Ayr United launch soccer school

Jun 25 2008

THE AYR United Football Academy will launch the first of its proposed community schools on Saturday at Whitletts astroturf pitch.

The weekly event is open to all boys and girls, aged from 5 years upwards.

The two hour coaching session starts at 10am and will be taken by the Academy's qualified coaching staff. Cost is £5 per child and registration is free.

Academy head coach Eric Morris said: “By encouraging children to participate in sport at a young age, we are hoping we can assist in this way to help tackle the many health problems that we hear about in today's children.

"But it's also about the children enjoying themselves, while at the same time, learning the skills of the game from our qualified coaching staff."

He added: "We envisage our catchment area to be the whole of Ayrshire and are trying to identify sites throughout the area to launch other soccer schools."

Meanwhile, Morris has lured back Billy Milligan and Roy Jardine from Gretna to coach Ayr under 12s.

Tom Robertson will be in charge of the 13s while Sammy Conn and Jim Gibson will lead the 17s. Former Ayr stalwarts Peter Leonard, Lawrie Dinwoodie and George Logan will give coaching.