Klub Kildare set to run new Transition Year Football Programme

Klub Kildare are set to run their first ever Transition Year Football Programme from next September, affording young players the opportunity to garner some insight into what the life of a professional footballer is like.

The year-long initiative will see transition-year students taken out of their normal school setting to both train and study in a soccer-orientated programme that will be run full-time Monday to Friday from September through to May.

While players will engage in training, matches and a full gym programme, the curriculum is also designed to see participants gain more of an understanding in other areas of the sport, such as coaching, refereeing, analysis, nutrition and sport psychology.

All of this is to be tied in with more traditional schooling in the likes of English and Maths and, possibly another language, together with two-weeks work experience with various companies in the local area.

Based in the Klub Kildare grounds in Killashee Hotel, the project will be fronted by lead co-ordinator John Gill and his assistant co-ordinator, Mark Perth.

“It’s a brand-new programme, and at the end of the year, these players will go back to school having experienced what the life of a professional footballer would be like,” explained Pat McNally, Klub Kildare Secretary.

“This will be soccer-orientated. They’ll be training full-time, between gym work and playing, but there also has to be an educational aspect to it and we’re looking at getting teachers involved who will do English, Maths and probably another language.

“It’s a fabulous experience, and to have the likes of John Gill, who has coached at the very highest level, coached in Europe and is a professional-licensed coach, it’s just great. He’ll be there two days a week coaching.

“John will be heading it up, and Mark Perth will be the assistant co-ordinator. He’ll also be bringing in his brothers, Vinny and Paul [Perth] for talks. Richard Dunne [former Ireland international] is also going to come over and give us a talk, as will Shamrock Rovers manager Stephen Bradley.

“We also want to get in psychologists and motivational speakers, things that they might not have time to do in an ordinary football club.

“The FAI are going to get involved by providing the coaching experience, setting them the pathways for their soccer coaching badges. There’ll be a referee’s course, so if they want to take up that afterwards, they’ll have those qualifications.

“There will be gym programmes that the players will have to adhere to, along with training and matches. We’ll be videoing our own matches and we’ll do an analysis of those to show where players may have made mistakes and how they could have done better.

“We’re also linking in with Maynooth University. At the start of the season they’ll do a fitness test, using their facilities. We’ll do it in December and at the end of the year, so that they can see the difference that it has made to them” he said.

This new programme has already sparked a huge amount of interest from a number of players both inside and outside of Klub Kildare.

It is anticipated that the number of players being taken on board for the first year of the initiative will be limited to about 25 as McNally explained.

 “With it being the first year of the programme for us, we want to make sure that we do it properly, but in years to come, that number may increase.

“We’ve already got numbers interested, and if we get more than 25, we’ll have trials to select the participants,” he said.

This latest undertaking, which mirrors other such programmes run in Dublin and Limerick, marks another huge step forward for Klub Kildare, which has proven a growing force in underage League of Ireland soccer.

Indeed, since it’s entry into the National League with just one squad in 2019, Klub Kildare has grown to cater for four male teams at Under 14, 15, 17 and 20 level, and, from this year, a new Under 17 women’s squad.

In addition to that, Klub Kildare are also looking to figure in the newly-proposed National League that will act as the third tier in Irish soccer, where teams will compete for promotion to the League of Ireland First Division.

The new Transition Year Football Programme is another means for Klub Kildare to educate players on what it takes to compete at this level, and anyone looking for more information can attend the open night to be held by the club at the end of January and/or complete an expression of interest form by visiting the Klub Kildare Facebook Page.