Category: Academy

Under 20s Update

Football is slowly getting going again and the Under 20s Development Squad are due to start their season on 6 November. So this seems a good point to bring some updates from our very successful player pathway.

Firstly Kai Wilson, who played for 2 seasons with our 2002s squad and a further season in the Under 20s, secured a fantastic move to Livingston FC.

Also making the move to senior football is Drew Cummings, who was signed by Tweedmouth this summer. This is a great move for Drew to continue on his Development.

Thirdly, following a spell on loan, Keir Young also secured his professional contract by signing with Oakley this summer.

This is really great success for the Camelon Juniors player pathway that can celebrate 8 players moving to senior football in our first 2 seasons. This is a sign of our commitment to the players development and our Club Academy status that the Under 20s have also achieved.

In another highlight last season, the Under 20s reached their first Cup Final with a memorable win against East Fife and with victories against the top 4 finishing teams.

Everyone at Camelon Juniors would like to wish these boys every success in their development into being fine young professional footballers.

U17s graduate to U20s

Camelon Juniors would like to congratulate graduates from our Under 17s Academy team who have made the move over to our Under 20s Development Squad. Throughout the 2019/20 season, many of the U17s were featured in Friday night games and training as part of their pathway at the Club. One of the biggest games our U17s featured in was the SFA U18 Scottish Youth Cup.

Part of our U20s Development plan is to bring players in from within our Academy over the season and integrate them into the system and environment of senior football, helping to prepare them for the step up while enjoying their football within our youth program. This Development Plan is also geared towards our older players to make the move into senior football within Camelon or the wider senior game, and we celebrated as Keir Young and Kai Wilson both made the move from U20s to their pro contracts at senior level. All this is part of our commitment to Club Academy Scotland criteria, which Camelon Juniors was accredited with in November 2019, thanks to the hard work and diligence from U20s Secretary Allan Morrison.

Our Structure is a clear pathway to a higher level of football with Camelon Juniors FC and over the past 2 seasons our U20s have enabled 5 players to move into the senior game.

So, here are the players that have graduated to the u20s Development Squad. Congratulations to them all.

Frazer Wicox
Owen Gallacher
Cameron Hamilton
Luke Crosbie
Euan Arthur
Robbie Simpson
Adam MacDonald
Callum Wylie
Keigan McCaffery
Ermuir Ismaili
Kai Reed

#weareCJFC #itswhoweare #since1920

Accreditation for CJFC u20s Development Pathway

Camelon Juniors FC are proud to announce a huge accreditation for our u20s Development Squad. Following a recent audit, we have achieved Club Academy Scotland (CAS) Lite status.

CAS is the Scottish FA’s structure that defines, operates and partially funds the Academy system in Scotland, alongside a games programme. It governs the development of players from the age of 11 to 18. Clubs are assessed against set criteria and a set of Measureable Performance Outcomes, which take into account performance in areas like domestic and international appearances for home-grown players, coaching qualifications, facilities, talent identification and sports science and medicine set-ups.

Back in March 2018, u20s Secretary Allan Morrison had a vision for how the u20s Development Squad could be and this accreditation, that is down to his hard work and tenacity, is another piece in the jigsaw to creating something unique in the local area. We join Spartans as the only clubs outside of the SPFL to have this status.

CJFC have taken time to build the u20s Development Squad over the last 18 months to become one of the best local development teams in the area. This is a squad where boys can come to further their footballing opportunities under the umbrella of the Lowland and East of Scotland Football Associations. The CAS Lite endorsement goes a long way to establishing the criteria that the Club will follow to ensure that any player coming through our player pathway to u20s development level are nurtured to move into adult football. We are also greatly assisted by Galaxy Sports Little Kerse – the home of Community Football – with access to their great playing facilities.

Some players that we have supported to move to further their development have been: Blair Hastings (East Stirlingshire); Jack Frame (West Calder); and Marcus Boyce (East Kilbride). These young lads are a credit to Camelon u20s and played a big role in the first year of the development of the club. Most recently, Jack Denham has moved on loan to Kilsyth Rangers as part of his development. Also, Grant Wotherspoon reached the final stages of selection for the Scottish School Boys International Squad.

Over the next 2 to 3 years, we have some fantastic young players in our other Academy teams that will get to play at the standard the u20s provide competitively, to continue their pathway within a development environment.

Camelon u20s will always try to improve and provide a strong development pathway for what is currently one of the youngest u20s teams in the league set-up.

The committee wish to thank Allan for his work behind the scenes to achieve this status, and for the vision for developing these aspiring young stars together with the coaching teams and Academy staff.

#weareCJFC #itswhoweare

Scottish School Boys International Squad 2019/20

Camelon Juniors FC are proud to report that 17 year old first team defender Blair Sneddon has been selected to be part of the Scottish School Boys International Squad for 2019/20.

At a final trial match yesterday, Blair was chosen to be part of the squad of 18 boys selected from across Scotland. He is the first Camelon player to be chosen to play at this level. What an honour. Well done Blair.

Sadly, our u20s defender Grant Wotherspoon did not make the final squad. It is quite unprecedented for a club at tier six to have two players in the final trials, so he should be very proud of himself and all he has achieved so far. We’re certainly proud of him.

This is a massive occasion for Camelon that everyone connected with the club can be proud of. Proof of the strength of talent and strong pathway opportunities that we have right from the youngest academy player to the oldest first team player.

Well done lads.

#weareCJFC #itswhoweare

Under 20s Signing News

Our Under 20s Development Squad may not have had a game tonight, but we can still bring you some signing news from them.

Firstly, we introduce Ryan Duffy. Ryan joins from Syngenta and plays in central defence. We have been tracking his development for the last 18 months and are delighted to capture his signature.

Secondly, we introduce Jack Denham. Jack joins from Fallin Amateurs having had previous experience with Airdrie and Motherwell youth. Jack played as a trialist in the first teams mid week friendly against Harthill and even got on the score sheet. He also has a family connection to the club as his father, Greig, is a previous manager of the Mariners.

Welcome to the mighty Mariners Ryan and Jack.

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Under 20s News

The committee have been working away behind the scenes over recent weeks to sign and re-sign numerous players for our u20s Development Squad. Here’s information on just some of those players:

Kai Wilson: Kai is a product of our U17s team from the 2018/19 season and was a stand out player who has now progressed to our U20s as an indication of our youth pathway.

Paul McIntyre: Paul has re-signed from our U20s last season were he was team Captain. It is great to retain a player who also progressed from our U19s team in 2017/18.

Lewis Croy: Lewis has also re-signed from our U20s last season and has another 2 years at this level. He is another player progressing through our youth pathway from the U17s in 2017/18.

Keir Young: Keir has also re-signed from our U20s last season and is another player to benefit from our player pathway having played with our U19s in 2017/18. Keir has also had the opportunity to play with our first team on a couple of occasions.

Gregg Clarke: Gregg came from Pitreavie Pumas with whom our U20s have developed close ties with since last season. He has shown that opportunities to progress are there for boys outwith the Camelon pathway.

There are other players that will feature in due course but these are just some of the rising stars that we’re pleased to have the signature of as part of the CJFC family.

#weareCJFC #academy

He is one of our own

We are delighted to welcome local lad Grant Wotherspoon to the club. Grant is a towering central defender with great potential and joins our under 20’s development squad from Dunipace.

Scottish Youth Cup – First Round Draw

The draw has been made for the first round of the Scottish Youth Cup and we’ve received an away tie against Dunipace to be played on Friday 27 September.

Good luck to our Academy players taking part in this competition.

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Here’s the full Central region draw: