K-Park Training Academy is a

stadium A stadium (: stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage completely or partially surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand or sit ...

and

training ground A training ground is an area where professional association football teams prepare for matches, with activities primarily concentrating on skills and fitness. They also sometimes form part of a club's youth system, as clubs consider it important ...

for

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

in the St Leonards area of

East Kilbride East Kilbride (; ), sometimes referred to as EK, is the largest town in South Lanarkshire in Scotland, and the country's sixth-largest locality by population. Historically a small village, it was designated Scotland's first "new town" on 6 Ma ...

South Lanarkshire South Lanarkshire (; ) is one of 32 unitary authorities of Scotland. It borders the south-east of the Glasgow City council area and contains some of Greater Glasgow's suburban towns, as well as many rural towns and villages. It also shares bor ...

. It is located within the site of Calderglen Country Park. It is the home ground of League Two club

History

K-Park was opened in May 2011 by the East Kilbride Community Trust (EKCT), who had previously drawn up plans that would give the large town a top-quality,

UEFA The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...

-standard sports facility. Former

Rangers A ranger is typically someone in a law enforcement or military/paramilitary role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called "ranging" or "scouting". The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with prot ...

and

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

footballer

Ally McCoist Alistair Murdoch McCoist (; born 24 September 1962) is a Scottish former association football, footballer who has since worked as a Manager (association football), manager and TV pundit. McCoist began his playing career with Scottish club St Jo ...

, who is from East Kilbride, officially opened the first phase of the new facility on 25 September 2011. K-Park is used as the home ground for the newly formed football club East Kilbride F.C., who were founded in 2010, one year before the facility's official opening. They will play their first league matches at the venue before relocating to a proposed site near Langlands Golf Course. The local rugby team

East Kilbride RFC East Kilbride RFC are a rugby union side who are based in East Kilbride. History Established in 1968, their home games are played at the Torrance House ground within Calderglen Country Park. The team currently compete in the . EKRFC moved to ...

also train at the facility. K-Park was the home of Celtic Women from March 2015 until July 2021.Celtic reveal home ground for B team & Women's matches this season
The Herald, 22 July 2021

Structure and facilities

It is mainly Third Generation synthetic

pitches that are at the facility, used by local clubs and clubs from the

Scottish Football League The Scottish Football League (SFL) is a defunct league featuring professional and semi-professional football clubs mostly from Scotland.One club, Berwick Rangers, is based in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, which is located approximately 4&nbs ...

. The parks are also easily convertible for

rugby Rugby may refer to: Sport * Rugby football in many forms: ** Rugby union: 15 players per side *** American flag rugby *** Beach rugby *** Mini rugby *** Rugby sevens, 7 players per side *** Rugby tens, 10 players per side *** Snow rugby *** Tou ...

training. The pitches at K-Park (of which there is one 11-a-side pitch and two 7-a-sides) are unusual, in that they consist of a mixture of

quartz sand Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical fo ...

and rubber granules. This is to reduce the likelihood of an injury sustained or lower the impact of a fall, as well as allowing better ball control for the players that use the facility.

References

External links

Website of the K-Park Training Academy
{{Football venues in Scotland Buildings and structures in East Kilbride Football training grounds in Scotland Lowland Football League venues Sports venues in South Lanarkshire Sports venues completed in 2011 Celtic F.C. Women East Kilbride F.C. 2011 establishments in Scotland Scottish Women's Premier League venues Motherwell F.C. Women