To the casual onlooker, this season has been an up and down one so far for Glentoran Academy - scratch just below the surface however and revealed is a fast tracked system to the top of the local game.
A bold statement perhaps but the emergence of Jonathan Smith into first team football and the selection of five players for next week's Victory Shield speaks for itself.
Jonathan himself is not a direct product of our Academy, having returned from England but the youth policy at Glentoran is the reason he chose to settle in East Belfast as opposed to other clubs where he had offers.
The junior section of the Academy goes from strength to strength with well over 150 players, some as young as four years old, providing a powerful and wide reaching player base for the Academy as a whole.
These youngest boys and girls get up to five hours coaching a week including their IFA Development centre small sided games programme. This emphasis on development has produced some outstanding young teams at the younger end of the Academy for example our 2006 age group who regularly play 2005 football and thrive there. Our 2005 age group in turn are playing regularly at the 2004 age group with similar success.
The blue print for this success? Our fantastic 2004 age group lead by Jason Lindsay who have captured back to back Foyle Cup successes and have started into National League football - where results are not recorded at u12 - but having scored 50 goals in their first 6 games their potential is clear.
This age group have a plethora of Club NI players and even some lads who play u13 Club NI football.
Our 13s themselves have started into National League football, where results are recorded at this age group, with 7 wins from 7 while our u14 have won their last 7 in a row as well.
When we hit u15 however is where matters complicate for our players and coaching staff as we turn our focus to player progression, under the stewardship of Player Pathway Manager William Hands we try and bring the players attention on their proximity to Colts and Reserve team football with Jason Hill's Development Squad.
So far this season no fewer than 8 under 15s have played under 16 football and our under 15s continue to be strongly represented within Club NI including young starlet Ethan Warnock making the Victory Shield Squad a year young.
Our successful 2000 born age group now at under 16 is perhaps the most affected by our fast track programme with the team itself being the victim of this success as it is hard for Iain Dickson to name a consistent squad week on week. 15 of the 18 u16 eligible players have so far played u17 or Colts football. The likes of Jack Henderson and Kai Wardlow have become regular players at u19 while Kai may be in line to make his reserve team bow at the age of 15 having recently been an unused sub for the reserves against Linfield.
League results tend to be sacrificed at these age groups including at Michael Morrow's u17 where so many promising u16 players ply their trade each week but the priority remains the players and their ability to play comfortably at higher age groups hopefully speeding their progress towards their first team debut.
Jason Hill who took over the reserve team in the summer quickly merged the reserves and u19s into one development squad and was able to attract hot prospect Smith with the lure of Glentoran's commitment to it's younger generation. Smith joined as a reserve team regular and quickly pushed himself into first team reckoning, something that wouldn't have been possible at many other clubs where he may have joined as a u19 player looking to impress.
Jason had this to say about the development squad. "When I took over the development squad in the summer we decided to let some of the older reserve team players move on for the sake of their own careers and allow us to bring through the younger lads and give them experience earlier. These lads have not let us down and while few if any are ready for first team football at present we believe that when the time does come for them to make that step they will be much better prepared. We have opened up a pathway right down to our 15 year olds to train and play with the development squad and none of them have looked out of place when they have been with us. The average age of our reserve team last Saturday was 17 - that is the way forward for our club".
Academy Manager David Lowry added, "While our young lads who are being fast tracked to the development squad are taking many plaudits, and deservedly so, I am equally impressed with lads who are standing up to the mark at their own age groups and taking a lot of responsibility with plenty of game time, boys like Paul McLaughlin, Mal Smyth and Sean Gallagher at our u15 or Caolan McBrearty, Niall McGinley and Kyle Toan at u16 among many others. They haven't complained about a lack of consistency in team selection due to player progress but instead have knuckled down and put in eye catching performances which is very pleasing. Given that our u15 and u16 ran with squads of 12/13 players last weekend we are confident there are great opportunities here for other boys to do the same thing".
If you know any aspiring young 14-16 year olds players who you feel could thrive in this set up or would like consisten game time to prove thier abilities do not hesitate to contact us via info@glentoranfcacademy.com