Performance Pathways underway for the second year!

The York RLFC performance pathway programmes are now up and running for the second year under the guidance of Head of Rugby Andrew Henderson!

They kicked off with the boys' Junior Squires U/14’s programme this month alongside the Girls U15s and U16s Pathways to Performance (P2P) programmes.

Both the Knights and Valkyrie now have a structured pathway in place for young talented players to progress, supporting their development and providing further opportunities to be exposed to professional rugby league. Supporting the dreams of young players to one day become a professional rugby league player, ideally representing the Knights or the Valkyrie, has been a driver for Henderson.

“We are passionate as a club in supporting youth development with our aim being to provide local players and coaches with opportunities to be part of a system and develop themselves further," he said.

"If we end up producing some players for the Knights or Valkyrie in the future then that’s great. But equally, if players don’t become professional players with us and return to the community game as better players helping improve the local teams, then that’s brilliant too.”

The U18s Knights' Batchelor programme is being launched for the first time in November, running along with the established Squires U16s and Junior Squires U14s programmes that Henderson started in 2024. The Valkyrie U19s, P2P U16s and U15s are also embedded now and are all running well.

Henderson explained that the youth programmes are staged progressions within a system, with the Junior Squires being the first phase, providing the selected talented young aspiring players a snapshot into the world of professional rugby league.

"Players are identified for all our age groups and invited onto the programmes. Talent ID takes place in a variety of ways, from what we see in local community games, schools’ festivals, our Excel open access programmes and playing opportunities within those programmes along with talent transfers from other sports"

Henderson is happy with what is currently on offer at the club and pleased with the progression the pathways programmes are making.

“It’s great that as a club we can offer opportunities for both talented male and female players.

"We have been running the Excel programme for boys for a number of years which has been beneficial to us as a club, but now we have enhanced that programme by establishing performance-based pathway programmes to aid further development of players we identify as having potential.

"We are still in the very early stages with our performance programmes, but we have shown significant growth and progression in the 12 months we have been developing them. We will continue to evolve and improve this area of the club as we keep growing this department.

"I am certainly proud of the work being put in behind the scenes to support a pathway for players to one day represent the Knights or the Valkyrie.”

On top of this, Henderson recently launched the York RLFC Development Centre programme for male and female players/students in conjunction with York College as another branch of the pathways programmes.

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