Strathclyde Sirens Super League Netball Franchise will be launching four U19 Academies for the 2021-2022 season. The Academies will be based in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Perth and Lanarkshire and will be open to players across Scotland.
The introduction of the academies comes off the back of a thorough pathway review and shift in approach within Scotland. The pathway will now sit under the Sirens brand, starting with the U15 and U17 District programmes into U19 Sirens Academies. These Academies will feed into the newly created Sirens Development Squad and finally aiming for Sirens VNSL Squad representation.
Karen Atkinson MBE, newly appointed Performance Director, said of the new structure;
“It was apparent that we needed to retain more players within the pathway and provide greater opportunities for quality training and exposure to match play. The U19 Academies, along with the Sirens Development Squad, will bridge a large gap that sits between our U17 age groups and Super League/International representation. We are looking forward to working with the academies in this 1st year, exposing them to tough match play and providing them support within their training environment”.
Lesley MacDonald, Head Coach of Strathlcyde Sirens, believes the Academies will generate a larger pool of athletes to vie for VNSL contracts,
“This is an exciting development within the Sirens pathway, it provides a new opportunity to expose more athletes at this level and provide a clear pathway for them to aspire to be a Strathclyde Siren”.
Tamsin Greenway, Scottish Thistles Head Coach, speaks of the impact the new pathway will hopefully have on the Senior International Team;
“This is a really positive and vital addition to our pathway and one that will hugely benefit our Thistles setup. Addressing the gap between U17 and U21 Scotland teams was crucial. By being able to give the best U19 athletes opportunity to both train and compete we will not only give them further time to develop but will also widen our talent pool which is essential for our growing Thistles ambitions.”
*Please keep an eye on social media platforms as information on trials for the four academies will be coming soon. The trials are ‘open’ (you do not need to live or play netball in that district) and players can trial for as many academies as they wish if they are prepared to travel for the training. Players must be 17 or over and U19 on 31st December 2021.
