Academy of Football milestone for Rugby Borough launching in June

Scott Dutton, Joe O'Neill, Liam O'Neill and Will Grocott (Picture by Brian Dainty)

June 1 will mark another milestone in the development of Rugby Borough Football Club, from its humble beginning as Rugby Town Juniors some 28 years ago, with the start of the Rugby Borough Academy of Football, based at Kilsby Lane.

Leading the academy will be Director of Senior Football at RBFC, Liam O’Neill. He will be assisted by Will Grocott, Scott Dutton and Joe O’Neill.

The new academy will provide learning for 16-19 year olds wanting to follow a career into sports and associated areas, and partners with education provider and registered charity, Morthyng Group Ltd, who have a 35-year track record.

Scholars will play competitively in the FA Youth Cup, MYFL Premier and Eastern Divisions , the MJPL U19 Further Education League and the National League U19 Alliance, the highest level of academy football outside the football league .

Academy manager Liam O’Neill explained: “This has been a long time coming with plenty of planning involved as you’d imagine. We are all very much looking to finally be able to move the whole ‘academy of football’ to Kilsby Lane in June .

“We’re very fortunate to have 10 full time members of staff providing top education, physiotherapy, student support and of course football coaching.

He added: “To now be able to provide a top class academy facility just makes our academy of football even stronger and more professional .

“Facilities alone don’t make players, but providing better facilities for our scholars to develop in, and with my strong set of coaching staff who themselves have all been full time footballers, mixed together it will certainly enhance the development process .

“Also in my new role as Director of Senior Football at Borough we can now create a more structured pathway for our youngsters, and also make a smoother transition from the academy system into to under 21s, to the reserves then hopefully into our 1st team.”

“We’ve had great success over the first four years of our academy under the Morthyng banner, and hope to go from strength to strength as Rugby Borough Academy of Football.”