Special day as Under-9s sign first contracts
Last weekend six young players signed deals to join our Academy’s Under-9s next season.
Ollie Hamer, Harry Gough, Sam Myers, Jack Houlston, Elliot Malin and Ollie Jones will all be part of that age group next season and they attended our first-team match with Bury last Saturday.
Academy Manager, Eric Ramsay, believes it was a nice occasion for everyone involved.
“It was a really nice day for proud families and really excited kids to be joining Shrewsbury at Academy level”, said Ramsay.
“It’s easy to be lulled into being too serious at that point, but they are at the start of a long Academy journey. There have been cases in the past – Dom Smith is an example - where kids have been with the Academy at Under-8s, 9s, 10s, and gone onto be a first-team player, but that’s a long way away.
“The excitement of being a Shrewsbury Town Academy player, being presented on the pitch, being given a shirt with U9 on the back, having their picture signing their contracts – it was a really nice day and I think there were a lot of proud families and a lot of smiles, so that was a highlight.”
Whilst Ramsay enjoyed the day, he was quick to point out that football at such a young age has to remain fun for the lads involved.
“It is a trap of Academy football that it all becomes very serious, very quickly”, Eric said.
“We hope that we get good footballers out of it, but number one is that we get good people and happy kids that don’t get deflated by being involved in serious football too early.
“I made it clear to the parents that football is really important, but also enjoyment, wellbeing and happiness of the kids will always be emphasised by our staff.”