Cronton Sixth Form College and Widnes Vikings Rugby League Club Unveil New Development Academy Partnership

The exciting new partnership presents a pathway for local, young players to potentially play for the club. It will also see the re-launch of the college’s Female Academy.

The team will be known as the Widnes Vikings Development Academy and will be made up of 16-18-year-olds.

Iain Douglas, Head of Sport and Public Services, said: “This is a really exciting development for our Centre of Excellence Rugby Programme. Players will get opportunities to be coached by elite coaches on player development days, access strength and conditioning support, have opportunities to play at the DCBL Stadium, and players will be tracked and monitored by Viking staff, providing a realistic pathway for future player progression.”

Cronton College Rugby Team Coach Greg Pichilingi said: “Since we told the lads (about the development academy), you could just see the excitement between them all. I think with this in place now, when we’re speaking with the current year 11’s and engaging with them at open evenings, it will hopefully recruit more players who want to come to our college and play for the team here rather than going out of town.