HISTORY

Football Development Schools (F.D.S) was founded in April 2005. The senior partners in F.D.S, Scott Baines, Kristian Heames MSc. BSc (Hons), and Howard Willmott (BA) had previously worked on behalf of Northampton Town Football Club recruiting and developing players for their Centre of Excellence Schoolboy Programme for the previous 5 years, but had decided in agreement with the football club that we would take over the running of the development centres and schools programme. Football Development Schools later disassociated from Northampton Town in June 2006, when Scott, Kristian and Howard decided to move on from coaching within the Northampton Town Centre of Excellence.

The next step along the F.D.S journey was to link in with the fledgling Kettering Town Youth Academy, which at the time was a good opportunity to try and recreate what was an excellent youth development system at Northampton. Initially the relationship was positive and allowed many F.D.S players to progress and work in a professional environment, however due to funding difficulties the relationship proved not to be a long-term success.

Anyone who knows the F.D.S coaches knows how passionately we believe in our philosophy in developing young players. We believe strongly in on and off the pitch development and believe that these two areas complement each other. Things like taking responsibility, hard work, positive attitude, and the desire to learn and practice are all crucial aspects. We also look to develop players who are technically sound, comfortable on both feet, competitive, positive with the ball, good at making decisions and appreciate the roles and responsibilities of their playing positions. So the question was where to channel our development system and expertise next?

The answer was the Football Development Schools Academy, which began in January 2007, with under 9, under 10 and under 11 age groups. The Academy has evolved and developed well in this time and we now have under 8 players training weekly as an Elite squad, and have Academy squads at under 9, under 10 and under 12, with our 12’s playing in the Midland Junior Football League.

As well as developing the Elite aspects of our programme, F.D.S are committed to developing both our Community and Development Centre programmes. One of the benefits we feel with our programme is that top quality coaches work at all levels of our coaching structure making progression easy and also gives continuity for young players moving up. All coaches working for F.D.S are CRB checked and qualified members of the FA coaches association. One thing that we believe also sets us apart from other soccer schools and also many professional clubs is the level of qualifications and experience our coaches possess.

We currently have coaches working towards UEFA A qualifications and also six coaches who currently possess UEFA B/Level 3 caching qualifications. However as our philosophy suggests we do not only work hard on our football qualifications. We have coaches who have completed the FA Youth Coaches Award, FA Psycholgy Level 4, Sport Science degrees from Loughborough University, specialist Fitness Trainer and SAQ awards as well as attendance at many conferences and work shops to make sure that all of the areas of developing young children are fully understood and that we are aware of any cutting edge thinking.

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