Harrogate Railway manager Billy Miller with his fellow lecturer Rob Youhill at Askham Bryan College
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Words and photos by James Grayson (Twitter: @jamesAgrayson)
When I arrive Billy Miller has been at work since 7.30am. Almost every day he arrives at Askham Bryan College to lead a staff fitness session before pupils begin to turn-up on the gigantic campus.
The Harrogate Railway chief openly “loves his job” as the College’s Course Manager in Sports Development, Coaching and Fitness (Football Studies)– a course which sees candidates study for a BTEC.
Based in Askham Bryan’s massive sports hall, there is also another familiar face from Station View as Railway’s wing wizard Rob Youhill is Miller’s partner-in-crime on the course as a sports lecturer.
Manchester-born Miller, 45, has worked at the York-based College for two years and the course has been built “from a standing start” since.
During the day of my visit, he has a full day of teaching his first years – 21 of them in total, three of who, 17-year-olds Luke McCrum, Dan Hickey and Corey Speed, have played for the Railway first team this season in the Evo Stik Division One North.
Rob Youhill gives feedback to one of his students
9.15am – Student-led workout of the day
Miller says all his students are dedicated and they’re all on time and ready to go for the first period. A few travel some distance to be there too. McCrum makes the trip from Yeadon in Leeds four days a week. Speed travels from Baildon and Jake Parker commutes in from Bedale. One bonus for those travelling from further distances is that the College provides free transport from places such as Leeds, Wakefield and Pickering. Some choose to live on site such as Newcastle-born Alex Robertson and Glasshoughton Welfare showman Hilliard Serrao, the Venezuelan player, who is bizarrely missing today as he’s in Spain on Glasshoughton’s end of season trip.
The students are the ones in charge for the first two hours as a selected couple are leading their own designed training program which a group of colleagues have to work-out. As I take my seat next to Youhill, who is marking the relevant student’s session, he remarks that I’ve “come at a busy time for the lads because their assessments are due in soon”.
It is clear within the first half an hour that the course is not just about Football. Students are taught anatomy, nutrition, fitness training, sports coaching among other aspects of sport. Miller admits: “We have to make sure that if their football careers don’t materialise, there needs to be an academic back-up in place. The hard part is persuading the parents that they’re not just going to play football for two years.”
From a football point of view, the students train twice-a-week and play matches in the British Colleges League on a Wednesday afternoon.
In the classroom: Billy Miller delivers a lecture to his students at Askham Bryan College
11.30am – Theory session in preparation for afternoon class
Youhill gives feedback to the relevant lads after two workouts and Miller returns to the room at half past eleven after spending an hour with a prospective student for next year. After all the weights, balls and mats are put away by the students, Miller gives a lecture on team skills such as leadership before the break for lunch.
12.15pm – Lunch
Over some food, Miller says he does not deal with Harrogate Railway business at work. Any phone calls are done either at lunchtime if urgent or on his 40-minute drive to his Harrogate home in the evening.
The course is in partnership with Railway and Miller’s friends at Harrogate Town and he says that “establishing the link with the football clubs, I think has been really important because there needs to be an outlet for them. There’s no point having the kids for two years and then saying ‘off you go’.”
McCrum, Hickey and Speed are a prime example of what’s possible on the course.
Jobs are being created all the time in the sport sector, as Miller puts it. The diploma does open the door to other career opportunities in sport, such as the fitness sector. From September, there will not just be Football on Miller’s curriculum as Askham Bryan have linked themselves with Harrogate Rugby Union club and Pike Hills Golf Club.
I ask Miller about his own personal route to Askham Bryan and that proves extremely interesting. He was in the British Army in the Royal Regiment Fusiliers for 22 years. He served in places such as Germany, Northern Ireland, Bosnia, Kosovo and Cyprus.
As for his days on-the-pitch, the defender/midfielder played for Upton in the West Cheshire League and in Germany before moving into coaching after leaving the army. He worked for the FA until he began working for Craven College in Skipton – which led him into semi-professional football as assistant manager to Sean Regan at Liversedge. He eventually became top dog there and from there he was appointed as Harrogate’s manager in 2012.
From left to right, Luke McCrum, Dan Hickey and Corey Speed have all played for Harrogate Railway’s first team this season
As time passes, students are returning and I engage in conversation with McCrum, Hickey and Speed. McCrum says the course has made him “more mature”. McCrum and Speed leave their respective houses at just past seven o’clock and the latter says “he enjoys the course, despite the travelling”. He also plans to use his diploma to go to University next year.
1.30pm – Practical session
Five-a-side is next on the agenda, but with a twist. A student is in charge of each team and has to have a tactical plan for his team. Each game throws up a scenario and the relevant student has come up with a plan to help his team maintain or retrieve the situation.
Billy Miller listens in on Alex Savage’s team-talk during one of the five-a-side matches
3.10pm – Practical session – outside football coaching by fellow student Ash Burnett
The day moves outside and student Burnett is leading a session so he can gain some hours in his logbook for his FA Level Two coaching badge.
When training finishes, it soon transpires that today is the students’ last day at the College for two weeks as half-term begins on Monday. Miller ends with a pep talk and urges them to “make sure you get your assessments done over the holiday”.
4.30pm End of Day
It is time for me to leave as well, but for Miller, there is no rest for the wicked. He still has an hour of marking and preparation for his day with some other first years tomorrow. But, as he said earlier, he loves it.
For more information on the course, click here or email Miller at billy.miller@askham-bryan.ac.uk