Winger wins Academy Player of the Year award
- Dom Tear collects top Academy award
- The winger finished joint top goalscorer for the Under-23s
- Hear his reaction on #HTTV upon receiving the award
Huddersfield Town Under-23s player Dom Tear spoke of his joy at scooping the Antoni’s Memorial Academy Player of the Year award at Town’s Annual Awards evening, sponsored by Yorkshire Payments.
The Knaresborough-born winger collected the prize at the ceremony held at the John Smith’s Stadium on Sunday 29 April 2018, as a delighted Dom Tear recalled on some of the factors that helped him to achieve the accolade:
“I’m really pleased, as I said in the awards ceremony – hard work pays off. I’m in the gym every morning working hard with the coaches and players. I’m chuffed to bits really, mostly this award goes to my mum and dad for supporting me, they’ve been through thick and thin with me and I’m delighted.”
Tear was a key player for the Under-23’s over the course of a season that saw Coach Mark Hudson take over in January and inspire them to a real upturn in form, as The Young Terriers collected seven wins, two draws and two defeats from its final eleven games.
The challenge of being one of the younger players in the Under-23 side is one that the 18-year-old has certainly embraced under the guidance of his Coach:
“I’ve been playing a lot of Under-23s football and they’re bigger and better players. Physically, I’ve learnt to play against them, I can’t compete with them physically but I’ve learnt to adapt my playing style to deal with it.
“Since he’s [Mark Hudson] come in it’s been so much clearer and better; he understands the game so well. From his experience, he brings it on to us and as you can see from the results we’ve done really well, and it’s been incredible since he’s come in.
Having scored ten goals for the Under-18s over the course of the 2016/17 campaign, Tear stepped up to the Under-23s to finish the season as joint top-scorer on five goals.
The winger continued to feature for both the Under-18 and Under-23 sides over the course of this season, turning out 32 times and scoring an impressive 10 goals for the Young Terriers. Goals are an important part of Tear’s game and is one area that he's looking to continue to develop:
“I’ve always had goals in me, it’s a big part in me and I always want to try and get on the scoresheet. A midfielder scoring more than 10 goals a season is quite big, it’s always been a big part of my game and I’ll keep trying to develop it.”
You can watch Dom's reaction to winning the award below on #HTTV:
More interviews with the winners will be released on htafc.com and #HTTV throughout the week.
For a full list of award winners, please click here.
