First team players Sean McAllister and Marcus Williams made a special visit to The Shed on Tuesday afternoon.
This was to oversee United’s young futsal players’ participate in one of their training sessions.The futsal programme allows 16-18 year olds to represent the Iron in a regional league and combine this with their BTEC Level 3 Extended Diploma in Sport studies as they take their first steps out of school.
The course, led by Gav Cooper, inhabits two year groups and four teams who use The Shed, Bottesford Sports Hall, gym fitness classes and boxing classes to train and prepare for matches whilst still making time for classroom studies to help them obtain a recognised qualification.
A lot of success has been achieved by the side recently and two of the four teams currently sit top of their league tables whilst the other two are nicely positioned in the top three.
Games last for forty minutes and are played at Leeds Futsal Arena, with the winners of each regional group and high finishers qualifying for the season’s grand finale, where the FLT national futsal champions are crowned.
McAllister and Williams travelled to The Shed to see one of the training sessions in full swing and were fully complimentary about the programme.
Midfielder McAllister said: “It was nice to come down to the training ground and see exactly what the sessions involve.
“They all seem like hard workers and they’re doing fantastically well in their individual leagues at the moment which is good to see.
“It’s a great opportunity that they’re given to be able to combine their education with playing an up and coming sport like futsal.”
Williams added: “Each of the teams have enjoyed a lot of success recently so it’s good to be able to come and witness how much effort they’re all putting in.
“It’s great that they can play sport whilst still being able to study and get an education behind them.
“We both hope that the teams can continue to do as well as they have done over the coming months and beyond.”