Under-18s Coach Pleased With Scholars' Return
- Scholars return to pre-season training
- Players will train on 3G pitch at Shrewsbury College
- Only two of the players return with injury problems
Keep up-to-date with the latest news from the Youth Team on both Facebook and Twitter."At the moment they do Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, all double sessions, but the new intake have never done a pre-season before so we have to make sure they don’t break down,” said Dawes.
"All of our scholars bar two of them have relocated here, so they’re all staying with house parents.
"We train them for three days a week then they go home for a long weekend for the first two weeks to give them time to adjust.
"They’ve left home for the first time but there are between two and four in each house, so they’re living together and they’re good influences on each other."
As part of the scholarship, the scholars must do a BTEC national diploma in sport and then there’s an option for them to do A-Levels.
“When the season starts, they will be educated on a Monday and Thursday at the college and the rest of the time they will be in full-time.” Dawes explained:
The 19 players in the youth team, comprising of nine second-year scholars and ten first-years, will be educated both physically through their football and academically at the college.
"There’s also Jake Kerins who’s got a back injury that we are just assessing at the moment but they’re the only two as it stands, other than that the whole squad’s fit."
confirmed Dawes."Unfortunately Jordan Wilson has come back and he’s had a knee injury and has had to have a minor operation which will set him back a few weeks,"
Dawes has only two injury concerns at this stage as both Jordan Wilson (knee) and Jake Kerins (back) look to return to full fitness.
"The first three weeks are just all about speed, endurance and explosive work and getting them fit really.
"There’s not much tactical input that goes into it, it’s all about getting them prepared physically for the games."
"They’ve had off-season programmes but you can see straightaway they’ve all been doing those and have come back in good shape.
"Even the first year scholars, who have never experienced it before, you can see the majority of them, in fact if not all of them, have done an off-season programme and it has given them a head start ahead of pre-season and they all look up to speed for what we’re doing.
“They’re just getting the grass up to spec now so that will be ready in four weeks but the college and the facilities are much better and it’s a positive environment for the lads.
"In comparison to last year the lads have come back a lot sharper.
"We’re using the 3G pitch which enables us to do more than we were able to do last year.
"There’s a couple of little things we need to get right but I’m sure that within the next few weeks everything will be right and it’ll prove to be a good move.
"Straight away the surfaces that we’re training on (at Shrewsbury College) are better than last year.
said Dawes."It’s really positive (the move),"
Last season's second-year scholars Kaiman Anderson and goalkeeper Shaun Rowley both signed professional contracts with the Shrews this summer.
And Dawes believes the move will prove very beneficial for the Club as he looks to continue to help produce players for the first team.
Town's under-18s are now based at Shrewsbury College where they will study and train on the 3G pitch.
Head of Academy coaching Ian Dawes is pleased with how Shrewsbury Town's scholars have returned to pre-season training.