Broadhead Looks to Broaden Horizons as Football Development Officer - Jack Broadhead Interview (Part 1)
Worksop Town Academy welcomes first team midfielder Jack Broadhead as our new Football Development Officer. After an early morning running the Saturday Development Centre, I sat down with Jack to get some insight into his plans in the role.
TM: So Jack, if we could start off by talking about your footballing background, things that have led up to this moment, what should we know?
JB: “Well, in terms of playing, I was in academies from a young age, so I've always experience of being in, and what it takes to be in, an academy. I've always thought "I'd like to somehow be involved in academies and in coaching when my playing career finishes", and this is what the path that I'm taking now is leading up to. Hopefully my job at Worksop as a Football Development Officer becomes a long and successful career that I can gain valuable experience that'll benefit me in the future.
In terms of progression from playing and then into this role, I've done various coaching roles at Mansfield Town football in the community, volunteered there thorough university, did some coaching at university, just in general, just to help out for the football sector of the gym and stuff like that. Obviously as a player at Chesterfield, in the youth team we used to go and do coaching in the Academy, sort of your Tuesdays and Thursday nights, and that fuelled my ambitions in a sense, obviously football is something that I've always enjoyed, always been passionate about, and so it just makes sense for it to be something that I'm doing full time.”
TM: So you come in as a Football Development Officer, a new role for you; can you briefly explain what this means, and what it brings to the club?
JB: “Yeah, so I think it's quite an influential role in the club in terms of the Academy, and sort of the club as a whole. You're looking to get players into the Academy through various routes - you know, we want a larger pool to work with, and this is going to incorporate me going into schools in the local area and trying to encourage kids to come down to Worksop to see what we can do. What that can involve is yet to be discussed, but that's definitely something we'll be looking to do. Not only is it about getting those kids through the door, it's also working with the children we get in, so I'll be doing some of the coaching, coaching the Under 15s and Under 8s, and overseeing all the age groups in general; I'll be working closely with Laurie Griffin, the Academy Manager, he's overseeing the Under 21s, and the Under 19s as well, so again, yeah, working tightly with him, trying to produce the best footballers for our club, giving them the best opportunities to showcase their talents, in terms of playing against some of the well-established academies in the local area - you know, your Mansfield Towns, Chesterfields, Doncaster Rovers, Sheffield Wednesday, [Sheffield] United, those sort of teams, and potentially give them the opportunity to move into those academies, if they wish to do so, but also show that we can provide the same standard of coaching here. That's sort of my job, to ensure that we do reach that standard on an overall basis.”
TM: What drew you to the Football Development Officer role?
JB: “It's a job in football! You look at the amount of people who are out there with vast amounts of experience struggling to get into football, it's the biggest sport in the country, it's the biggest sport in the world, it's something that if you've got an opportunity to get into it and you're passionate about it and you like to think you know what you're doing - you know, I'm only 27, but I feel like I've had a lot of experience - you'd snap the hand off anyone offering you that opportunity to get you involved in a club like Worksop. The position that I've been offered, it was a no-brainer for me, it's something I can see myself doing 20 years down the line, waking up everyday being passionate, wanting to develop footballers, wanting to set teams up and that sort of thing is something that I see myself doing. So for me, this was a position that's a step in the right direction and something that I know I'm gonna be passionate about.”
Since entering the role, Jack has taken the challenge head on, organising and overseeing Adult League and Walking Football Tournaments, alongside his coaching responsibilities with the Saturday Development Centre, After School Club, Pre-Academy, Under 8s, and Under 15s.