THE Accrington & Rossendale College Girls’ and Boys’ Football Academy teams have begun another year of training and are looking forward to taking part in competitions around the country.

As well as being an Ofsted Outstanding College, AccRoss also have fantastic footballing expertise and facilities to help drive players ambitions.

The Girls’ Academy is extremely excited to start off the season on a high after such a successful 2013/14 season where they were BCS Premier Cup Champions, BCS National 7 a side Champions and ECFA Finalists.

With a brand new team of 17 first years to add to their existing second year players, the Girls’ team is ready and raring to go.

The Boys’ Academy is one of only two college teams in Lancashire who boast a place in the Category 1 standard National ECFA league.

The team, who are coached by ex Premier League players Jamie Hoyland and Paul Lodge, finished fourth in the league last year, unfortunately just missing out on a National play-off place. The team also finished in second place in the County under 18’s Floodlit League last year, competing twice a month against some of the best non-league youth club teams.

Many of our Boys’ Academy players go on to sign for highly ranked non-league teams, with two of the boys going on to sign professional contracts with teams in the Football League. Students have also chosen to further their football and education talents with highly sought after scholarships in America.

With the all-new multi-purpose Sports Fitness Centre set to go alongside the FIFA approved 3G football pitch and the Sports Pavilion in October, we are looking forward to more success from AccRoss students.