It’s an exciting time for everyone involved in football in the Carlow/Kilkenny region with the news that Carlow/Kilkenny FC will enter a team into the League of Ireland's U-15 league which kicks-off next month. They will look to emulate last season's champions Athlone Town who won the inaugural shortened season in 2017.
The new club was launched last night in Derdimus, the Kilkenny and District League's ground, where they will mainly play their home games this season.
The team, which will be made up of players from Carlow, Kilkenny, Tipperary and the Midlands, will play in the Southern section of the League. They will take on the Kerry League, Cork City, Cobh Ramblers, Waterford FC, Wexford FC, Limerick and Galway United.
Carlow Kilkenny FC was started after numorous meetings between the Carlow & District Juveniles League and the Kilkenny District League. Both leagues agreed that there was a need for an under 15 national league team to help the players from both leagues advance to the next level after they had played in the Kennedy Cup.
There was a distinct lack of opportunities for players from Carlow, Kilkenny and also South Tipp, North Tipp, Laois and Kildare to advance to the next level. After initial discussions with the FAI, the FAI advised the club not to enter the short season of the Under 15 National League, but to get organised for entry into the 1st full season. This is what happened and the club committee ran by chairman Peter Harvey and Development officers of both counties Garry Coady (Carlow) and Darren Murray (Kilkenny) have been working extremely hard, organising quietly in the background to make this all possible.
All the decisions were taken by the executive committees of both leagues, and clubs from both leagues were kept fully informed of what was happening. Before Christmas 2017, a presentation was made to the FAI, and Carlow Kilkenny FC were confirmed as entrants into the Under 15 National League commencing in March 2018.
The team will be managed by former Wycombe Wanderers underage coach Mark Ross. Mark (pictured above on the right) worked at Wexford Youths under now-Galway United manager Shane Keegan where he coached their U-17’s, 19’s and their 1st team. He also worked with Maidenhead United under Alan Devonshire and Tottenham Hotspur midfielder David Howells during a coaching spell in Spain.
We caught up with Mark and he told us, “I'm delighted to be involved in the new venture bringing League of Ireland underage football to the Carlow/Kilkenny area for the first time. You only get 1 chance to be involved from the beginning, so I’m really looking forward to it.”
“What it shows is that the standard of football in the area is strong enough to compete at this level. The local teams and coaches should be given the credit for all the hard work developing the players to this level.”
“Our job is to continue the players learning phase, bringing them up to the level required to move onto the U-17’s and U-19’s.”
“We are just the start, as hopefully the U-17 and U-19 teams are to follow over the next few years. We as the coaching staff have a coaching model in place to allow the teams to develop. We will have a player pathway as well as a coaches pathway within the club.”
“My job is to develop players, NOT winning games at all costs full stop! Winning becomes important at U-19 and full League of Ireland level not underage.”
“The entire squad will be given as much game time as possible.I would also hope to help the younger coaches develop, and then take over and work towards making myself not needed at the club over time.”
“Local coaches coaching local players at a local club is my ethos going forward,
Not old farts like me taking over,” said Ross laughing.
Joining Mark’s management team are Eddie Doyle (assistant manager) and coaches Daniel Molloy, Ethan O'Neill (Head Coach) and Goalkeeping Coach Gavin Dowling.
Ethan O'Neill told us a bit about his own footballing background, "I'm currently a fourth year student in IT Carlow studying Sports Coaching and Business Management and have successfully completed my UEFA B Licence through this course. I would highly recommend any aspiring person of any age, who wishes to work within the football world in the future to apply for this course as it gives you the opportunity to develop as a player/coach, learn and develop skills in Performance analysis and Strength & Conditioning as well as learning and improving knowledge of business within sport."
O'Neill also spoke about his excitement at being involved with the team from the very beginning, "It’s a very exciting time to be apart of a new club from the start. It allows you to be involved in the decision making of building a good reputation, style of play, and getting Carlow Kilkenny FC on the map of becoming a well established League of Ireland club. We as a coaching staff are very grateful for the opportunity to work with ambitious young talented players to help them develop and give them every opportunity to keep climbing the FAI pathway ladder."
As for the squad, O'Neill said, "The squad is coming together very nicely and we had great interest from players from Carlow, Kilkenny and the surrounding counties in joining this very ambitious club. We have selected a squad of 20 very talented players to complete in this years U-15 National League, although it was an extremely tough decision to select a squad as all the players who turned out at trial dates have the capabilities to play at this level."
O'Neill continued, "We will begin training as a squad on the 29th of January, with testing in IT Carlow, and complete an 8 week pre-season cycle before the league starts on the 24th March. Our pre-season will consist of Strength and Conditioning sessions on Monday nights, technical sessions on Tuesday nights, with tactical sessions on Thursday nights and either a game or training session at the weekends."
"As a club and coaching staff we are very ambitious, and want to build a reputation of implementing an attractive attacking brand of football and allowing our players to express themselves on the pitch. Our ambition as coaches this season is to encourage and help develop all players to give them the best possible chance to be in a position to climb the ladder to play League of Ireland U-17 next year and the year after."
We asked him if this could lead to the club eventually adding teams to other age groups, O'Neill said, "Regarding future LOI the future with other age-groups, the clubs plan is to take it step by step, and will discuss with the FAI about the possibility of introducing teams at under 13's, 17's and 19's level along with U15's.
As mentioned above the league kicks-off on the weekend of March the 24th, and the fixtures are due to be released in the coming days. The club also recently launched their new website which you can view by clicking here.
Photo Credit: Carlow/Kilkenny FC
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