INTERVIEW WITH HAMPTON & RICHMOND BOROUGH ACADEMY MANAGER STEVE BATES AHEAD OF THE FIRST TEAMS FA CUP GAME AGAINST OLDHAM
Extract taken from Hampton & Richmond’s FA Cup Programme
As head of the academy, what makes you the proudest of the work you’ve done here?
First of all, I want to say thank you to our sponsors, Indigo contracts, Hampton Bathrooms and Farina Cole Real Estates, who have helped us grow to where we are and build really strong foundations that we can now push on from. I also want to thank Gary McCann, his desire to include the academy with the first team as much as possible is a huge boost for us.
I’m proud that with the support of the club, the academy has achieved its National League academy license and that we are playing at what I would consider to be the highest levels outside of the professional ranks.
What are you hoping for out of the coming months and the rest of the season for the academy?
Firstly, we’re hoping to develop the boys on their football and in their education. We’re fortunate at this present moment to have four boys on loan in senior men’s football.
We’re hoping soon we’ll have an academy player become a first-team player that Gary trusts and believes in enough to be the first name on the team sheet.
Our immediate hopes would be to get one or two players in Gary’s match day squad for the game against Oldham, which is a massive day in the clubs history. We have a couple of young boys that are really knocking on that door so fingers crossed for that.
The academy certainly gets involved in the local community, could you speak on what they’ve done recently?
I’m really proud of the students and our 53 recruitment process, which is improving year on year and bringing in these boys who are more than happy to help out in the local area. We’re doing lots of stuff in the community, most recently all the boys brought in stuff for the hygiene bank which was really well received. Richmond Borough Council also came to us to speak to our boys about Black History Month, which was a real positive vision of our academy, showing the diversity and the quality of the boys within it.
The academy had trials recently, what did you take from them?
I was thrilled with what I saw. We work on the principle that “Better people make better players” and the boys that came to our trials were brilliant. If you said to me “Steve, this is the group of players that you’re going to work with next year” I’d be ecstatic. The journey and the process from there is still a long one, and its made even more difficult through these tough times as of late, but I’m confident that those boys have the maturity and the dedication to succeed.
What has impressed you the most with the academy boys during COVID and the pandemic?
Their maturity, 100%. What’s been really pleasing is the grown-up mindset of the boys, they follow our COVID regulations and their responsibility is way beyond their years.
I’m really proud of the ways the boys are conducting themselves, respecting the times that we’re living in and making everything still possible.
What would you say is the most important quality to have for an academy prospect to have to succeed at the next level?
We have three core values in the academy. Respect. Reliability and Resilience, if the young players work by those three values and everything that comes with them, I think they give themselves the best chance. Yes you have to be physically good enough, yes you have to be technically good enough, but I think if you can be a good person, respectful round others, and can take setbacks then I think you give yourself the best chance of succeeding.
This has been really informative Steve, anything you want to add?
I’m really proud of all the boys in the academy and our growth year on year. We have a great bunch here who I’m sure can go on and do great things. We’re hoping from Christmas to start our Hampton & Richmond Borough development centre so be certain to look out for that!
Interview conducted by Ciaran O’Neill
Link to the programme – https://buff.ly/3p5aDT1
