SCHOFIELD PREVIEWS COUGAR TRIP

We caught up with Pathways Head Coach Jonathan Schofield ahead of Saturday’s trip to face Keighley Cougars at Cougar Park…

Schofield is entering his first year at the helm and has been joined by the experienced coaching duo of Brendan Sheridan and Nathan Graham in the off-season. 

Our Reserves and Academy recently spent time at the Royal Marines Commando Training Camp as part of their pre-season training. 

Schofield, who is sponsored by Ideal Tiling Solutions, believes the experienced gained at the camp will benefit the players throughout difficult spells during matches in 2025 – as he lauds the group for their application and standards in training. 

“We will definitely look back at the army camp throughout the season – it could be the first game, eighth, ninth or last game we will remember points there because the lads went to some dark places. It’s about togetherness, if there’s a man at the side of them or they see a team mate struggling that’s what we want to see, them push their team mates and encouraging them. 

“Pre-season is going really well, Brendan [Sheridan] and Nathan [Graham] have been outstanding and have plenty of experience which has been a big help for me. 

“On the boys themselves, my philosophy is really big on standards and making sure everything is done right both on and off the field, and we’ve got that from the playing group. Every club will be saying and doing all the right things it obviously all comes down to the first game when we’ll know more. 

“We’re all really looking forward to Saturday, we’ve got some great young kids in this system some who we have already seen. The likes of Alfie Leake, Jamie Gill, Jacob Bateman and George Rayner all enjoyed a good hit out against Keighley for the first team, the boys are all looking forward to playing and implementing what we’ve been doing in practice in a game. 

“Alfie has been absolutely outstanding and he’s got to be a special mention, his attitude has really stepped up and Brian [Noble] and Lee [Greenwood] have said that they’re impressed with how he goes about his business when he’s in and around the first team environment and there’s obviously George in there as well who played well but there are plenty of others too who have stepped up in pre-season. 

“Dylan Garbett is a first year Academy player, Archie Wright who’s really impressed – as a collective, as a group we have got some very good young players who we are looking forward to developing over the next couple of years and they’ll get an opportunity at Cougar Park this Saturday.”