A FOOTBALL academy at Wiltshire College & University Centre is not only giving students the chance to represent their place of learning on the pitch – it is providing them with career opportunities.
The 30 students who make up the college squad field two teams in the Association of Colleges South West League – with a women’s team set to start playing soon. The squad is mainly made up of students studying sport but also includes others studying a range of subjects, including business, engineering and construction.
The students train every Monday at the Wiltshire FA’s Green Lane Playing Fields, where they can take advantage of professional-level facilities and equipment, including 3G pitches, Global Positioning System (GPS) training vests and video analysis.
Deputy Head of Department Ben Deacon, who leads the academy, said access to quality coaching and kit and equipment can be a springboard into careers within sport for the players. “The facilities are so good and they mean the students have access to sports science equipment which can monitor their game metrics, like the distance travelled, top speed, positional heat maps, acceleration and deceleration rates,” he says.
“The players develop their game but because they are also looking at the sports science behind it they’re learning about the industry as well. It gives them the opportunity to work with the same equipment that elite performers and clubs such as Manchester United would be using so they’re getting a good insight into how to monitor performance like any professional team.
“They work with equipment they wouldn’t normally be able to with grass roots teams and the sports students can also apply that to their theory work.”
A collaboration with Melksham-based coaching academy Future of Football is bringing the players into the orbit of elite coaching sessions. “They coach our players and I think our programme will be enhanced,” says Ben. “And because Future of Football is getting so big, our students have a direct pathway into work placements with them as well.”
For the non-sports students, the academy represents a second chance of developing their game and building up coaching experience they might otherwise have missed out on. “There are a number of people who drop out of playing sport at a certain age, either because they don’t get the same chances to play or their friendship group pull away from sports so they decide to do the same,” says Ben.
“The academy gives them another chance to play and keep their sporting journey going.”
Aside from the playing and coaching, the academy brings a chance to make new friends. “It gives the players a sense of belonging to the college, more than if they just came in and did their studies. They represent the college so they have the pride of doing that, as well as forming friendships that can stay with them for life,” says Ben.
“When you see students who have made the leap into college and maybe left some of their friendship groups behind, the academy gives them the opportunity to build up new circles of friends through sport and it helps them settle into college.”
For each member of the academy, no matter what their ability or their eventual goal, it offers is a chance to experience what professional sport can be like. “Grass roots teams don’t have the facilities we use or access to the sport science support we have, so they are getting an experience that is as close to professional sport as we can make it,” says Ben.
“For the majority of them that might be the closest they’ll come to it from a playing point of view but they get experience and the chance to develop as coaches or within that analytical side of sport and they can go into those types of roles as a career.
“They get to see that side of the industry and while they’re doing that they’re making friends and getting the opportunity to play sport and represent the college.”
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