Founded in 2018, the Arkansas Wolves are a community-based football club based in Benton, Arkansas, who host sport camps for youngsters and offer the state’s best all-inclusive youth programmes.
Arkansas Wolves have two semi-professional teams, a men’s first-team playing in the NPSL and women’s first-team in the UWS D1, as well as an academy for ages 12 and above, with the aim to produce high-level players from the local area and beyond.
The only club in the state to offer a player pathway academy, Arkansas Wolves are growing the sport in their area by providing training and playing opportunities for the community and take pride in developing talent across the Saline County.
Now, they’ll join forces with Wolves Academy, in a move which will increase Wolves’ exposure in the United States and see Arkansas Wolves’ players and staff benefit from the expert coaching provided by Premier League coaches, who will travel from Wolverhampton to Benton to share their knowledge and practices.
Wolves will be conducting training camps and other activities across the summer months, where staff from Compton Park will be in Arkansas to show how a Premier League academy works, through developing coaches and players.
Joe Hunt, Wolves’ international projects manager, said: “When Sean and I first started talking about working together it made perfect sense. They have a great programme in the US and are committed to delivering excellence, very much like us.
“As always with our partnerships, we do not want it to be for one week of the year, we’ll be working with Sean and his team on various activities. We’d love Arkansas Wolves to bring some teams over to the UK to experience coaching at our academy facility at Compton and maybe take in a Premier League game. In addition, we’ll be in constant contact with their staff with various webinars from our academy coaches. It’s a really exciting partnership, the pack keeps on growing worldwide.”
Sean Paul Jones, founder and chief executive officer of Arkansas Wolves, said: “We are excited about this partnership, and the opportunities this brings to our players, coaches and community. Of the upmost importance is our shared values in helping shape the lives of those we encounter for the better, through motivating, educating and inspiring local people and the communities to which they live.
“This partnership is instrumental in our joined pursuit of having a positive impact on those we encounter through the great game of soccer. I have always had a huge passion for the game and doing what I can to help grow soccer in our beautiful state.
“We thought long and hard about which successful club we wanted to model ourselves after, and the Wolves just felt right. We are proud to be known as the Wolves in Arkansas, and it is our hope that we make the Wolverhampton Wanderers proud.
“Our goal is to continue growing the game here by providing top level soccer for our youth to build on and the community can support. We take pride in the responsibility of creating a culture that focuses on developing youth talent as well as doing our part to help the state of Arkansas and the community flourish.”
