Club Doncaster Foundation join forces with Doncaster Rovers Academy to launch Academy in the Community project

Club Doncaster Foundation and the Doncaster Rovers Academy are joining forces for a new project, Academy in the Community.

The initiative will see Academy scholars attend community activities delivered by the Foundation and football club to gain insight into the work as well as experiencing what player visits are like for senior professionals.

As part of EFL Youth Development Week in September, club scholars attended an event to meet with staff members from across the Foundation to learn more about the projects delivered within the community.

From that event, they each selected specific areas of work which they wished to get involved in.

Head of Academy player care Greg Carroll said: “It’s something I’ve wanted to get set up since I started my role with the Academy. 

“After working for the Foundation, I’ve seen first hand the incredible projects and sessions that they run and the impact it has on the local community, which is something that I want the scholars to get involved in and be a part of.

“I think it’s so important for them in a number of ways. It gives them different ideas in terms of careers that are out there away from football, when we always talk about their transition after football. 

“It helps to integrate them into the local community and I don’t think they realise it but they are role models to a lot of young kids in primary school, so it gives them a chance to get out and see the impact they can have on the local school children.

“For those who will hopefully go on to have a good professional career, it’s getting them prepared for that. It makes them feel more professional too as scholars, as it’s what the first team are doing. 

“It’s something that the boys have asked to do, they are keen to get involved and want to do it. I can only see positives from it. It’ll help the boys, the Foundation and the local community as well.”

Scholars will be attending a variety of programmes and projects within the local community across the 2025/26 season and you can keep an eye on what they get up to across both Foundation and Rovers channels throughout the coming months. 

Scholar Harry Glaves, who made his senior debut for Rovers earlier this season, said: “I’ve found it really beneficial. To the community, the club is such a massive part of the city as a whole, and if I can help out with the community in any way, I’m really up for that. 

“If I do manage to get a pro contract, community work is a massive thing so things like this will prepare me for that. It’s good to build that connection with the community.

 

“When I was a kid and in school, I loved it when a pro came in, so I think as a scholar, it could be really inspiring to some of the kids that we go and visit and hopefully push them to be in this position in a few years. 

“I think it’s so important for kids to have those role models to really help them stay motivated, stay focused and push on for what they want to achieve.”