PUBLISHED 27 October 2019
At the end of the school day on Friday most pupils head home for the weekend but at AKS the Goalie Club gets into full swing and the school hockey goalkeepers get their kit on and have their weekly technique practice session. The club has grown to an impressive 13 keepers with the youngest being Year 4 pupil Lucas through all year groups to 1st XI keeper Tara.
At the AKS Goalie Club the group, known as the AKS Goalie Gang, are put through their paces by England GK Coach Kay Hanham in order to improve their keeping techniques and their ability to keep the ball out of the net! Fitness, technical shaping and contextual practise are all included in the sessions which have resulted in all the keepers making great progress.
The results are obvious with all the school teams having low ‘goals against’ tallies as well as six girls Scarlet, Daniella, Mady, Evie, Maisy and Niamh attending the Lancashire GK Academy.
More evidence of the success of the club is that following in the footsteps of ex-pupil Emily another AKS pupil has been selected as a GK to attend the England Hockey Fylde Performance Centre. Despite being an inexperienced keeper talented Yr 9 pupil Beth played superbly for Lancashire U14’s last year and after an assessment day was included in the Performance Centre which is the next step up the England Pathway towards playing for the England Junior team. Beth now trains regularly at Mill Farm along with 14 other talented U15 players from the North west working towards Competitions against the other performance Centre in the North later in the year.