The New Saints Academy are excited to confirm its new structure and staffing for the 2024-2025 season.

Firstly, our Academy Programme will continue to be overseen by Head of Academy and First-Team Assistant Manager, Christian Seargeant.

Kieran Lee-Birch has been appointed Academy Operations Manager and will also continue as Head of Youth Development Phase.

Simon Smith will continue as our Head of Performance Phase and Scholarship Manager.

Joining our Academy in a full-time capacity is club legend, Greg Draper. Greg will be our new Head of Individual Development whilst also overseeing our U16s age group.

Ash Russell will continue as our Head of Foundation Phase.

Club legend, Simon Spender will continue as our Assistant Head of Performance Phase.

Also in full-time roles are the highly rated Hudson Parry, as Assistant Head of Foundation Phase and Liam Kelleher, as Assistant Head of Development Phase.

This is a huge commitment from our board to have eight full-time technical staff working within our player development pathway.

Leading each age group will be

U8s – Ash Russell, UEFA B

U9s – Paul Bennett, UEFA B

U10s – Hudson Parry, UEFA B

U11s – Ash Russell, UEFA B

Our Foundation Phase sides will be supported by Andy Hickman UEFA B, Alan Jones UEFA C, and Ieuan Jones-Wellstead UEFA B candidate.

U12s – Liam Kelleher, UEFA B

U13s – Liam Kelleher, UEFA B

U14s – Kieran Lee-Birch, UEFA A

U15s – Hudson Parry, UEFA B

U16s – Greg Draper, UEFA A

Supporting our Development Phase sides are Jack Ellis UEFA A, Nathan Leonard UEFA A, Mael Evans UEFA B, and Warren Duckett UEFA C.

Reserves and U19s – Simon Smith UEFA A, Simon Spender UEFA A, Greg Draper UEFA A, Connor Roberts UEFA A.

Medical provision will be looked after by our full-time Academy Physio, James Steer. James will be supported by our First-Team Physio, Phil Davies and Assistant Physios, Emily Cann and Shannon Davies.

First-team player, Connor Roberts will continue to head up our Goalkeeping department and will be assisted by Robbie Williams.

Neil Holmes is our Head of Academy Sports Science and Strength and Conditioning lead, he will be assisted by a team of interns.

Ruben Maerivoet will continue to lead our Analysis provision from first-team to Academy and will be supported by a team of interns.

Paul Bennet, the hugely popular ‘Benno’ is our Head of Skill Acquisition.

We also has some exciting plans to develop our psychological and well-being support which will be revealed soon.

Preparations and planning for the new season are already well underway as we look forward to what promises to be another year of development, opportunities and experiences for our young people.

Anyone interested in registering for trials to join our Category A Academy can do so by contacting Academy-Admin@tnsfc.co.uk.