Acadarchive

Sheffield Eagles Academy 2002

Rugby League Senior Academy - First Division

The funding that has allowed the Eagles to have an Academy team in 2002 has come from the Home Office via the Crime Director for the East Midlands. This is because the 'playing' Academy is just part of a wider Project that will see outreach work being carried out in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire as well as an extension of the existing work in South Yorkshire.
One of the major aims of the outreach project is to use sport, {in our case particularly Rugby League) to divert young people from unacceptable behaviour that may include or may lead them into crime and disorder. The work will be carried out in schools, clubs and communities in disadvantaged priority areas. It will include training of community coaches in an effort to give the work some long-term stability instead of just being a 'one-off' coaching programme for a limited period. Finally efforts will be made to encourage excluded or disaffected young people to take part in the programmes to have a direct positive impact on their involvement in community life where they live.
This season the playing Academy includes 3 players from Derbyshire and it is anticipated that a further 3 or 4 players from that County will enter the planned scholarship scheme in future. Whilst no players from Nottinghamshire have yet been recruited to the Academy it is hoped that this will be remedied in future. In the meantime the players, coaches and officials involved in the Academy would like to express their thanks to the Crime Director for the East Midlands for his support in bringing about this imaginative project in the region.

MARK HAD A DREAM..............

Sheffield Eagles Academy Team was part of the "dream" of Mark Aston. From the outset back in 1999 when the new Sheffield Eagles came into being Mark said that he wanted a Sheffield Team made up of Sheffield youngsters.

The first and major hurdle was finding finance to keep the 1st Team alive and competitive.

The second major hurdle was to try to secure funding to contemplate an Academy Team as the RFL wanted Eagles to have one, but would not offer any financial assistance.

Obviously a major problem would be recruitment, but Mark and the directors have managed to show that people WANT to come to Sheffield to play - because they know that there is no money, so it is desire motivated and not gold-digging.. Thus a major problem was not recruitment after all, but finding sufficient funding. Mark would love to have had thousands to spend, but he hasn't, and the players have shown their commitment in staying with the club. Now we are starting to see even more progress with the signing of the young, up and coming players from the local area. The other bonus has been on the financial front where the hard work of the directors have secured funding and sponsorship to run an Academy Team. There have been many youngsters keen to come and train with Mark and Howard and are developing into good players who can show their achievements in the Academy League.

The first hurdle was cleared BUT the money just does not appear year after year and all supporters have to strive to continue to raise the profile of Sheffield Eagles and get MORE "bums on seats".

The Sheffield Eagles Academy were supported by

Academy 2002 Match Reports