Gartcairn YA Officially Opens its New Pitch

On the 20th November over 170 children from the academy and local area attended a free two hour coaching session and opening ceremony of Gartcairn Grass Parks situated on Hillfoot Road, Airdrie.

The facility consists of a full sized 11s park, 3 sevens parks, two fun fours parks and a small training area. It is currently all grass but the club already has plans to convert an area into a full size 3G pitch.

With Councillor David Stocks and Councillor Jim Logue in attendance, the club is also hoping that in the future they will be able to work with the local authority to redevelop the existing Gartlea community centre to make the facility a real community hub.

Gartcairn Youth Academy are a Development Level Quality Mark Club having achieved the required standards in areas such as coach and player development, management, administration, welfare and planning.

Alan Taylor, Football Development Manager for Dunbartonshire and Lanarkshire, said "I am delighted for the Club.  Having a base will really help them to develop and move forward as a club and to reach out to new players and volunteers in the local community."

There are three Quality Mark categories - Standard, Development, and Community. So far more than 250 clubs and schools have achieved accreditation over the three categories, and over 4,000 coaches have benefited from coach education and first aid training.

McDonald’s, Scottish FA’s community partner since 2002, are committed to helping young footballers shine by attracting 13,000 new volunteers and 10,000 new coaches by 2014, as well as supporting 600 clubs and 52,000 players through new and existing football networks.

Through Quality Mark, McDonald’s andthe Scottish FA aim to provide support to grassroots clubs and schools across Scotland as they strive to broaden youth and community participation and to enhance player, coach and volunteer development.

Sportscotland is a key partner in the delivery of youth football programmes, investing over £1m per year in activities including employment of club development staff, discounted coach education and training for volunteers.he Quality Mark Accreditation Scheme is supported by sportscotland, the national agency for sport. sportscotland has one clear focus – to develop a world class sporting system for Scotland – and works with partners to build success for Scottish sport.