Coleg Llandrillo promoted to highest level of college football
The Football Academy team’s promotion has been confirmed after they won their division this season, scoring an astonishing 75 goals in 11 games
Coleg Llandrillo’s Football Academy team have been promoted to the top tier of college football.
The team will play in the Category 1 ECFA Men’s Premier League next season after their promotion was confirmed following their dominant championship-winning campaign.
They will join Grŵp Llandrillo Menai’s combined Coleg Menai and Coleg Meirion-Dwyfor team in the top division, which also features teams including the Robbie Fowler Football Academy and TNS North Shropshire College.
It is the first time a Coleg Llandrillo team has been promoted to the highest level of college football, and comes after they won nine out of 11 games to claim the Category 2 ECFA North West Men’s Regional Football (South) title.
Llandrillo scored an astonishing 75 goals in those 11 matches, winning games by huge margins including 12-0 against Coleg Cambria Deeside, 9-0 against Wirral Met and 9-2 (twice) against Riverside/Cronton College.
Sport lecturer and academy head coach Matthew Williams said: “Securing promotion into the Category 1 college football league is a testament to the relentless dedication and unwavering team spirit from both students and staff.
“It represents the culmination of hard work and a commitment to excellence both on and off the field."
Cieran Williams, Haydn Rutter and Billy Patterson were the winners in the team’s end-of-season awards. Cieran was voted Players’ Player of the Year, Haydn won the Coaches’ Player of the Year award, and Billy was voted Most Improved Player.
Next season, Coleg Llandrillo will be competing against the combined Coleg Menai and Coleg Meirion-Dwyfor team, Coleg Cambria, the Robbie Fowler Football Academy in Liverpool, TNS North Shrosphire College, Hopwood Hall College in Manchester, 433 Football in Stoke, and Thomas Telford School in Telford.
Matthew said: “We’ve got a lot of first-years in this group so we’ve got the nucleus of a really good squad which will stand us in good stead to compete at Category 1 standard next season.”
Football Academy students have lessons from 9am to 2.30pm, when they are released three times a week for football training sessions. They benefit from the state-of-the-art gym and sports centre facilities at the Rhos campus, as well as GPS vests, Veo cameras and more.
Matthew says the link between their studies and football training helps keep the students motivated to achieve both academic and sporting success.
“We have an academy timetable which is intertwined with the academics, and I think it’s that added motivation to complete the academics,” he said. “Obviously it’s student before athlete, so if they’re not up to date with work they won’t be picked for the Wednesday and they won’t be doing sessions on a Monday, Tuesday or Thursday.
“Regarding the football provision, they have three sessions a week, including strength and conditioning, a lot of GPS, and a lot of analysis. We’ve got the Veo camera to analyse their performance, which is excellent because they can link it back to their academics. So if they do a unit for example on sports performance, they can utilise themselves as a case study.
“So it’s a really strong programme that we’ve got. It works really well for enrichment, and for rapport-building between tutors and students.”
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