OUR STORY
The Academy began back in 2016 and was born to support a particularly talented cohort of players with their dream; to become football players. In year 10, the girls won the Surrey and National Schools Cups and their P.E. teacher and coach, Stuart Millard, knew that the girls had talent and needed a pathway to professional football. He contacted Chelsea FC Foundation and the rest is history. In 2016 the Academy began with just 4 girls and has now grown to 52 girls with a very long waiting list.
STUART MILLARD
DIRECTOR OF FOOTBALL
BACKGROUND
As a youth player I was able to play for 3 professional academies, which gave me the opportunity to work with top level coaches in my formative years. Not only did this help me improve as a player, but also allowed me to develop, very early in my football life, a set of footballing values that I have carried through all of my clubs as a player and jobs as an adult. At 16, football helped me grow even more as I moved to the North of England to play football, a big step, but one that helped me mature quickly and learn to balance my life from an early age.
Being released at 19 I quickly completed my coaching qualifications and began coaching, first part time alongside full time work and then as area manager of West Sussex for Coerver coaching. My time at Coerver also allowed me to coach in Sweden and Norway, another brilliant opportunity to grow as a person and football coach.
I had a break from football after Coerver, this coincided with me having to retire from playing at 24, having played semi professionally alongside my coaching career.
After several years I decided that I would pursue my dream of becoming a teacher and in September 2014 I began my teaching career at Blenheim High School.
BLENHEIM HIGH SCHOOL
I have held various roles at Blenheim including Head of House, Deputy Head of PE and Head of PE, but the job that has allowed me to combine my love of teaching and football is that of Director of Football.
I am lucky to have been in charge of girls football at Blenheim since I started, working hard to create the amazing foundation we are enjoying today. We have had many successes including winning 6 county cups and 3 national titles, with our all-conquering champs going 53 games unbeaten over several years. My proudest moments outside of my family have been whilst stood on the side of a football pitch with #teamblenheim.
With our foundation of success along with the support of the Headteacher, Mr Bodell, and Chelsea FC Foundation we have worked tirelessly to create the outstanding football education programme we have now. It is industry leading and I am constantly delighted to see our players flourish. I have been lucky enough to see students make their first team debut for Chelsea, secure scholarships to the US and get places at leading Universities such as Edinburgh.
I am extremely proud of the football education programme we have built and are continuously improving year on year.
HARRY BAKER
BLENHEIM ACADEMY HEAD COACH AND PLAYER PATHWAY COORDINATOR
I joined Chelsea FC Foundation in May 2015 as a casual coach which saw me start my coaching career working within local schools across breakfast clubs, lunchtime clubs, after school club and PE provision.In June 2018 I was fortunate enough to begin my international coaching journey which gave me the platform to develop my coaching skills and knowledge overseas in countries such as Spain, Greece & Italy. Later that year I started working part-time at Blenheim as an assistant coach on the newly formed Sixth Form football education programme and I then took on the role of lead coach at various Chelsea FC Foundation sessions in which I supported the progression of young football players into academy football. Meanwhile, I gained experience working within the IRP (Integration Recruitment Project) environment and led the U9 group each season. This involved working closely with scouts to progress young players to the academy football whilst developing my understanding of individual player movement, technique development and physical intensity.
In September 2019, I became the Development Centre Head Coach at the Chelsea FC Foundation giving me the opportunity to oversee the progression of over 600 male and female players whilst supporting the coaches through delivering high quality training sessions in line with the club's academy syllabus.
In January 2023 I took over the role as Head Coach at the Academy.
QUALIFICATIONS
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FA Emergency Aid
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FA Safeguarding
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FA Level 1
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FA Youth Module 1
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FA Level 2
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UEFA B Licence (March 2024 completion)
COACHING BELIEFS
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My goal is to create an environment where players can showcase their individual qualities, develop technique and be forced to make decisions under pressure which are realistic to the game.
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I want the players within groups/teams that I coach to train and perform at a high intensity which I believe develops good habits.
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I want my team to dominate all aspects of the game and play progressive football through the thirds of the pitch.
MY NON-NEGOTIABLES
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Respect
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Accountability
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Winning mentality
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Courage
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Willingness to work hard for others
LIAM BALLARD
ASSISTANT COACH & PLAYER PATHWAY SURREY COACH
I Joined Chelsea FC Foundation in January 2020 as a sessional coach, which saw me start my coaching career working within local schools, predominantly at After School clubs and Chelsea’s development centres.
In September 2021 I was placed into a local school as a PE lead coach being responsible for organising and planning all PE lessons from Year 1 through to Year 4. I was also tasked with running extra-curricular classes, improving the overall the quality of PE lessons and planning and running the schools sports day.
Alongside this role, I began working in Chelsea FC Foundation's development centres with groups from Year 1 to Year 7. This gave me a strong foundation of knowledge of Chelsea FC Foundation and understanding of the requirements which allowed me to progress my career within the Foundation.
At the end of 2021 year I was given the opportunity to work in the advanced centres whose aim is to progress players towards academy levels. I worked with an u10 girls group and u8s and u16 boys. This was very insightful for me as it showed me the main differences between
working with younger and older age groups and the relevant technical theory. For example, technical repetition is key for older age groups and movement practise and quick decision making is very important for younger groups.
After a year of improving and delivering as many sessions as I could I earned a promotion to a full time Surrey coach in September 2022. This meant I would be responsible for mentoring some of our younger staff and helping them to progress themselves and improve the quality of the sessions delivered. As well as this I was now the Head Coach of one of our girls development centres with the aim to progress as many players into our advanced centres.
At the beginning of 2023 I was brought into Blenheim to become Assistant Coach to Harry who had been promoted to Head Coach. This coming season I will be in the same role whilst also taking charge of our new development team.
COACHING BELIEFS
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My training sessions are planned to always involve team work to build morale within the squad whilst also looking to improve players both technically and tactically to allow them to become better individually and improve our team.
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I like creating situations in training sessions similar to game scenarios that will allow my players to understand what they would be required to do in a game environment.
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I want my team to understand moments when the game needs to be controlled and when we need to attack quickly and be fluid in the attacking third of the pitch.
MY NON-NEGOTIABLES
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Willingness to improve
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Strong mentality when faced with adversity
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Desire
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Bravery
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Hard work for one another
GET IN TOUCH
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