Ross County Foundation offers talented young north players a pathway to success
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The Ross County Foundation have the biggest area to cover of any professional football club in the UK – heading to the islands up north and out west, as well as covering the entire Highlands.
Despite the distances involved in getting to youngsters across the country, though, breakthroughs into the first team picture over recent years have shown their worth.
While focused around the Dingwall and Inverness areas during school term time, holidays provide the Foundation coaches with a chance to go further afield, to the likes of Stornoway, Caithness and Orkney.
With the likes of Matthew Wright, Adam Mackinnon and George Robesten getting in and around the senior Staggies squad after hailing from the islands, it is proving to be a valuable resource for County across all levels of the club.
“It’s always a really positive reaction wherever we go,” long-serving coach Ryan Moreton said.
“Places like Stornoway and Orkney, up in Caithness at Wick and Thurso, there are really talented young players there.
“That’s why we want to keep going there, because we can keep an eye on how they’re developing and getting on.
“There’s definitely a chance for these kids. Obviously we see how tough it is, and the commitment those kids need if they are to come over, but for us in the Foundation it’s about us getting out to these places to put our wee stamp on them.
“We can show them there is a pathway to go from sessions with us at three or four years old all the way into the first team one day.”
A side-effect of County’s presence in more far-flung areas is the increase in Ross County kits Moreton is seeing at sessions, adding: “At some newer places we don’t see any County kits, then the more you go back you start to see one or two and that turns into three or four.
“If kids become Ross County supporters off the back of our sessions then that’s just a bonus.”
