Departure to Madrid

Today all those who have stayed here in England for the Easter break departed for the Madrid tournament over the Easter weekend.

15 of the lads have opted to attend, some with family too.

Good luck lads, and have a great time.

Warm up with Urawa Reds

As some of the lads build up to the trip to Madrid tomorrow, James arranged a pre tournament warm up game in Manchester against touring Japanese team Urawa Reds.

Urawa Reds, a professional team in Japan, bring over to the North West of England, 30 young players every year for the experience of English football, and each year our Edukick team have the opportunity to play them.

I a great game the lads showed how far they had come in the last two terms, with some great individual performances from Ryan, Kevin, and Victor along with great overall team spirit.

The result went Urawa reds way, 3 - 1 with the three goals coming to them from lapse in concentration, but something James is confident once they get out to Madrid they can rectify.

Wednesday morning See's these lads fly out for the weekend to join up with other international Edukick teams and local Spanish teams.

Good luck to them all

Players Come On Trial!

This weekend saw the player trial weekend for the up and coming year on the Edukick England / Bolton Wanderers Year Long Football Studies Programme. Lads and parents made the trip from all over the world to join some of this years players for the weekend in skills sessions, games, tours and to watch Wanderers take on Manchester United.

All the lads have done very well and are awaiting feedback from the Wanderers Coaches.

James ward, course leader and lead coach said;-

"These few that have made the big effort to come this weekend have all done very well, some may find the english pace and game a big shock should they relocate next year and join us, but all of them at first look would be a welcome addition to the course, so lets see how they have done when it's reviewed later in the week and good luck to them all, I hope to see some of you in September."

Dave and the wanderers coaches will now be meeting this week to discuss each player and give a little feedback and recommendations to the players and parents.

All the best to you all and thanks for coming, we hope you had a great time.

Pictured here are the lads who travelled, ( left to right: Tyson, Eskild, Blake, James Ward (coach), Julian, Anirudh, Ramsay, Chance)

Skills Challenge

After a hard and long term, the lads relaxed a little this week when the BWFC film crew came in to shoot some film of training and a skills challenge. The film will be used at the tournament presentation evening in April which the team will be attending.

Meni and Kevin showed off their talent to the camera.

You can see the video on you tube!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHp-ydZagEg

Past Players - Jack Colton

Over the past month we have seen stories from Ashley and Ebrahim and followed a little of their progress, next its Jack Colton. Jack was with us here in Bolton for the 2008/2009 year and had a year full of incidents and one he will never forget. Over the next month we will be questioning Jack on his time in Bolton on the Edukick/BWFC year long football studies programme and finding out what he is doing now.

Jack is an English lad, but prior to coming on the course lived in Dubai with his family. Out in Dubai he played a a semi professional level with a local club, but felt that it was fun, but had no potential to further his career. prior to going out to Dubai jack had played a little with Doncaster Rovers, and his old coach from the club had recommended the Edukick course as an option to assist him furthering his career. After looking into it, the course appealed to Jack as it enabled him to train everyday and improve his football, but also gave him the academic studies related to sport, which he felt was ideal and meant he could focus for the full year on football and sport that he loved.

So Jack signed up for the programme in 2008 and made the trip from Dubai to Bolton to start in September of that year, and what a journey it was that lay ahead for Jack, which we will find out about over the coming month.

Players and students from all over the world attend the programme each year to get the same experience that Jack and Ashley have had, and that ebrahim, along with many others are still having. Bookings are now being taken for the 2010/2011 season, and now is the time to find out about the course, sign up and give yourself time to prepare. Check out the course information at http://www.edukick.com/ or go straight to the edukick England course by clicking here!

come and join us!

Tournament in Preston

Both squads travelled to Preston college last week to take part in the annual college tournament staged by the BWFC coach development department. it was great to see all the lads from both squads together at one tournament, enabling them to cheer each other on. The games gave the lads that are travelling to Madrid next week plenty to work on in order to get in shape for the competition, however the B squad came out with the best result of the day, reaching the semi finals and only going out by one goal to the eventually winners. It was a great performance by the b squad lads, showing great commitment and drive and how far some of the players have come in the time they have been here. Well Done!

Nazar man of the match!

Nazar Kmit put in a great performance once again yesterday, earning him another man of the match title from head coach James Ward.

A tough and skillful performance in the middle of the park earned Nazar him 3rd man of the match this season.

Well Done Naz

Edukick England V Rivington & Blackrod College

The lads had a great win yesterday afternoon, at home to Rivington & Blackrod College. A mixed squad, with players from both A and B being involved, took on the college as a warm up match for tomorrows tournament at Preston, where we have both teams entered!

A shock in the first half saw the lads come in 3-0 down, even though they had the majority of the play and had created some great chances.

After a motivating team talk from James ward at half time, the lads went out and had a fantastic second half performance. A change of shape from 4.3.3. to 4.4.2, a focused team, not getting dragged into the rough battles from the opposition and more importantly a team that looked like they believed in themselves came back in style to win 4 - 3.

with two long range goals from Kevin Jeon, one well worked set pieces headed in by Jon Longfellow and finally a penalty taken by captain Ryan it makes it 4 games unbeaten for the A team with 22 goals scored.

Well done lads.

About Ebrahim Askari

Ebrahim, from the UAE, joined edukick England in September 2008. Ebrahim came to England a shy, quiet young lad nearly two years ago to join the football studies programme, and he hasn't looked back since!

Prior to coming ebrahim played with al Ain in the UAE. he'd always watch the English game and had visited the south of England on a previous occasion and had liked the experience. He was told about the Edukick England course by a friend and decided to check it out for himself!

in his first year here in England he studies the BTEC first diploma, along with supporting English lessons and successfully completed this and his FA level one, which, for a student with very limited English was a fantastic achievement.

This year, in his second year on the course he is concentrating on developing his English with inlingua Manchester, the partner English language school, alongside developing his football on the pitch. his communication on the pitch and with staff and friends ha dramatically improved over his time in England and will continue to as he has committed to more and more lesson over the coming weeks.

we asked ebrahim why he came to England and his thoughts on the course on the course:-

"I like English football, it's the best environment to learn and improve your game. Lats year was great, i met lots of fantastic people from many different countries and background, all with different skills and understanding of the game, this years just getting better. we have a great team here now who are all focused and committed to the football and coaches that push us to perform every session. I love England, I want to stay longer and would recommend this to anyone"

Over the coming months we will be following ebrahims progress on the course and his experiences.

Ashley Woodhouse, Why I came!

Earlier in the blog updates we reported about how well Ashley has been doing this season since he left the course in June 2009, training with Stockport County, so we caught up with him this week to find out why he attended the year long programme with edukick England and Bolton Wanderers. this is what he had to say:-

"during my school years football was my life and i had always had the passion to play football professionally at some level, it's all i ever wanted to do. through my younger years i had played with Macclesfield Town and Stoke City centre's of excellence, but like many had been released by these clubs before I could prove to them what a valuable player and goalkeeper i could be for them. I'd had a few frustrating injuries too as i went through trials with clubs, I'd been on trial with both Leeds united and Bolton wanderers prior to attending the course.

"i saw the course and saw it as an opportunity to learn more about the game, submerge myself in football everyday, develop my skills and live the life of training and working hard everyday, along with that they had the academic element to the course to enable me to study alongside the football, and i saw these benefits."

"the course meant that i could focus totally on my football development, move into a environment that supported my development and focus me away from the normal distractions of teenage life, and i think the year i had one the programme did just that for me!"

Ashley is now training everyday with league club stockport County, pushing for a contract with them, whilst still returning to the programme weekly to get game time and help out this years new players.

Next week we will find out Ashley's thoughts on the course and stories of his journey of the 9 months.

Past Player Mason

Mason Hampel joined the edukick England programme for a short time during the 2008/2009 season. mason, who had in the past been to the France and Spain programme edukick host, is now playing in Holland for GVV UNITAS. we caught up with mason earlier this month to ask him what his experience was like in England and why he has come, this is what he had to say:-

"i played in a tournament last year, for the edukick international team, along side some great lads from the Edukick England course, so i went to England to check out the edukick England course for a week and see some of the team. They have a great set up in England, with Bolton Wanderers. Edukick gives young players great exposure to the football world, if you are a talented player and want to be a professional footballer, I would recommend one of their program, although remember it's up to the player to prove themselves, Edukick are not giving away pro contacts, just a great opportunity to play and learn the game"

"I'd recommend edukick England or France, good luck to any players out there, go for it"

Easter in Madrid

With just over one week to go to the end of term two, all the lads are preparing for either a restful break back home, or to travel to Madrid to represent Edukick England. 14 of the lads have opted to stay with the team for an extra week to have the opportunity to go to play in an international tournament in Madrid. They will come up against teams from Edukick Madrid, DPS soccer, Canada, players from Italy and France and local teams from the area. lats years tournament was an inspiration for the lads, and this year, having our own team representing England should be a great experience.

James Ward and Matt are travelling with the team to Madrid and are as keen and hopefully as the lads that they can come home with the winners medals.

Good luck to all the team.

if any parents want to join the team, contact Jon at edukick inc as soon as possible www.edukick.com

Welcome to the New Coach

The B squad have a new coach to drive them forward towards the end of this term and next. The new coach Shaun Couch, joins us to lead the B squad with experience of coaching at Blackpool football club and Blackburn Rovers Football club. As a university graduate from the university of central Lancashire with a BA (hons0 in sports coaching, along with his level 3 (UEFA B) FA coaching qualification, Shaun is perfectly placed to be involved and lead the B squad, not only bringing his coaching and leading experience, but his own personal experiences of progression through the football and coaching education system here in the UK.

We welcome him to the team, already Shaun has been involved over the past week with the lads and has formed a great relationship with the players.

here you can see Shaun talking the squad through his first game in charge last week in Bury.