Cardiff and Vale College launches new Netball Academy

Cardiff and Vale College is launching a new Netball Academy where 16 to 18-year-olds can study A Levels or vocational qualifications while training to become the netball stars of the future.

The Academy, which will train and play home games at Cardiff City House of Sport, will be coached by Welsh international player Kyra Jones, who has represented Wales at the Netball World Cup and Commonwealth Games.

Open to all students, CAVC sporting academies provide a supportive and specialist environment that combines first-class coaching and sports development with the College’s expanding portfolio of courses. The College’s football and rugby academies have already proved a success, with the Rugby Academy coming fourth in the world’s biggest schools’ rugby competition, the Rosslyn Park Sevens, in 2017.

CAVC head of Sport, Tourism and Public Services James Young said: “We are trying to encourage more female participation in sport, plus wellbeing and fitness are high on the agenda for both the Welsh Government and Sport Wales. Over the years we have had students show an interest in netball, and following on from the success of our rugby and football academies we decided to expand and establish a Netball Academy as well.

“We needed to recruit someone from a high level coaching and performance background who could take our players’ achievements to the next level and that is where Kyra comes in. We are delighted to welcome her on board.”

Kyra said: “I’m very excited and I’m looking forward to getting started and working with all the female learners who sign up. It will be an exciting opportunity to work with a new group of young women and I can’t wait to work with them.

“The facilities are amazing – both here at Cardiff International Sports Campus and Cardiff City House of Sport. I haven’t seen the high performance gym at City Centre Campus but I hear that’s really good as well.”

The College is now recruiting for the Netball Academy and will be advertising throughout the College and at next week’s Freshers’ Fayres. It is expected that the academy will be fully up and running later in the next few weeks.