ONE CLUB ONE GOAL: UPRISING FC ACADEMY IS BORN
In an historic moment for our club, we would like to announce the formation of the Uprising FC Academy! The academy was founded in the last few days of December 2025 and we are now beginning the new year by inviting boys and girls (ages 4-13) to take part in our twice weekly sessions.
Headed by Uprising FC President Tre Gumbs, and Uprising midfield star Leon Whyle who has been installed as the academy's Lead Coach and Director, the academy heralds what we hope to be an exciting future for our club in developing some of the best young talent emerging on our beautiful island!
As many of you reading this will already know, Leon who is from Trinidad and Tobago, joined our club during the 2025 season and proved to be an instant success with his excellent performances in the engine room of the Uprising midfield. Away from playing, Leon is in the process of taking his Caribbean B Coaching Licence which he began in his homeland and will be completing in Anguilla.
Upon the founding of our academy we asked Leon how he would be evaluating the performance of the boys and girls who join and take part in what we are sure will be exciting and fun sessions. Leon said, ""We will be doing recordings and taking statistics with a programme that can be run at the end of each month which will look at several football disciplines such as ball juggling and running speed.""
Leon also provided us with comments on what in his opinion could be deemed as success for our academy in both the short and long term. ""In my opinion, we have already achieved short term success in the foundation of the new academy. As for the long term, success in my eyes would be to see the academy growing and to eventually see our young players surfacing in other countries and landing professional contracts or taking part in scholarships.""
Leon added, ""If in the future we could get some of the players in our academy to play professionally for clubs in countries such as England, this is when we will see Uprising FC being recognised on a global scale. Building connections will be key to enable us to realise long term success!""
President Tre Gumbs also provided us with his thoughts on the founding of the academy; "Today is a very proud day for everyone connected with Uprising Football Club. To have an academy within our club structure has been a long term dream of mine and other club officials, and to now have that dream become a reality is truly remarkable. I know that the children who attend our academy will receive excellent coaching in a fun, safe environment from Head Coach Leon Whyle, and I can't wait to see what the future brings as these young people develop and grow!"
Certainly exciting times ahead for our club, and we think there is just one more thing left to be said.............. #oneclubonegoal
Words: Gareth Thomas - Uprising FC Media Officer.