Elite Academy & Scholarship Pathways 2025

February 4, 2025

Elite Academy & Scholarship Pathways 2025

Leigh Leopards staged a highly successful event where all the academy and scholarship players, together with members of their families were invited to the Leopards Den for presentations by club officials, players and staff.

Head of Youth Kieron Purtill, who was the mastermind that led to a successful Academy bid, which saw the club through to an approved scholarship and academy programme for the first time in 20 years, was also in attendance for what was one of the proudest days in the club’s history.

Kieron Purtill said: “It was a proud and historical day to help deliver our official Scholarship and Academy launch at Leigh Leopards. This is a significant milestone not only for the club but all local juniors looking to develop into professional rugby league players.

“We now can provide a genuine pathway from community rugby league through to Leigh Leopards Super League team, underpinning the future of the club from a performance playing aspect.

“I would like to say a massive thankyou to all the sponsors involved in supporting our junior pathways, to all the volunteer coaches who take part and allow this to happen and most importantly to all the community clubs and their coaches, who do a fantastic job in naturing these young athletes from an early age.“

This is a long term vision and will only grow stronger year by year with the support of everyone involved.”

As Kieron said, at long last there is now a pathway for the town’s most talented junior players to progress through the ranks with their hometown club. As can be seen by the community clubs listed on the Under 18s, Under 16s and Under 15s squads, many other community clubs from the Wigan, Warrington, St Helens and Widnes areas are among those involved, giving opportunities to young players over a wide radius.

There were two presentations, the first involving the Scholars in age groups 15s and 16s., followed later by the 18s Academy squad. As well as listening to the presentations, the main objective was the photo opportunity of each player in training kit, signing their forms with them and the family, then a group picture of each age group in the iconic North Stand.

Kieron Purtill provided the welcome and then showed a video of the players in training. Club chairman Mike Latham then provided an introduction and a brief history of the club, before speaking to owner Derek Beaumont, 1st team head coach Adrian Lam, reserves coach Stuart Littler and two Leigh born players who have earned places in the Leopards 2025 squad, Andrew Badrock, and Frankie Halton.

Former player Phil Johnson, who came through the old Leigh Colts set-up as a junior represented Great Britain Colts and went on to earn a testimonial after ten years in his hometown club’s first team, spoke from the heart about what playing for Leigh meant to him. He said that even though it is 30 years since he retired as a player he still wears his heritage number as a badge of honour and follows the Leopards avidly.

General manager Mike Smaill outlined to the attendees about the sponsorship opportunities and the importance of the Gold Plus membership, whereby members can donate a monthly or annual amount towards the costs of the Academy programme. He stressed that donations are welcomed to any membership category or supporter and are not exclusive to Gold Plus members and that any donations are ringfenced purely for that purpose.

Mike has also pioneered the successful business club which meets monthly and provides vital funding for the academy and scholarship programme.

2025 Leigh Leopards Scholarship 15s
2025 Leigh Leopards Scholarship 16s
JJ Harrison PVC Products Ltd Directors John Blythe, Matthew Collier & Peter Blythe in the North Stand with the 2025 Academy 18s

Matt Collier, Director of JJ Harrison PVC Products Ltd spoke of his pride in his company being involved as main front of shirt sponsor in the club’s inaugural year.

“Firstly, I would like to say congratulations to Leigh Leopards on the achievement of being granted the Scholarship and the elite Academy,” he said. “This shows the fantastic hard work and dedication from everyone at the club and it is a huge honour as a local company and personally to have the opportunity to be the first Main Sponsor of this new generation of talent.

 “Personally, being a Leigh Leopards and former Centurions fan, as we used to be, it was always a personal dream of mine to sponsor Leigh in some capacity that was significant. Being stood on the terraces of Hilton Park from a junior and then spending many weekends at LSV and away grounds, the passion for our hometown team has always been there.

“Last season we nearly took a spot on the first team home shirt and this year we looked at that again. However, when the elite academy was announced, we as a company instantly got involved in the business club, that is run successfully by the club and individually by Mike Smaill.

If any business in the local area would like to get involved, please contact Mike Smaill. This isn’t a ‘paid ad’ by the way! It is a great way to support the academy and to do some networking between local companies.

“The opportunity to become Main sponsor of the Academy Team arose and we jumped at it. Having come through an apprenticeship scheme myself and believing in the roots of any business and sports is the youth and employing eight apprentices within our business, we felt this fit our Ethos perfectly and we are honoured to be supporting the Academy and Scholarship in 2025.”

 JJ Harrison PVC was founded 27 years ago and today grows from the strength to strength in this thriving community we all share. Manufacturing PVC windows and doors from the very first day the company opene,d the growth has been steady but sufficient. Going from making 20 windows per week to 27 years later, averaging a manufacture of 1000+ windows per week and growing is something we are extremely proud of. We thank all our past, present and future customers for their unwavering support, as we know there are many avid Leigh Leopards fans amongst us all. We feel as a business we are giving back to the community and club we all support, so we all can enjoy the future success of the Leigh Leopards with the fantastic talent that is now signed through academy and scholarship. Thanks to Everyone & UP THE LEOPARDS!

JJ Harrison are the headline sponsor of an impressive portfolio of sponsorships and Leigh Leopards are extremely grateful to all the businesses represented below.

For more details of sponsorship opportunities for the academy and scholarship programme and the Business Club please contact Mike Smaill (mike@leighrl.co.uk).

Kit Partners: 2025 Elite Academy

Main Front of Shirt Sponsor

JJ Harrison PVC Products Ltd

Shirt Sponsors

Earthwork Support Specialist (CE) Ltd

Caton Lloyd Audiovisual Ltd

Aspire Joinery Ltd

My Dream Escape

Paul Lester Transport Ltd

The Leigh Fans 

WJ Structures

Roofing Group LDM

Cloud4 Technology Ltd

Shorts Sponsors

Rowley’s Pool Hall

Lacey Darwen Structural & Civil Engineering Specialists

Trojan Mechanical Services Ltd

Simply Green Turfing Specialists

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