Sligo Rovers and IT Sligo are delighted to announce that the two first recipients of their joint scholarship scheme are Liam Martin and Colm McLaughlin from County Donegal.
Following a thorough application process, the students were selected for their sporting and academic abilities.
Martin is an Irish U-17 international player and previously played with Donegal Town. He has already scored five goals this season for the Sligo Rovers U-19’s and has also been in the squad for recent first team games for Sligo Rovers.
McLaughlin played his youth football with Buncrana Hearts and is an Irish U-18 international. He also been on the bench for the first team whilst playing regularly with the Sligo Rovers U-19’s.
Both players will be combing their studies for Higher Certificates in Business at IT Sligo with training with the Sligo Rovers first team squad. They will also be playing with the IT Sligo Soccer teams.
This initiative marks a further development in the continuing relationship between Sligo Rovers and IT Sligo and it is intended that the scholarships will be offered on an annual basis.
Sligo Rovers Chairman Michael Toolan says that this is a very progressive move for the club:
“We are delighted to have the two lads on board and are grateful as well to IT Sligo for all their help and assistance in setting up this scheme. This is a very progressive step for us as we look to bring though more young players from the region to play for the first team. The IT have been great us all season and the first team are delighted to have the use of the great facilities at the Knocknarea Arena for their training.”
Head of Development and Business Operations at IT Sligo, Gordon Ryan, said; “This is an exciting step for IT Sligo. There is a very strong tradition of soccer at the Institute and we have a real winning formula in this link up with our local team, the Bit O’Red. We have some of the best sports facilities in the North West on campus and Sligo Rovers are just one of the many local organisations in the North West that benefit from them on a regular basis. These facilities have also attracted the attention of the Irish and other International Soccer teams and we expect to be providing our facilities to more and more in the future. We look forward to working with the two scholarship recipients and to further developing our relationship with Sligo Rovers.”
For further information please check out www.sligorovers.com or www.itsligo.ie.