Home > Sports Academy

Sports Academy

Information About Kirklees College Sports Academy

We are proud to offer an elite performance Sports Academy that gives students the chance to study at college whilst training in a chosen sport. If you are aged between 16-19 years old and you’re serious about sport, the academy is for you.

Kirklees College Sports Academy offers:

A top class training programme
Support for students applying for scholarships in the USA
A nationally recognised qualification
The best local training facilities
Links to professional and semi-professional clubs
Coaching from high profile top quality coaches
Rugby League
Football (Men and Women)

What we offer

The academy is open to students aged 16-19 with a talent and passion for Rugby League or Football. Our academies include:

Football Academy
Rugby Academy

Football Academy

We train 4 times a week and play one fixture a week. Strength and conditioning sessions provided for all players and video analysis of games. Play in the top AoC college league and benefit from coaching from UEFA A Licenced coach Kevin Donovan.

If you are interested in joining the academy, please fill in the expression of interest form.

Male/Female Football Training Timetable

Monday: Training – 9am-10.30am at Leeds Road Playing Fields

Tuesday: Training – 9am-10.30am at Leeds Road Playing Fields

Wednesday: Matchdays

Thursday: 11.15am – 12.15pm – Strength and Conditioning at Waterfront Gym

Friday: Training – 9am-10.30am at Leeds Road Playing Fields

Football Academy Season

We take pride in our academy, looking after each and every student that joins the programme. We make sure they feel part of the team and they enjoy each precious hour they spend with us. Our aim is not only to make them better football players but also better people when they finally move on to their next challenge.

Staff members

Kevin Donovan: Now a UEFA A licence coach after retiring from a 17-year career as a professional footballer playing over 500 league games for Huddersfield Town, West Bromwich Albion, Grimsby Town and Barnsley.

Our philosophy and how we coach

Our aim is to improve each individual that joins and help them become a better player by providing a safe and positive environment to play and train in. We help you understand the importance of working in a team whilst improving your own individual ability.

All sessions will be delivered by UEFA qualified coaches and will be relevant and realistic to the game. Sessions will be challenging for individuals, units, and the team. Our aim is to challenge the players with as many game-related experiences as possible. The players will be central to the sessions and the players will be given their chance to express their opinions and thoughts.

As a college, we work on our weaknesses and plan sessions to improve on past performances. At the end of games and through match analysis we gain feedback from our players on how they think the game went. As coaches, we will do a post-match review on areas we believe need to be addressed. Through this, we will identify weaknesses in our performance and plan sessions to improve. We will also use analysis in the form of Key performance indicators in order to check the players’ understanding of previous sessions.

We will support our performances via match analysis. We will video all of our games that will allow us to look at our strengths and weaknesses as a team and as individuals. The players will be given the opportunity to analyse their individual performances on a weekly basis as part of their college studies.

Training programme

3 training sessions per week held at Leeds Rd playing fields on the state of the art outdoor and indoor 3G pitches. Strength and conditioning sessions in our very own fantastically equipped gym with a fully qualified S&C coach. Individual programmes will be given to each student to follow outside of college hours. The students have access to the gym for free.

Along with the S&C sessions the students will be given nutritional advice along with injury prevention programmes.

New to this season will be a video analysis session. The time in the classroom will be for the students to watch video footage of games they have played in and then to discuss relevant points from what they have seen, hopefully to take onto the pitch to help them develop and improve. It will also be used to highlight positive things they have done during the games both individually and as a team.

Fixtures

The college will be running 3 teams again this year in the very competitive AOC college leagues. These matches all take place on Wednesday afternoons. Home matches take place at Leeds Rd playing fields on the 3G pitch. For away matches, transport is always provided to and from the game. These games give the players opportunity to play against like minded colleges with the chance to win promotion from their respective leagues.

This season we are looking to set up some games against Pro and Semi clubs, this will give the students a chance to play against the very best players at their age level.

Valencia Football Tour

We plan to take a group of students away to Spain to experience a once in a lifetime 2-week tour of Valencia. This really is a fantastic opportunity to train, play matches and also visit the iconic Mestalla stadium, home of Valencia FC. During this funded tour the students get chance to learn new skills including cooking, learning the language and also delivering coaching sessions to children in disability groups in Valencia. This really is an experience that our previous students have loved.

Rugby Academy

Our Rugby Academy is run by our college gym manager and semi-professional Halifax Panthers player, Zack McComb. Training sessions will take place at Leeds Road Sports Complex and competitive matches against other colleges will be played on a Wednesday afternoon.

Please email zmccomb@kirkleescollege.ac.uk to register your interest.

Rugby Training Timetable

Tuesday: 9am – 10.30am Rugby Training at Leeds Road Sports Complex starting in October

Wednesday: 2pm – 4pm Rugby Training/Match

Waterfront Gym

Kirklees College has it’s own state-of-the-art gym and fitness studio at the Huddersfield Centre in the Waterfront Quarter which is used by Sports Academy students for strength and conditioning sessions to ensure our players reach their full potential. The gym is FREE for all students to use throughout the day (depending on the timetable) and we offer classes and the help of experienced coaches to help students achieve their goals.

Rock Up & Train Sessions

The Rock Up & Train sessions are not instructor led (i.e. personal training or group classes), however a gym coordinator will be on hand to induct new members, supervise, support training and provide guidance where required.

Monday