Killarney Athletic’s underage academy

THE club’s first underage Academy was set up in 1992 for children from Under 10 upwards and Saturday morning training took place at Knockreer in the Demense. The club organised the first ever FAI Soccer Clinic in Kerry in 1992, which was held in the hallowed grounds of the Áras Pádraig pitch.

Irish Internationals Paul McGrath and Mick McCarthy visited the ground at the time to add their support of the event. Alan McLoughlin, scorer of the equalising goal against Northern Ireland in 1993 resulting in Ireland qualifying for the World Cup in 1994 in the USA was also an attendee at this Summer Camp.

Due to the increasing development and interest in soccer and demands on our growing club, a plot of land was purchased in Woodlawn in 1993. Following development of this land we moved to Woodlawn in 1995 where our wonderful and scenic grounds have continued to develop. Our modern clubhouse with two grass pitches have been augmented with the opening of an All Weather training pitch in September 2018.

Some notable achievements by former Killarney Athletic Academy players include the following Michael Moloney who captained Ireland in Under 16 teams on five occasions in 2003/2004. Diarmuid O’Carroll who signed for Celtic FC in Scotland in 2003. Brendan Moloney who signed for Nottingham Forest in 2005.

Secretary of the underage academy Martin Muldoon says Killarney Athletic have a very active and vibrant juvenile section.

“During the past season, 2019/2020, we had 17 teams competing in the Kerry School Boys & Girls League Divisions. Due to the “Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent lock down, it resulted in the early finish of the 2019/2020 season.

“However, our Under 12 Premier and Under 13 Premier teams both won their respective divisions as did our Under 14 Division 1 team. Our Under 15 team were runners-up in Division 1.” “It was not possible to finish