Academy job keeping Notts County stopper Adam Collin at full strength

Adam Collin who runs the AC1 Adam Collin Goalkeeper School puts one of his young students through his paces at the Joseph Whitaker School all weather pitches.

Already he has 30 young stoppers attending his sessions each week at the Joseph Whitaker school and Garibaldi College.

The AC1 Academy has also just been given a brand new kit for all the young goalies to wear, sponsored by former Mansfield Town chairman Andrew Perry’s company.

“I ended up setting up my academy in the Mansfield area as this is where I live, and we were able to use the excellent facilities at the John Fretwell centre to base the first 10 sessions there before we moved it onto 3G floodlit surface for winter,” he said.

Kids from the AC1 Adam Collin Goalkeeper School show off their new kits supplied to them by Andy Perry of Power Saving Solutions.

“We started it in mid-August with a free taster session where six young goalies turned up, and it has grown unbelievably quickly since then.

“We now have 22 goalies on a Wednesday night in a group session.

“I run two mini groups on a Monday night and another mini group on a Thursday night along with some one-to-one coaching mixed in.

“I am delighted with how fast it’s grown, and for me I would love to see it keep growing.

“There are some excellent young goalies out there and I hopefully offer a good service.”

Collin delighted to see Perry Electrical come on board as sponsors.

“They have sponsored our new goalkeeper kits which all the young goalies wear to training,” he said.

“Andrew Perry’s son Ellis is a goalkeeper who I coach and when he heard I was getting the kits produced he very kindly offered to sponsor them which is absolutely brilliant and means we have a fantastic looking kit which is affordable for the kids and parents to purchase.”

Collin added: “I am in the process of opening another academy up in the Rotherham area.

“This will launch in mid February and I very much hope it will be as successful as the Mansfield one.

“This is a brand new venture for me with the coaching.

“I was a bit unsure how it would be received at the start and a bit unsure if it would take off, but I am very lucky to be able to work with some fantastic young kids and some very supportive parents.

“Coaching is definitely something I would like to do when I retire, which I hope wont be for a few years yet!

“But I like working for myself and running my own goalkeeping schools on a full-time basis is certainly right up there as a future plan.”