Football is the traditional main school sport in the Autumn and
Winter terms. The school has a long and distinguished tradition as
a leading member of the Independent Schools Football Association
(ISFA) and commands a strong reputation in the North-West.
Bolton School was chosen as the
ISFA Focus School for the Manchester and Northwest region
2009-2011, which means the school will receive focused support from
ISFA to drive football development both in the school, and
throughout the region.
Teams representing Bolton School play on Saturday mornings in
long-established "block" fixtures, (i.e. all age groups from u-12
up 1st XI) against all of the leading independent football schools
in the north - Repton, Shrewsbury, Manchester Grammar School, QEGS
Blackburn, St Bede's College Manchester, Bury Grammar School,
Hulme, Oldham. Year group teams also compete in the local Bolton
Schools Town Cups whilst the senior sides compete with the likes of
Thornleigh and Winstanley College in the Greater Manchester Schools
Cup, the Mackereth Cup and in friendly fixtures. A fixture
list can be downloaded from the bottom of this page.
Bolton School continues to work closely with our local Premier
and Football League clubs to assist in the development of pupils
affiliated with them. Bolton Wanderers, Manchester United,
Manchester City, Wigan Atheletic and Bury all have Bolton school
boys playing for their youth sides.
In recent years Bolton School has begun to forge relations with
American Universities to the extent that two students have gone on
to win scholarships to study and play in the U.S.A.
The coaching staff is led by Keith Branagan, former goalkeeper
for Bolton Wanderers and Republic of Ireland. Keith holds a UEFA
'A' coaching certificate and he makes use of his links within the
professional game to further the expertise available to boys at the
School. These links are paraticularly strong with Bury FC, who use
the School Campus as a base for their Academy.