CLEVELAND District State High School and 11 other Queensland soccer schools are set to benefit from a new partnership with the Brisbane Roar.
The A-League side has aligned with teams from the Schools Premier League ahead of the 2020 season in a bid to create a new pathway to the top level.
Cleveland SHS football coordinator and SPL chairperson Sean Curtis said the partnership would allow the Brisbane Roar to identify players for their academy programs and support those already in the system.
"The big thing for the Roar is they want all their academy players coming to our schools, sort of like a one stop shop" he said.
"If they want to know what is going on with their players, they know which school the player is at and they can call them so they can look after them from a football perspective and a school perspective.
"There is about 80 Brisbane Roar players already within our schools so if they need to know how they are going holistically they have a point of contact.
"Any kids who have fallen through the cracks will get picked up through our talent identification days."
Curtis said the school and players would get greater exposure on social media under the new agreement.
"We get to use their logo, they will give us free tickets (to A-League games) and they will do our score updates throughout the year as they happen," he said.
"They will do the media and marketing stuff for us so it is a pretty big agreement."
There are 12 elite soccer schools from across south-east Queensland involved in the SPL.
Curtis said more than 1400 students were involved in the competition, with Cleveland SHS entering teams in the junior and senior divisions.
He said the school had more than 100 students in the sports development football program and Schools Premier League competition.
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