Head Of Youth Stewart Drummond has his say on what has been going on this month across the academy.
A very busy time of late across the Academy with new staff arriving which you will start to see around the venues.
Having staff come and go is a part of working at the Academy and we are always pleased to see staff that we recruit move onto new roles. Our previous Lead Foundation Phase and Head of Recruitment both moved onto roles at Championship clubs, so as difficult it can be replacing and then working with new staff, it is pleasing to play a part in not just developing players but staff as well.
Alex Stylianou has now started with us as Lead Foundation Phase, coming to us from Stevenage FC. Alex has a lot of experience working with Academy players across the age groups and will bring fresh ideas and focus to the foundation phase and Academy as a whole. He has found it a lot colder up here than at Stevenage so we will offer him a warm welcome to Morecambe!
We have completed the recruitment process to appoint our new Head of Recruitment, who will be starting very soon. I will give more of an introduction in the next month, but I have known him for many years and, with the work he has done at other clubs, I am looking forward to having him working for us.
A focus on recruitment of players is coming, with some groups carrying relatively low numbers and the effects that COVID-19 had on players and recruitment also playing a part in us not having all that many new faces in recent times.
Linked to this, we are holding open trials for U7-U14s in the Easter holidays, details of which can be found here. If any existing players or parents know of boys who they think would want to take part in these trials, please look out on our socials for the links to apply.
It was great to get first-team goalkeeper Adam Smith along to a session last week, taking three of our goalkeepers. Adam will be working with the 'keepers going forward now and we are still going through the recruitment process to bring in another GK coach so they can have more specialised training that the goalkeepers require.
Joe and Sean have been working hard behind the scenes to create our plans for the player care provision across the Academy. You will see QR codes around the facility asking for feedback as we start to build a programme of player care to deliver this and next season.
The scholars have had a busy month or so with U17 and U18s games. The u17s have been playing in two cup competitions; EFL Floodlit Cup and Clarets Cup.