Applications are now open for the next round of a unique scholarship being offered to footballers and coaches to give them a chance to extend their education.
The football postgraduate scholarship is an initiative of South East Technological University (SETU) in partnership with the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) and the Professional Footballers' Association of Ireland (PFAI).
Successful applicants can avail of 34 different programmes of study at the university's campus in Carlow.
It is designed to encourage postgraduate study among players and former players across all levels of the game, including men's and women's international and League of Ireland levels.
The first to be accepted onto the scholarship for its inaugural year was Hannah Tobin Jones, who plays League of Ireland with DLR Waves and formerly played with Bohemians.
She is also a masseuse with the women's national team who are about to head to Australia for the World Cup.
"After completing my undergraduate degree, I really wanted to progress further with my education, so the Masters here in SETU always appealed to me as I've both a professional and personal interest in strength and conditioning.
"So when I saw the scholarship being advertised online I knew it would be a great fit.
"I was very fortunate to receive the scholarship and it's been a massive, massive help for me and I'm very grateful for the opportunity," she explained.
The scholarship helps her to balance her studies, and professional training, with her League of Ireland career.
Hannah said: "It's been broken down into a few different modules, so we have metabolic conditioning, advanced resistance training, nutrition and a few more modules then to go next year."
As for the forthcoming adventure in Australia, she and all involved cannot wait.
"Getting to go to the World Cup is unbelievable and I feel very, very lucky to get to play a small part.
"What the girls have achieved is obviously unbelievable and it's just a fantastic group and I'm really looking forward to going," she said.
Hannah is not the only link with the World Cup-bound squad as three players in the squad have studied at SETU: Aine O'Gorman, Claire O'Riordan and Louise Quinn. Assistant coach Tom Elmes is a former programme director at the university and graduate Gerard Dunne is an analyst with the team.
Meanwhile, the FAI's high-performance development officer, Robert Sweeney, will work with the squad as an opposition analyst.
There's strong involvement in the scholarship programme from the FAI and the PFAI, with similar goals in mind.
"There was an opportunity for postgraduate study options," said the FAI's Paul O'Reilly.
"So it's looking at current and former players, from the League of Ireland men's and the League of Ireland women's, and providing an opportunity for them to get back into education or continue with education, potentially while still playing and coaching, in industry as well.
"It means people can continue with their careers whether that be playing or coaching or in industry and allows them to upskill, get an extra qualification and hopefully continue on with the learning that they've already done at undergraduate level," he said.
John McGuinness of the PFAI said they work with a range of players, with different educational levels and backgrounds.
"Scholarships such as this at postgraduate level offers players to take the next opportunity in their education pathway," he said.
"It's a great opportunity for us to work with SETU and take that to the next level and offer players an opportunity to take that next step."
The PFAI encourages players, from early in their footballing careers, to look at those varying pathway after football, he said.
"We find that, when they're playing, players like to focus on playing and studies have actually showed that when players that actually focus on something else away from the game - it can actually help them within the game as well.
"So for us it's working with players as individuals, as people, and trying to get them to be more rounded individuals so that when they come out of football, which will inevitably happen whether it's at the age of 35 or 36 when they retire, or whether it's through an injury or something that might happen, that they're ready to go into the general workplace or go into education and it's not a big change for them.
"The earlier that players can start on that pathway, the better for them."
The courses on offer are from higher certificate to Masters level and across six academic departments at SETU in Carlow.
"That may be a course directly related to sport or it may be something completely different and it's a direction that these athletes and coaches are pursuing for their career, be it engineering or business or computing, for example," SETU President Veronica Campbell pointed out.
"The scholarships are structured in such a way that allows the athletes and coaches to continue to participate in their sport and to make that contribution, and to be able to do that alongside postgraduate study."
Applicants need to satisfy course requirements for postgraduate level as well as their engagement in football at national or international level, Professor Campbell added.
"They can be existing coaches or footballers or former coaches or footballers," she said.
The deadline for applications for the next intake is 25 August.
