Rotherham United and Rotherham United Community Sports Trust are delighted to have successfully collaborated with Rotherham School Select Football Association, as we look to improve footballing opportunities for children right across our town.
We will work closely with Rotherham Schools Select in order to bridge the gap between academy and grassroots football, in what we hope will give opportunities for boys and girls in Rotherham to flourish within the game.
Expert coaches will be on hand across a range of pathways in our Future Stars programme, as we seek to assist those who aren’t in an academy setup to enhance their footballing education to the next level, with the opportunity to represent Rotherham Schools Select and play against high calibre opponents.
As part of the agreement, a support network has been established in order to mentor the Schools Select coaches, who will benefit from assistance from our Academy System and our Lead Coaches. Children will now have an even greater chance of success, having collaborated together to put in place a scouting network for school games.
Rotherham United Head of Community Jamie Noble is excited by the prospect of offering young people across the town the chance to play football at the highest level.
“As a football club we want to make sure the all boys and girls have the opportunity to play football at the highest level that they want to play or their ability allows them to play.
“Whilst Rotherham United is an elite football club with a fantastic academy system, we also have many opportunities for young people to play at grassroots level or recreationally as adults."
“Rotherham school select see some of the best Rotherham talent week in week out, and we are proud to say a number of these players are already in our Academy system.
“This fantastic partnership allows us to share Rotherham United philosophes as well as opportunities to access coaching from Rotherham’s best professional coaches. It is vital that as a club we have good links with other settings where young people play football."
“Not only are we offering the club an opportunity to learn alongside us, we are proud to be associated with the management team and their coaches to enable them to access some of the facilities and resources which we have as a club, as well as offering unique match day opportunities, where hopefully one day some of them will be representing Rotherham United FC in the English Football League.”
Aaron Boyd, Rotherham Schools Chairman was equally as enthused and expressed his pride in being able to offer this exciting opportunity.
“This partnership is massive news for our association. We have come a long way in the last months in numerous areas of our operations and this is the perfect icing on the cake so to speak.
“In a lot of regions, the professional club and the Schools Select Association have no relationship which can make it difficult when trying to select the best players to represent the area.
“The fact that Rotherham United have such a positive attitude towards schools’ representative football and are going the extra mile to actually come into partnership with us and help us drive the standards and opportunities forwards for kids in our area is a massive credit to them and speaks volume of the ethos of our hometown club.
“I am very proud to have worked alongside the club to put this partnership together and a special thanks to Jamie Noble from the Community Trust who really was a driving force behind making sure that this deal not only happened but was in the best interests of all parties.
“We can’t wait to get moving with this partnership now it has finally been announced!”
