Hundreds of League Of Ireland academy players began their Junior and Leaving Cert exams yesterday.
Good luck to them.
It makes me think back to June 2009 when I sat my final school exams before a scholarship in UCD and then a move to the UK.
It’s a huge couple of weeks for players across the U15, U17 and U19 divisions and even some first team players too.
The balance of playing football at an elite level and trying to get enough study done in the lead-up to exams and over the last couple of years is a tricky one and I hope the majority of them have been able to get it right.
The underage leagues break for the whole month of June to allow players in exam years to focus on getting the results they need.
The FAI are criticised quite a lot for a number of reasons but the idea of the break is crucial to helping the players do well off the pitch.
Their football, combined with study and exams at the same time, can lead to stress and anxiety, so being able to focus fully for a couple of weeks is a real plus.
For me, having a Leaving Cert is the minimum standard for any young footballer, and given the experience I’ve had in recent years with a career-ending injury at the age of 26, I’m glad I opted not to move to Premier League Burnley aged 18.
Too many players (and their parents) make the uninformed choice to sign for a club before finishing school, and when over 90% of them are home after three years with little or no further education, many find it difficult to restart their lives whether that be in or out of football.
More needs to be done to educate these players and parents on the importance of having a back-up plan should football fail to work out, and even if it does, for them to be able to do something else after they retire.
My old club, Shamrock Rovers, have broken new ground recently with their link up with Ashfield College.
Rovers are paying for Aaron Bolger to do his Leaving Cert there, while also being on a full-time football contract.
It’s an arrangement similar to the UK, but with a much better qualification at the end of it.
Aaron (18) trains full-time with Rovers on a Monday, Tuesday and Thursday morning and goes to Ashfield on a specifically designed Leaving Cert curriculum in the afternoons, for a full day on a Wednesday and for a half-day on Friday’s before his games.
He’s been a somewhat regular in the Shamrock Rovers team since breaking in last season and is building a good CV at senior club level as well as underage international level, combined with the CV he will hopefully be able to build via his Leaving Cert.
This surely puts him in a stronger position than most others his age in this country and in the UK.
I strongly believe the future of our league lies in the education of our players both on and off the pitch, and I hope Aaron does really well in his exams before being able to focus fully on football.
It would be well worth other League Of Ireland clubs following Shamrock Rovers’ example and setting up similar schemes for their young players.
Once these players have done their Leaving Cert, college will be on the horizon for many of them.
Clubs like UCD and St Pat’s are at the forefront here.
The Saints are linked with Maynooth University and have a number of players in their first team and U19s on scholarships there.
Current first team star Darragh Markey is a good example here, he’s studying maths and playing full-time with St Pat’s.
Dundalk’s Jamie McGrath and Sean Hoare both signed long-term contract extensions with Dundalk this week, they are both St Pat’s/Maynooth degree graduates too.
Liam Buckley’s team train at 4pm in the afternoons, allowing Markey for example, and 17-year-old underage international goalkeeper Brian Maher, go to college and school during the day.
It also allows Conan Byrne to work as a teacher, with other players in the squad having the option to either work part-time or continue their own education.
Shelbourne have just agreed a similar link with DCU, that is still in its infancy.
Of course my old club UCD have been leading the way, and we are continuing to see former UCD players reaping the rewards of their time in Belfield, both on and off the pitch.
The list of the golden generation under Martin Russell is endless. Ronan Finn, Dave McMillan, Ciaran Kilduff, Robbie Benson, Andy Boyle, Greg Bolger and Niall Corbet are just some of those playing full-time professional football both here and abroad, with the security of a degree or even a masters in their back pockets.
New Shelbourne CEO and a good friend of mine Dave O’Connor is taking a break from playing, and is using his college qualifications via UCD in his new role at Tolka Park.
"The links between LOI clubs and universities are continuing to build and hopefully they get even stronger"
Current UCD stars like Georgie Kelly, Greg Sloggett and Evan Osam among others are all destined for full-time football once they finish college.
The links between LOI clubs and universities are continuing to build and hopefully they get even stronger.
The key to all of the above, if you’ll excuse the pun, is education.
Education of everyone.
Clubs, players, parents, agents and more.
Our talented young players (and in some cases their parents) need to be guided towards doing well in school and aiming to perform as well in exams as they do on the pitch.
They also need to be given the time and space to do this, which is where the understanding of club managers and coaches needs to come in.
Being a professional footballer is the best job in the world, but we need to think about those who fail to achieve their dream. What will they do for the rest of their lives?
And even those small few who ‘make it’, they’ve still got 30 years of working life after football before retirement to think about... it’s a short career and a long life, unfortunately not enough are thinking about it..
