1876 ready for development centre to start
PHOENIX football club Bangor 1876 are only weeks away from their development centre starting, writes JONATHAN ERVINE.
The club have scheduled ‘invitational sessions’ to begin from Monday, March 23, from 6-7pm at Treborth 4G, and children of all ages and ability are welcome. These will run every Monday until the end of May.
Iwan Williams, director of football, said: “Please could parents and players arrive in good time so we can take everyone’s details and issue a letter outlining all our plans and all the information you require.
“The sessions will run until the end of May, and cost £3 per session.
“They will enable us to understand the age groups we can form. This will then mean that we can allocate the coaches we have recruited to specific age groups.
“Our hub will be at the new 4G pitch being built at Plas Ffrancon, Bethesda with Bangor University’s Canolfan Brailsford kindly sup- porting us when necessary by mak- ing available their facilities and those at Treborth when required.
“We would like to express our thanks to Richard Bennett and Sam Wallwork from Bangor University for their continued assistance.
“From July 23 onwards, the Development Centre sessions will take place on Thursday evenings between 6-8pm.
“We have decided on Thursday as we believe it’s the evening that is least likely to clash with the training nights of local grassroots clubs.
“We are aware that local grassroots clubs have recently been told that playing even friendlies against Bangor 1876 junior teams is not permitted, and that they face sanction if they don’t abide by this.
“We would like to point out that is actually precisely what we wanted for our development centre. We intend to continue this strategy until it is possible to develop further into an accredited academy.
“Our message to the public is that we are not trying to work against local grassroots teams and be ‘elitist.’
“Instead, what we want to do is to work with local grassroots teams.
“We have implemented a ‘One Player, Two Clubs’ ruling which means that the children can still train and play for their grassroots sides say on a Tuesday and a Saturday.
“This approach will allow children to come to our centre for added development and play against academy sides on a Thursday and Sunday, should they wish to do so.
“Our present under-10s team run by Mathew Roberts and Alec Thomas are still classed as a junior team that is part of the Gwyrfai League, and will still be permitted to play against grassroots teams as it counts as a grassroots club itself.
“Our mission as a club and long term goal is to create a pathway that will enable young aspiring talent to progress all the way to first team level, and we are grateful to our first team coaching staff for their support.
“In the long term, we aspire to turn this youth structure into one of the best, if not the best, in Welsh domestic football.”
The team’s next scheduled league game is an away fixture against Menai Bridge Tigers on March 14 though they are due to face Llysfaen in the NWCFA Junior Cup next weekend.