The Institute of Sport & Education (ISE) is celebrating a double victory as both the women’s and men’s football teams are celebrating success in the North East College’s League.
Bede Sixth Form College’s women’s football academy who are in partnership with Durham Women’s, FC, have won the Women’s League for the first time in the team’s history. The women’s academy was launched in September 2019 and has continued to go from strength to strength. In the past 2 years the academy has seen players progress to represent Durham Women in the FA Women’s Championship and the FA Youth Cup. In addition, at the end of last season 2 players secured lucrative scholarships to continue their education in the USA in NCAA Division 1 Colleges.
College Principal, Ben Robinson said “I’m really pleased with the way the academies are progressing, with the foundation being a high quality education in a true dual career environment, where our players are progressing to fantastic destinations with football a contributing factor. I couldn’t be more proud of the way they have conducted themselves this year”.
The fantastic thing about the programme is that it gives young players the chance to progress and challenge themselves at a higher level, whilst still representing their local grassroots clubs.
However, it’s not all about the more developed players, as explained by the team’s coach, Graeme Clark, who is thrilled and it’s not hard to see why.
“I am so pleased for them. Within the group we have some highly talented players, some who’ve never played football before coming to Bede Sixth Form.”
Having won a whopping nine out of ten games and scoring a total of 48 goals in the last five games alone, it’s not hard to see how the team bagged the top spot and scooped the trophy.
“The team have formed a really strong relationship with each other and that’s had a massive impact on the pitch. It’s made them perform better as a team. They’re a credit to the college.”
The Women’s team isn’t the only credit to the College, the Men’s Football Team have claimed the top spot of the North East College’s Development League.
Having not lost a game all season, team coach Callum Williams said; “I’m so proud of the way the team have played. Lot’s of the lads had never even played 11-a-side until they came here. As time went on some of the players have ended up showing real leadership skills which is great. They’re top class.”
To celebrate this fantastic achievement, all players were awarded a winner’s trophy from Phil, Programme Area Leader for Sport and Public Services.
If you’ve applied to study at Bede Sixth Form College in September, make sure you check out our sports academies at our Preview Days on 5th and 6th July. You don’t need to study sport to be apart of our academies so join in and you could be top of the league next year.
For more information on our ISE Academies, please contact phil.cummins@stockton.ac.uk
