JOE’S TEEN DREAM
Academy will lift community
JOE GALLAGHER has opened an academy – with the aim of getting teenagers to hit the books.
The British trainer wants to see Manchester youngsters combining education with the sport he loves.
Gallagher, who runs a successful professional stable out of Amir Khan’s gym in Bolton, has put his name to a new project in the city.
The Joe Gallagher Academy will give 16 to 19-year-olds the chance to get a BTEC qualification while training under Gallagher’s guidance.
The trainer believes the project will help tackle anti-social behaviour and crime in and around the city.
Dragged
The first centre will open in September at the impressive and wellequipped Factory Youth Zone in Harpurhey.
Gallagher hopes to have a second centre soon at the Woodhouse Park Lifestyle Centre in Wythenshawe, near where he grew up.
It has been a life-long ambition of Gallagher to start such a project as he looks to give back to the local communities along with the help of those who already work hard in the area. He cites his own late teenage years when he was a boxing hopeful but was dragged out to work by his dad to earn a living after leaving school at 16.
Gallagher was out laying kerbs along Sir Matt Busby Way as his Manchester United heroes drove past to Old Trafford.
But he would still have preferred to have been in the gym working on his skills.
Now he is expecting around 40-50 teens to enrol in the exciting new project and get the chance he never had.
Those who sign up will get “worldclass” boxing training in the mornings before hitting the classroom in the afternoon to study for a BTEC qualification in Sport, all funded by Virtual Learning UK.
Then Gallagher will bring in some of his top stable, which includes former world champions Anthony Crolla and Liam Smith as well as potential future title holders Callum Smith and Natasha Jonas, to give masterclass sessions.
The Boxing Academy which helps troubled youths in London get education through the sport has been a massive success.
Let’s hope Gallagher’s project proves to be a knockout up north.