A group of teenage girls is the first in Ireland to complete a Transition Year (TY) football course, which is believed to have a positive effect for thousands of young people and their participation in sport.
Fingal County Council has been running the TY course for boys in conjunction with the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) since 2016.
This is the first year that the course has been provided for girls, with 25 taking part.
Manager of the FAI Transition Year Courses Denis Hyland said: “It gives the kids an opportunity to live the life of a footballer for the year, it’s a real mix of football and education.
“The three main pillars are player development, education and role model in the community.”
The course is based at the FAI centre on the Sports Ireland Campus in Abbotstown, where participants hone their football skills, as well as complete strength and conditioning work five days a week from September to May.
It is the only programme in Ireland where footballers under 18 years old can work on their skills on a full-time basis.
They do so while maintaining their schoolwork and learning about nutrition, sports psychology, gym instruction and communication skills.
They also learn how to coach football, which can strengthen their ability to act as role models in their local communities.
Gerry Reardon, Principal Sports Officer for Fingal County Council, said the council “sees the multiplier effect immediately”.
“The boys and girls once they receive their coaching qualifications, their coaching in local schools, they’re also coaching in their local club’s academies,” he said.
“We see that as a really strong positive role model, inspiring kids to stay in sport to try and replicate these guys they see at an elite level; hopefully that’s retaining in kids in sport. We see that as really, really vital.”
While participation in sport drops off for all genders when they get to their teenage years, the problem is far more acute amongst girls.
The TY students also coach in their old primary schools once a week.
“We had a course here to teach us how to do that and then we went back with the material that we learnt, and I think everybody really enjoyed that,” said Freya Healy from Kildare.
“It’s amazing, I love going out. I’ve been out to my old primary school,” fellow TY student, Olivia Meehan from Swords said.
“It’s a Gaelscoil so I enjoy coaching through Irish and I think the kids enjoy it as well.”
Course coordinator Keith O’Halloran said the life skills and leadership experience gained on the course will stand to the girls wherever life takes them.
“They’re not all going to be footballers going forward. These are future councillors, they could be presidents. They could be anything in terms of the football side of it or anything within in the country.”
Mr Hyland said the course has an impressive record for bringing on footballers, with many of the boys who have completed it now playing professionally.
“We have a player playing in every league in England and Ireland and Scotland,” he said.
“This year – the inaugural year of the girls’ course – we’ve had 12 girls playing international football and one, Freya Healy, who was called into the international senior team earlier, which is fantastic for the course in the first year.”