We have recently received a lot of interest in, and some questions about, the Endorsed Academy, and are delighted to have the opportunity to provide this update.

Firstly: Endorsed Academy.  The Endorsed Academy is a business set up a year ago, working in partnership with Mousehole AFC, with the purpose of investing in the development of Cornish grassroots football and sport.  Its focus is to raise the coaching standards and opportunities for the Cornish youth, through education, programmes, coaching and even developing the Fly Football Philosophy a style of football broken into age related sessions  designed by ex-elite coaches from pro clubs like Leeds United, the Scottish FA and many other top-class sources.  the philosophy is adopted across all of our coaching and education platforms.  The Endorsed Academy is right at the start of an exciting long journey.

All of the ‘Endorsed Academy’ plans have also been shared and discussed with the Cornish FA’s Governance Manager Richard Pallot and as recently as the Senior Cup Final we had a detailed face-to-face conversation with Richard who has confirmed “we meet all regulatory expectations” as an affiliated club.

In our first season, Mousehole AFC and Endorsed Academy, adopting the tagline ‘FlyingAllTogether’, have worked hard together to progress.  Starting from scratch last season we are aiming to have over 20 teams for next season.  The response from players and parents has been overwhelmingly positive.  Nike have awarded us the only Nike Partner Status Club in Cornwall and totally support our vision, which provides an amazing opportunity for our commercial partners and sponsors to get brand association with the footwear giant.  Incredibly, our junior players have already been involved in weekend coaching sessions and mini-tournaments at Manchester City, Leeds United, Barnsley, Sheffield United and most recently Galway in Ireland…and there will be many more such opportunities to come.  Next month (July 20^th and 21^st) also sees a new annual pre-season tournament at Trungle Parc – the Endorsed Cup, involving Newcastle United, Huddersfield Town, Bolton Wanderers and Mousehole.

Secondly: our Elite Programme.  At the start of the season we worked with the County FA to establish the name Elite Programme (EP) for 16-23 year-olds.  We recognise this is a big development area in the County, which aims to provide stronger pathways and to keep those players interested in Cornish football.  We appreciate this will take time, which is why we are developing a 20-year plan.

In our EP, we provide exceptional coaches, including highly qualified pro coaches and ex-pro players, with daily training available FREE to players aged between 16 and 23.  We also provide nutrition advice, GPS Analysis, personal & technical development plans, as well as physical, speed, balance and endurance training for optimum player performance.  For clarification, this is not an ‘EPPP’, as that is a term used at pro clubs.

In short, we are a grass roots club that provides pro-standards of training and environment to better serve our community and create a brighter sporting future for our kids.

We have started well, not everything has been perfect, but we are totally focused on continually setting higher standards as we move forward.  We are fully committed to improve rapidly from Good to Great, and to fly far far higher!

We will publish updates on our progress at appropriate times, and will maintain our policy of not publicly reacting to speculation or commenting on others.  We would like to thank many local clubs for their continued interest in the Endorsed Academy and our plans.

We wanted to take this opportunity to express appreciation to the 40 or so volunteers who are helping to make all this possible.  We also recognise and applaud the successful collaboration with local schools and college in welcoming Endorsed and the Fly Football philosophy, the wholehearted way in which the West Penwith community are getting involved with us, and the valuable support we have received from the FA.  We are also immensely proud of the close partnership we have with the RNLI as our main charity partner – it’s incredibly close to the heart of everyone associated with our club, Mousehole Village and the wider community.

Mousehole AFC and Endorsed Academy

FlyingAllTogether.

Mousehole AFC’s player-manager Calum Elliot has had an active summer planning the development process and approach for next season’s assault on the SWPL West Division title.

The former Scottish Premier Division star, who led The Seagulls last season, with the team subsequently winning the Cornwall Charity Cup and finishing only a couple of points short of a promotion place, is relishing the prospect of doing even better this campaign.  “I’m buzzing with anticipation of what we’re truly capable of achieving.  We’ve already established a clear and strong playing philosophy, and learning from last season we are excited to set new higher standards as we move forward.  The summer’s planning has been focused on working with our coaching team, developing the philosophy, and now concentrating a huge amount of technical work to develop our attacking creativity and ways of exploiting the final third.  We are looking forward to gearing up for a fantastic season.”

Mousehole AFC wish Calum and the players all the best for the coming season.

#FlyingAllTogether

In a significant development Mousehole AFC have appointed Deryk Heywood –  Chairman of Porthleven AFC – to the role of General Manager.  He will be responsible for both developing the commercial model of the club, working closely with its Endorsed Academy, while also driving forward the increasing number of developments at a local level.

Deryk Heywood who re-located to West Cornwall over 40 years ago explained his decision to move across to Trungle Parc:  “I’ve been at Porthleven for several years and made many good friends, and this last season was our best in the League for ten years. So its been a big decision to leave.  But the opportunity to be involved in something unique, with such huge ambition, energy and vision at Mousehole AFC, and joining the growing leadership team of the club, was simply too good to miss. Its incredible to see a club that is engaging so deeply with its community, schools, the RNLI and beyond – its fantastic.”

Deryk went on to explain his involvement with local football and how he was returning to a club very close to his heart.  As a former local player, which included an interesting stint at Mousehole – Deryk is no stranger to the West Cornwall football scene, and has many fascinating stories to tell.  “My first ever game of football in Cornwall was for St Just Youth team in 1974.  I then played in goal for Herland Rangers in the West Penwith League from 1975 and eventually joined Mousehole, where I have some fantastic and actually very emotional memories.”

“So, as you can imagine, I’m massively looking forward to returning to Mousehole, this time in a different capacity and applying myself to ensuring that both the club and Endorsed Academy achieve their vision and goals.”

The club would like to wish Deryk every success in his new role and welcome him to the team.

#FlyingAllTogether

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Mousehole AFC would like to formally thank Penzance AFC and their Chairman Terry Burgess for their willingness to explore a shared way forward for the future.

Although we will not be progressing together, we would like to put on record our greatest respect for the club and chairman and will continue to enjoy the healthy but competitive rivalry that exists between our two clubs.

In the meantime, Mousehole AFC continue to be fully committed to exploring all opportunities to better serve our community and create a brighter sporting future for our kids.

Several exciting developments are being put in place and announcements will be made in due course.

 

Get your tickets now for July’s Endorsed Cup

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Over 100 Seagulls’ players, partners and supporters attended The Lugger Inn, Penzance, on Friday 1^st June to celebrate a highly successful season for the club as a whole.

The opening presentation by Ezra Chapman referred to the many successes on the playing side. The First team finished 4^th in the South West Peninsula League West Division as well as winning the Cornwall Charity Cup and reaching the Cornwall Senior Cup for the first time in the club’s history.  The Reserves were promoted to the Trelawny League Premier Division as champions of Division 1, with only one defeat and a record-breaking 100% away record.  The newly-established Thirds finished in fourth place in Trelawny League Division 4 with a team assembled only at the start of the season.  Mousehole Women recorded their highest-ever position as they came runners-up in the Cornwall Women’s League, beaten only by champions St Agnes.

In terms of infrastructure, the club had quadrupled the number of teams to 13, including nine youth teams, and trebled the number of registered players.  Improvements had been made to Trungle Parc, planning permission was in place for floodlights and the ground now met the standards of the League above.  Many other developments were in the pipeline as the club continues into an era of significant change.  The Committee had been strengthened and there are up to 35 volunteers who regularly contribute their time and expertise to the running and further development of the club.

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Votes for player awards were as follows:

Club player of the year was Luke Johnson

First teamer Jake Andrew picked up three awards:  Manager’s player of the season, Most improved player and top-goalscorer with 25 in total.

Third team player Jowan May was his team’s leading goalscorer and also the top scorer in the whole club with 38 goals.

Top goal-scorer for the Reserves’ was Chris Bullock (28 goals) and for the Women’s team Sophie Wilson (30)

The club’s young male player of the year was Tyler Tonkin and the young female player was Megan Edwards, while Josh Storey was the most promising player.

The First team player’s player was Liam Andrew.

For the Reserves, the Manager’s player was Jason ‘JJ’ Simmonds, while the players’ player was Nathan Goodspeed.

The Third team Manager’s player was Kalon Mayes and the players’ player was Joe Gibson.

For the Women’s team, the Manager’s player of the season was Carly Jacka, the players’ player was Katy Barker, and the most improved player Flo Davies Kirsop.
Sportsman of the year was Tom George.

 

On the non-playing side the following awards were announced:

Club person of the season: Andrew Large
Supporter of the year: Antony ‘AJ’ Munro
Chairman’s Special Award: Ben Gibson

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*At the South West Peninsula League Annual Presentation evening in Plymouth on Saturday 2^nd June, Mousehole AFC were awarded prize money for their League Cup progress (the longest West Division surviving team in this season’s competition, and losing semi-finalists), and for finishing 4^th in the table as well as runners-up in the ‘Respect’ scores.  They also had the second best average home attendance (92) in Division One West, which was better than that of 9 of the 20 clubs in the Premier Division.