PICTURE GALLERY: Milers aim to tap into local talent

In the first of a two-part feature, DAVID BEDDOWS investigates the strides the Academy is making to tap into local talent and find the Millers’ stars of the future.

WHILE all eyes are focussed on a thrilling end to the season for Rotherham United, there's some vital background work going on that will help the club's long-term financial health and fortunes.

This week, Academy manager Garreth Barker and his team sat down with local junior clubs to discuss ways they can help each other.

The Rotherham United Community Coaches Club is a new initiative designed to build bridges between the Millers and the hundreds of kids playing the game in the local region.

It's a huge pool of talent containing lads who sometimes simply slip the net or end up in the clutches of rival clubs.

Ensconced in a brand new, £5 million facility at the Sheffield Hallam University complex at Bawtry Road and with an expanding and energetic team, Garreth and his staff are looking to change all that.

This week's gathering, attended by 30 representatives from junior clubs, was the first of what is hoped will be a quarterly event.

It’s an exchange of ideas where both parties can learn off each other and the junior teams can develop better players and possibly recommend the best to join their local professional club.

Garreth said: “The aim is to get young players through the system to Steve Evans. It's a good thing economically and, of course, getting Rotherham-based players into the first team is good from a community perspective as well.

“We're trying to get more Rotherham-based lads in at base level because the more we can get in at that age, the more chance we have of getting them through at the top of the pyramid.

“The Community Coaches Club is the start of an open debate about coaching with grass roots coaches in the area.

“We hope to have more clubs at the next event in pre-season and that will be a more practical thing with training sessions for 7-11s, 12-16s and U18s where local coaches can wander around and watch and then we'll have a question and answer session.

“We're not saying we're the elite. We're saying this is what we do in the Academy and hopefully they can take pointers away and we can learn from them as well.

“It's about trying to build bridges and getting ourselves a nucleus of maybe 30 local clubs to get Rotherham players.

“If we can help junior clubs, then they can hopefully develop better players and we'd like to think that instead of them ending up at Sheffield Wednesday, Sheffield United, Barnsley or Leeds, they will recommend them to Rotherham United.”

It's an exciting time for the Academy. They've just been declared the third best Category 3 set-up in the country – more of which next week – and there's a whole list of initiatives being pursued by Garreth and Academy staff Mike Sheron, Chris Kirby, Oli Freeman and Matt Hamshaw.

On the club wesbite, they're described as “the faces behind the future of Rotherham United”.

Coaching staff go out to local teams to put sessions on and there's been special trial games.

They're also looking to hold a community tournament with free entry for local clubs and, longer term, would like to resurrect the Rotherham Schoolboys side.

The Academy itself caters for U9s through to U18s, with an average of 16 or 17 in each squad.

That's a lot of kids and there's an awareness there's even more talent beyond the the club's walls.

For Garreth, who joined the club last summer after spells at Bolton, Blackpool and Preston, it's been an eye opener.

“Having spent most of my career in the north west, it's been a learning curve finding out how big an area this is and the saturation of junior football clubs. We're in the biggest county in the country,” he said.

“I've got to say that the feedback from our local clubs has been great. When we've liked a player, they have said you can have a look at him, bring him on trial.

“Of course, the success of the first team helps our work. It attracts attention to the badge and to what we're doing, but we can't rely on that, we have to use our own initiative and generate our own momentum and that's what we're doing.”