Support of the Youth Academy

Since Dunfermline Athletic FC took the decision to have their own academy in 2022, the support for what the academy is trying to achieve from ‘The Friends of Kenny Mclachlan’, facilitated by DAFC.net, has been very much appreciated. Kenny Mclachlan came up with the idea of using the past to help the future via the artwork of celebrated football artist Paul Town.

Sadly, he then suffered a stroke but his friends were determined to help the Youth Academy whilst Kenny recovered. The first year of the project has led to £5,000 being contributed to the Club for the benefit of the Academy.

The criteria set out by the SFA which the club has to meet in order to be accepted into the Club Academy Scotland programme is very stringent. This is not only in terms of the qualifications of coaching staff but in other matters such as…..
-- amount of coaching / game time for each squad (minimum of 10 hours per week)
-- quality of the facilities used for matches and coaching (each facility must pass FIFA quality pitch surface test. Testing of a pitch coasts about £2000
-- provision of medical cover at coaching and matches (coaches must have National Sports First Aid qualification for coaching sessions and Chartered Physio must be present on match days)
-- A clinic at least once per week for the treatment of injured academy players.
-- Games at U16s and U18s have to be filmed with the home team responsible for filming and sending game footage to opponents.

Also, with Inverness CT and Ross County being part of the Club Academy Scotland tier that the Academy is participating in, it means that each season the academy has to travel to Inverness or Dingwall about 12 times a year. For all other fixtures we ask our parents to take their son to games, but the club feels Inverness and Dingwall is too far away to ask this. Consequently, we hire a coach to take the players to these games. This incurs a cost of around £9000 for the season.

In order to achieve 10 hours coaching per week for squads U14s / U16s and U18s the academy has a day release scheme in place on a Wednesday. Players come out of school at lunchtime and are transported to Michael Woods Sports Centre in Glenrothes. Players then do classwork with Fife College to gain SQA awards and also have coaching sessions with academy coaches. Over 30 players participate in this experience. In order to make transportation to MWSC possible we hire a 17 seater mini bus from the Crossford Scout Group as well as using the club 9 seater mini bus and the Academy car.

From Bill Hendry, head of Head of Academy: this gives you a flavour of what is taking place as we strive to produce players for our 1st team. The donations from ‘The Friends of Kenny Mclachlan’, assisted by DAFC.net, over the last year has played an integral part in allowing us to be the best we can be. It is much appreciated