Saints strengthen ties with West Brom

TOP Northside schoolboy football club, St Kevin’s Boys’ FC, has announced
an enhanced alliance with an English Premiership outfit.

The Whitehall club initially
linked up with West Bromwich Albion in 2004 but this latest development will
further strengthen the tie-up between both clubs.

The new arrangement will encompass all aspects of
coaching and training, as well as incorporating further advances in St Kevin’s
Boys’ Club’s sports science programme along with regular coaching personnel
exchanges.

Also, with West Bromwich being a grade 1 club in the
new FA Elite Player Performance Plan their continued expansion and development
under this arrangement can only benefit St Kevin’s Boys Club and their players
in the long run.

Neil Fox, PRO for St Kevin’s Boys’ Club, said:

“What
our club has to offer makes it the ideal platform for young players to get a
proper grounding in the game and prepare them – if they are deemed good enough
– for a possible move into a career in football.

“The support of West Bromwich Albion is an integral
part of this programme.

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The club’s Shanowen Road pitch is regarded by many as
one of the finest playing surfaces in the country and its club complex also
boasts the most up to date all-weather training facilities along with a fully
equipped gymnasium and treatment room.

Both St Kevin’s Boys and West Brom have taken part for
the past three years in the former’s annual six-team invitational tournament
for under 13s.

It is held at Shanowen Road at Easter and both teams
will be taking part again this year from April 6 to 8 inclusive.

Current holders Brondby IF from Denmark, previous
winners Arsenal FC, along with Celtic FC and SC Braga will also take part in
what promises to be an outstanding event.

St Kevin’s Boys’ Football Club has come a long way
since its foundation in 1959, providing organised football for a group of
schoolboys in the Whitehall area and going on to become the most progressive
and leading schoolboy club in the country.

This season the club has 44 teams, 850 players and 96
managers/coaches in competitive action each week, offering football to players
of all levels of ability.

Another 100 players are involved each Saturday in the
Little Saints’ Coaching Academy for 4 to 8-year-olds.

Taking in youngsters as young as four, it helps them
to develop basic skills in an instructive but fun way on Saturday afternoons.

The club’s most recent players who are making progress
in English football are Jeffrey Hendrick (Derby County), Robert Brady (Manchester
United – Hull City on loan), Cian Bolger (Leicester City – Bristol Rovers on
loan), Eoin Wearin (West Ham – Dagenham & Redbridge on loan) along with
youngsters Alex O’Hanlon (Liverpool), Aaron Myles (Notts Forest) and Jack Byrne
(Manchester City).

It’s hoped that these players and others who will
leave in the future will make just as big an impact as their illustrious
predecessors Damian Duff, Liam Brady, Ian Harte, Stephen Carr and Alan Maybury.