After departing the academy at 17 years old, former Stirling Albion academy member Josh Quigley has continued his football career at San Joaquin Delta Community College in Stockton, California.

The 19 year old has only been stateside for about two weeks now.  He joined the squad at Delta after he was offered a scholarship to play for the American junior college.

“It was the next step after the academy. After U18s level there was quite a big jump to the senior team; there was no U20s or reserve setup.” 

“Niall (Marshall) started looking towards a scholarship and he mentioned it to myself and my family. He told us how to go about it, the best ways to research and we just took it from there.” said Quigley.  

The Scotland native joined the Stirling academy when he was only 15. After about 18 months, he knew that appearances in the first team would be limited at such a young age so he looked for another opportunity. 

Quigley has some memorable moments from his time in Stirling.

“It (Stirling Albion) was really good, a lot of good training. The team was a competitive team. We did well when we played our matches and the facilities were good. Travel and all of that was good with the club so yeah I enjoyed my time there.”

“There was a lot about leadership within the team as well. Making sure that during practices and games that you’re showing good leadership skills, getting to know everyone, good communication.” he said.  

The goalkeeper also got to make an appearance in the first team during a friendly match for the club. 

“I got an opportunity with the first team in a friendly match. So that was the best moment.” 

“Around December time there was an injury with the first team goalkeeper so they had a friendly match and I was involved in that and I got about 15-20 minutes in that match and then trained with the first team for a couple of weeks.” he said. 

 Thanks to the Stirling Albion academy staff, Quigley was able to improve upon his game to the point that he was able to play football while also getting an education. He credits multiple coaches at Stirling for helping him reach this point.

“We had a goalkeeper coach who was the academy goalkeeper coach. A guy called Graham (Hamilton), everyone called him Hammy. He worked with us twice a week. It was specific goalkeeper training where we worked on crossing, shot stopping, and movement and stuff like that.” 

“The first team goalie coach as well helped me a lot when I went up there and it was good to train with obviously older guys.” he said. 

Quigley is certainly an ambitious guy, leaving his home country behind to pursue football and education at such a young age.  It is only up from here for the teenager as he continues to work towards his future.

“Hopefully I’ll complete the four year scholarship and then I’ll be around 23 by the time I finish so see what opportunities come up. Whether it be semi-pro out here (in America) or go back to Scotland and try to find a club. Hopefully try and stay in football.”

Everyone at Stirling Albion will certainly be rooting for Quigley as he starts his journey in America. Maybe the next time we check in with him we will see him playing football in Scotland once again. 

Article by Damon Savenelli