Football Academy

Football Academy Objectives

The Itchen College Football Academy aims to improve and develop every player, by ensuring recreational players to elite players are supported throughout the season. All players will receive structured coaching sessions from our qualified and experienced coaches, receive excellent weekly communication informing them of fixtures and progress, and supportive analysis feedback on their individual performance. All players involved in the Academy will also have ample opportunity to challenge themselves at the next level within our structured program.  

Football Academy Structure

The Men’s Academy consists of four competitive teams that take part in the Hampshire Colleges League, and one recreational team that take part in friendly games between themselves and the Academy teams. All the Academy teams train in College time for 2.5 hrs and play fixtures, also in College time on Wednesday afternoon. 

First Team – Premier League (AoC National Cup, ECFA National Cup, Hampshire Colleges “Peter Munroe” Cup), 

Second Team – Championship (AoC National Cup, Hampshire Colleges “Peter Munroe” Cup)

Third Team – Championship (Hampshire Colleges “Peter Munroe” Cup) 

Fourth Team – Division 2 (Hampshire Colleges “Steve Perkins” Cup).

Fifth Team – Local Friendly Games

2023-24

First Team:

• Hampshire Premier League winners – this was the 13^th time in the last 15 years
• AoC South East Regional tournament winners, qualifying for the 2024 National Championships
• National Championship winners in Nottingham
• AoC National Knockout Cup Final runner’s-up

Second Team:

• Hampshire Championship League Champions

Third Team:

• League 1 runner’s-up

Fourth Team:

• League 2 Champions

2022-23

First Team:

• Hampshire Colleges Premier League winners
• Harry Cook secured a scholarship to The College of St. Scholastica, Minnesota

Second Team:

• Hampshire Colleges Championship winners

Our Women’s Football Academy is highly successful with several of our former players having gone on to play professionally.

The focus is very much on providing effective progression routes for female footballers. We now have a full Second Team squad, who finished 3rd in the Hampshire League and are currently top of the Hampshire League, and into the last 16 for the National Cup.

We encourage our players to progress to WSL or FAWNL club football, or to consider a US Scholarship. We have excellent links with Solent University, Align Performance and Southampton Women’s FC as part of the Sirens Pathway.

2024-25

• Liv Glover is selected for the AoC England Colleges team
• Hampshire Cup winners

2023-24

First Team:

• AoC South East Performance League winners
• Kaitlyn Cousens (First Team captain) was selected for the AoC England Colleges team
• Lou Forder gained a US Scholarship to Southwestern College in Kansas
• Charlotte Gatehouse gained a US Scholarship to Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College

Second Team:

• Third place in the Hampshire League

2022-23

• Dani O’Leary gained a scholarship to Laramie Community College, Wyoming
• Hollie Keefe gained a scholarship to Middle Georgia State University, Georgia

2021-22

• Millie Gell secured a scholarship to Hastings College, Nebraska
• Freya Jones secured a scholarship to Limestone University, South Carolina

The Football Academy play their home games at the following locations: Itchen College (grass pitch that has been relayed in 2021/22), Stoneham FA Facility (3G), Wide Lane (3G) and Folland FC (grass).

All players in the Football Academy will have the opportunity to self-reflect and analyse their own performance using our Veo cameras. Veo enables us to record and analyse matches and training sessions. The camera films with two 4K lenses and records 180 degrees, so it captures every single moment of the match in great video quality.