Part 2 of an interview with the Endorsed Group’s Ezra Chapman

With the youth trials set for the weekend of July 8^th and 9^th (details below), Ezra Chapman of the Endorsed Group, sponsors of Mousehole AFC, continued to speak passionately about the club’s youth vision during his interview for The Cornishman:

“To achieve our goals, the junior levels (5-16) of our Youth policy are absolutely critical.  To realise our 5-10 year vision of real player development, we will be ensuring that right at the earliest ages boys and girls are getting the best coaching and experience.  We kick off with the 9, 10, 12 and 16 age groups this season, but this will quickly develop.

“The essential aspect of our youth policy is a an integrated playing philosophy that runs right through to the first team, including the elite programme for 16-23 year olds, with each age group having the latest coaching methods and technology suited to their age-related learning styles.”

“Jason Blunt, Academy Director, will co-host the trials alongside the coaching team, and he’ll subsequently work with the coaches for each group.  Engaging with the community is going to be key and Jason is also tasked with developing education partners, schools at different ages and a college, to work together to create uniformly high standards and maximise individual players’ development and potential.”

“Nike, our Club Partner, were also hugely enthusiastic about our youth vision.  They totally support our view that we want young kids and their parents to aspire to progress to the elite programme at age 16, and the best way to achieve this is to join the Programme at an earlier age so that they gain the long-term benefits of consistent coaching.”

“The next exciting phase is building relationships with Pro Clubs to enable our youth teams to play and compete at the highest level of challenge, so they know how high the bar is, and what they – and we – are all shooting for.”

• Online applications for places at the forthcoming youth trials can be made via mouseholeafc/trials. The details of the trials, to be held at Mounts Bay Academy are:

Saturday 8^th July, 12 noon – 5pm:  Under 12s and Under -1

Sunday 9^th July, 9.30am – 2pm:  Under-9s and Under-10s

• The club has entered four teams in the Kernow Youth Football League for next season, age groups as above.  Further trials for other age groups will be held in due course in order to complete coverage of the 5-16 age range.