Women's

Girls' academy end of season review

Academy technical manager Perry Northeast looks back over the campaign.

By Perry Northeast • 30 June 2022

By Paul Hazlewood
Perry Northeast is happy to see his teams being based at the new women's training facility.

It feels strange to be writing an end of season girls' academy review as it seems like only yesterday that we were welcoming our cohort of players into the 2021/22 season.

Reflecting upon the season, it’s again been another progressive and productive season for us, with many individual and team achievements throughout the pathway.

We’ve been fortunate to transition back to normal operations at the American Express Elite Football Performance Centre and additionally extremely fortunate to now be based within the new Women’s & Girls hub which is in no doubt an industry leading facility for the development of young female players in the region. The connection between our academy girls, Women’s U21 and Women’s senior team feels very real and it’s exciting to see the day-to-day progress that we are making as a pathway for now and more importantly for the future.

By Paul Hazlewood
Perry Northeast is Albion's girls' academy technical manager.

The dedicated facility has allowed us to offer extended support and developmental opportunities for our academy players in many areas including additional athletic development provision, analysis-based sessions, out of season injury rehabilitation delivery and a dedicated space for players to receive wellbeing support. We are already starting to see great benefits of being able to use such an incredible space and have excellent foundations to now build upon. 

This season we’ve strived to prepare and develop our young players to the best of their ability through an innovative programme, delivered by a team of high-performance support staff. Alongside the traditional technical and athletic developmental requirements, we’ve been committed to ensuring the best football education possible for our players and age groups has been fortunate to receive excellent educational opportunities inclusive of holocaust education, menstrual cycle understanding, practical nutritional workshops and exam preparation. 

Hope and the Women’s First-team staff have been continually supportive in the mission to produce home grown talent and regularly check in on player’s and staff progress. This is particularly motivating as even though the levels and standard of the WSL is improving each season, we know that our young players will be given the opportunity to progress internally, via our Women’s U21 programme lead by Sinead Hogan-Belcher. 

By James Boardman
Albion women's under-21s won the Sussex Women's Challenge Cup last season.

This season, we have also linked closely with the BHAFC boy’s academy in various elements to support the players continued learning and development. In February, we trialled a game scenario with some of the younger groups with some excellent developmental outcomes for all involved. 

Ian Buckman has been highly supportive in sharing current practice within the boy’s academy and has been equally as open to new ideas that will help to drive forward the girls’ and boys’ programmes. 

‘Off the pitch’ we have been equally as supported by an operations department that allows the multidisciplinary team to flourish and focus on the continued development of the young players within our care. It’s been a tricky season in terms of navigating through Covid19 but with the protocols established through extensive operational plan, our staff and players have been able to operate in a safe and secure manner. 

It goes without saying that we’d like to thank you to Mr Bloom, the clubs board, and the Women’s & Girls board for their continued support, not only this season but also with regards to the future vision of the academy. 

We are e excited to be welcoming back and working closely with players, parents and carers returning for 2022/23 and additionally would like to thank everybody connected to us for the continued support and trust in the BHAFC girl’s academy programme.