Gartcairn Football Academy, a legacy club from the Scottish FA Central region, was awarded funding of £500 from the SFP Trust’s Club Development Grant scheme. The initiative was developed to assist grassroots clubs in three specific areas – to increase participation by adding a new team to a club’s existing membership; to improve, enhance and sustain existing team activity through the purchase of new training equipment and/or funding First Aid training for coaches or thirdly to support Coach Education.
This huge grassroots club has over 400 players, both boys and girls and has a staggering 84 coaches offering football across a large number of age-groups from fun fours to full competitive 11-a-side for their junior, amateur, Under-21s, 17s, 15s, 14s and 13s teams. The Academy also provide fun training for a 2013 autism section and is a fantastic example of a football academy at the heart of its community. Gartcairn opted to use their Club Development grant to help support coach Gerry Cummings achieve his UEFA B Licence. Gerry was delighted that the funding would be used to further his coach education and is pictured here with the Under-15 squad. He commented “Firstly, can I thank The SFP Trust in partnership with The Kilpatrick Fraser Charitable Trust and The Clydesdale Bank for this opportunity to progress my coaching development journey. Placing a focus on youth development is huge to the Academy and its players and coaches alike. This grant now makes the next step in my coaching education and undertaking the SFA UEFA B Licence Course a reality and I’m looking forward to building upon my current coaching qualifications and coaching knowledge to help take the Academy forward to benefit Gartcairn Football Academy and the local community.”
