Tag: youth

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.

  1. Frazer Wicox
  2. Owen Gallacher
  3. Cameron Hamilton
  4. Luke Crosbie
  5. Euan Arthur
  6. Robbie Simpson
  7. Adam MacDonald
  8. Callum Wylie
  9. Keigan McCaffery
  10. Ermuir Ismaili
  11. Kai Reed

#weareCJFC #itswhoweare #since1920

CJFC 2005s step up to the plate

Despite being the team who’ve had the hardest of seasons having to drop a league and without a win all year, our Youth Academy 2005s team have stepped up to support local people in need. Most of the boys have never played football before this season and this is very much a community level team, which makes their gesture even more meaningful.

At the instigation of their Club Secretary Cat Milne, the boys have used some of their fund raising money that they’d been saving, to purchase food, cleaning products and toiletries (pictured) and have donated them to our charity partner, Love Falkirk. This is an outreach programme run by Falkirk Vineyard Church who work from an office in our ground to support those in most need in our community through the provision of food parcels, household items, toiletries and a spirit of community.

Our Club Sports Chaplain Dan Rous, who is supported by Falkirk Vineyard Church and Sports Chaplaincy Scotland, was on hand to receive the donation from the 2005s. He said, “this is a fantastic boost to the practical provision that our Love Falkirk volunteers are undertaking. They’re pretty busy at the best of times, but are now receiving more and more calls for support from social workers in these difficult days. I’m here to support the general needs of everyone involved at Camelon Juniors FC so it’s nice that the club as a whole are stepping up their support in return. Tony Smith asked me to set up the collection point for people to bring food donations in and we’ve had a number of people take up that invitation. The support that our Love Falkirk volunteers will be giving will only increase over the coming weeks, but together with the whole Falkirk Vineyard Church family, we will serve people as best we can for as long as we can.”

Well done to all at the 2005s for this gesture. We’re proud of you as always.

#weareCJFC #itswhoweare #supportlocal

Find out how you can support at www.lovefalkirk.com or find them all over social media as @lovefalkirk

Under 20s Contract News – Liam Johnston

Camelon Juniors Under 20s are pleased to announce that forward Liam Johnston has extended his contract with the club. This ensures he will be with the club until at least 2021.

Liam celebrated his new contract by playing with the first team yesterday evening in a bounce match against Linlithgow Rose. Not only that, he netted his first senior goal as well.

Thanks for sticking with the mighty Mariners Liam.

#weareCJFC #itswhoweare

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 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.

#weareCJFC

Here’s the full Central region draw:

Central Section

Civil Service Strollers v Partick Thistle
Dunipace v Camelon Juniors
Spartans v Stirling Albion
Tynecastle v Inverkeithing Hillhead Swifts

Byes

Alloa Athletic
Bonnyrigg Rose
Kelty Hearts
St Johnstone
St Mirren

Scottish Youth Cup

Once again, we’re proud to be entering a development team from our Academy into the 2019/20 Scottish FA Youth Cup. With our First Team making their first steps on the senior Scottish Cup this weekend, it highlights the commitment from the club and the potential for players to achieve great things on these high profile platforms.

There are a total of 41 clubs participating in the Scottish FA Youth Cup Competition 2019/20. Clubs are regionally placed in Round One to minimise travelling.

The draw will be made on 12 August and we could face any of the following from the Central list:

Alloa Athletic; Bonnyrigg Rose; Civil Service Strollers; Dunipace; Inverkeithing Hillfield Swifts; Jeanfield Swifts; Kelty Hearts; Partick Thistle; Spartans; St Johnstone; St Mirren; Stirling Albion; Tynecastle.

In the first round draw, there will be 14 numbered balls (we’re number 3) and 5 ties will be drawn. The remaining 4 clubs will receive a bye into Round Two.

Proposed Dates for Ties:

Round One – Friday 27 September 2019

Round Two – Friday 8 November 2019

Round Three – Friday 6 December 2019

Round Four – Friday 24 January 2020

Semi-Finals – Friday 21 February 2020

Final – Friday 24 April 2020 (TBC)