Member Article

Gornal Colts net Sixes ‘Academy’ Deal

A local junior team has joined forces with a Kingswinford indoor football centre to develop the next generation of footballing talent.

Gornal Colts and Gornal Girls has taken the ambitious decision to create a new academy in partnership with ‘Sixes’ in Ham Lane as part of its 10th birthday celebrations.

The club, which currently operates ten teams made up of over 100 players, will provide a number of special courses and training sessions to get children as young as 3-years old involved in the game.

These will be staffed by experienced FA coaches and utilises Sixes’ two indoor pitches and changing facilities.

“This is a really exciting development for our club and provides us with a constant stream of young players, who are well coached and understand the game,” explained Alan Moore, Chairman of Gornal Colts and Gornal Girls.

“Sixes is often the first experience some children get of football so we thought we’d build on our existing relationship with them and formalise a clear progression route into our teams and hopefully into semi-professional or professional clubs.”

He went on to add: “We’ve seen a gradual decline in the number of players wanting to get involved in organised teams, especially on the girls side. Hopefully, this move will be rectify this and enable us to build our club up so we can compete at every age group from under 7s upwards.”

Sukh Johal, Director of Sixes Football Centre, added his support: “We have been involved with Gornal Colts and Gornal Girls for many years so we see this move as a natural progression.

“It also raises our profile in grassroots football, which can only be good for our business. If we can also give a little back by helping develop the next England internationals then all the better!”

Gornal Colts and Gornal Girls were formed in 2005 after breaking away from Gornal Athletic’s youth structure.

It plans to mark its 10th anniversary by exploring new commercial partnerships with local businesses and building relationships with schools and colleges.

Longer term, the club is looking at the possibility of developing its own dedicated sporting facility in Gornal, including full size pitches and ‘3G’ training surfaces.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Russ Cockburn .