July 17, 2024

Academy visit Thornhill Trojans

Wakefield Trinity’s Academy and Reserve players visited Thornhill Trojans this week in the first of a number of planned Community Training sessions. 

Players and Coaches from the club utilised facilities to carry out a game review within the Thornhill clubhouse before heading out on the field to conduct a training session.

Afterwards, Players split into groups to deliver coaching skill sessions to Thornhill’s U14 and U15 juniors. 

On the session, Trinity Head of Youth, Ben Lazenby said: “I am delighted with the warm welcome that we received from Thornhill Trojans, being able to bring our academy training out on the road is great for us to be able to connect with the rugby league community and share what we are doing within the Wakefield Trinity Academy.

 

Thornhill Trojans really looked after us, to start off with we delivered our game review from the recent Reserves win over Bradford in the clubhouse before taking to the field to look at some areas to improve from our last two games as well as our ongoing speed work and skill development.

 

We are hoping that this outreach session will be the first of many across the Wakefield district. I think it is really important that we share what we do in the Academy with the community clubs for a number of reasons – it supports wider engagement and relationships with the community clubs which in turn helps bring the whole game across Wakefield together. By sharing what we teach, how we review and how we coach with players, coaches and parents gives valuable reference points of the on field development that we are trying to achieve at Wakefield Trinity. As we move the Academy forward, taking our community clubs on the journey with us is paramount to our long term success. Taking Academy training on the road makes our training accessible and gives insight into our training for the coaches, aspirational players as well as encouraging our players to learn additional skills in coaching the community club juniors.

 

I was pleased to see how the Reserves and Academy players organised themselves to coach the Thornhill Trojans U14 and U15 at the end of our training, our players are great role models and it wasn’t long since they were playing for their community clubs so they are entirely relatable for the young players to aspire towards. The lads came up with a few drills and games around core skills and got stuck in with the Thornhill players to make it an enjoyable session for all.”

 

In the future the club are looking to carry out another training session on the road in August and hopefully one in September as well, before planning a number of these sessions across the 2025 season. 

If any of the clubs in the Wakefield district are interested in hosting the Academy or Scholarship for a training session please  get in touch with Alex.Bielby@wakefieldtrinity.com

This initiative is one of a number of ways that Wakefield Trinity are looking to get more involved with the Rugby League clubs in our community so keep your eyes peeled for coach development opportunities, club visits, player pathway activity and holiday camps.