potential. Part of that process has been the recruitment of key senior staff, such as Academy Manager, Jordan McCann, Head of Coaching, David Bridges, and Phase Leads, Tom Shaw, Ash Foyle and Lee Moran. This is an exceptional team of really talented and incredibly hard-working individuals. The next step is to improve our scope for recruiting players, which the Academy Emerging Talent Programme will achieve.”
Head of Academy Recruitment, Lincoln Christer, added “This is a brilliant opportunity for talented young players, with the potential to progress into our Academy, across counties adjacent to Lincolnshire where we have not previously been able to actively recruit players. We will use the same facility as the Academy, many of the same staff, the same coaching syllabus and the same philosophy regarding the development of talented young players. This is an exciting new programme and we really look forward to identifying and recruiting emerging talent for our Academy, which will help to achieve the Club’s long-term goals of consistently producing home grown players for our First Team.”
For further information, please email aetp@theredimps.com and visit the Academy section on our website, www.weareimps.com. For further information on the wider development programme please CLICK HERE or email football@lincolncityfoundation.co.uk
