Exley’s excited by Boro’s bright future

Scarborough Athletic’s Paul Exley is enjoying his role at the club and is excited by the current talent that is coming from the town.
Boro's Paul ExleyBoro's Paul Exley
Boro's Paul Exley

The club’s junior football director spends his time overseeing the whole of the junior section and is hopeful that local players will push through into the first team.

He said: “I look after everything for Under-Sevens through to Under-19s and I look after all the coaches, players and setting up the sessions.

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“Our goal is to see the local players push through and ultimately into the first team and we have plans in place to help this.

“Right from the bottom of the club we coach everyone in the same style to hopefully make that transition into the first team a little easier.”

Despite Athletic losing players to nearby academies at the likes of Leeds United, Hull City and Middlesbrough, Exley is still happy with the talented groups on show at The Flamingo Land Stadium.

“We’ve always lost players to the bigger teams like Leeds, York, Hull and Middlesbrough but that’s beginning to change,” he added.

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“With the pull of potentially playing first team football, we are seeing people return to the club and this is all down to how we are running the youth set up.

“We always make sure that anyone who steps up to the top level is ready for it and prepared for the challenges that they might face.”

Current Scarborough Athletic first-team players Michael Coulson, Ryan Blott and Jimmy Beadle successfully made the transition through to the top level of the club with other youngsters, including Max Wright and Connor Avison, training with the club over the past few seasons.

With the hope of seeing local lads representing the club, Exley has his fingers crossed that more players will be able to join up with manager Darren Kelly’s first-team squad and show their talent at the highest level possible.

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The junior football director added: “It’s important for us to make sure that players are full of confidence and can perform at that level.

“We try and feed the professionalism into the Under-19s and prepare them in the best possible way incase they manage to make the step up to the first-team squad.

“It’s an extremely rewarding role to be involved with and I can’t wait to see what the future holds for the club going forward.”