A COMMITMENT to Harriers’ blossoming youth set-up is giving the club cause for great optimism for the future.

Kidderminster Harriers Football Academy is run in partnership between the club and Birmingham Metropolitan College and sees 120 players aged between 16 and 19 learning the game while still continuing with their studies.

The arrangement has already paid dividends for the club with Academy players such as Kennedy Digie, Luke Maxwell, Jordan Harrison and George Forsyth featuring regularly in the first team this season.

Kennedy and Luke started the Worcestershire Senior Cup final against Worcester last week, with the latter scoring his first goal for the club in a 2-1 win.

Academy boss Andy Blakeley has been with the Academy since it was set up in 2010 and has seen the number of players more than double from 50 in the first year to 120 this season.

He took over as overall Academy boss from Steve Guinan after Christmas and is responsible for both the football and education sides.

Andy said: “Obviously we are here to provide players for the Harriers first team but we also make sure that all the players have a ‘plan b’ in case it doesn’t work out for them – which is where the education side of it comes in.

“It has been fantastic for us to see a number of Academy players make it into the first team this season and shows everyone that we are not just using Harriers as a brand – there is a realistic chance for people to make it.

“People are seeing this now and we have been inundated with applications for our trials. It is growing all the time.

“But the superb support we have received from the club is fundamental to all this. The first team works with the Academy, manager Gary Whild attends our games and new chairman Rod Brown has expressed his commitment to us. They see it as the future which is a huge boost.”

Further optimism is coming from the success of Andy’s current crop, who won the Worcester Youth Cup this season.

He added: “The future does seem bright and the club is working hard to make that happen.”