The Para Hills Knights have announced a new partnership with Adelaide United for the upcoming 2026 season.
Adelaide United will support all Para Hills coaches and players starting from U6 upwards, providing them access to programs, games and opportunities to attend various interstate and international tournaments.
Para Hills Junior Technical Director for the upcoming season, James Jackson, spoke to Soccerscene about how important the partnership will be for Para Hills’ youth development.
“It will give our coaches more tools to coach better and develop the best youth programs,” he said.
“There’s nothing really like it in the state, to be honest with you.
“I think just word of mouth between the partnership with the club will drive better players and attract more players, but also provide better exposure for all players in the general area, not just Para Hills players.”
Jackson is a former Para Knights player at both the junior and senior levels. He has been coaching junior football for the last five years and has represented South Australia as a Junior and U18.
The partnership will give Para Hills access to the coach-better program used by multiple top clubs in Europe, including PSV Eidenhoven.
“We’ve seen over the past few years in the YCC, players hopping clubs between the tier one and tier two,” he continued.
“We thought in order to be competitive, being a tier two club at the moment, we have to offer our juniors something else a bit more tangible to get them at the club.”
Additionally, Adelaide United will supply coaching workshops for Para Hills, including bringing PSV coaches throughout the year to share their knowledge at a grassroots level.
Marcelo Carrusca, Head of Football Development at Adelaide United, helped oversee the nine-month development of the partnership alongside Rocco Fimmano, Andrew Kossakowski and James Jackson.
“A lot of our coaches are Mum and Dad’s, especially with the JSL compared to the YCC, all the YCC stuff is with ex-players because they want to be involved after being with the club for years,” Jackson said.
“We thought that that was a great opportunity to try and up-skill them to provide better coaching, especially the format they (Adelaide) are going to give us.”
This is an exciting deal between an NPL club looking to improve its grassroots program and an A-League club that merits football development as one of its main values. Both parties perfectly align and the growth for kids in South Australia will only keep improving.
