WARRIORS have announced Chim Gale as the club’s new academy manager.
Gale will oversee the Sixways outfit’s entire academy and will work alongside the best up-and-coming players across the region to help produce the next generation of first-team stars.
He has taken over the role from Mark Hewitt, who has become assistant academy manager and has taken a step back from the day-to-day running of the academy to support player recruitment, before retiring at the end of next season.
Hewitt will have a specific focus on identifying young talent as Warriors look to develop their work with the best youngsters in the West Midlands.
Elsewhere in the academy, Mike Hill has been named as the club’s new academy transition coach after previously working as a coach in the club’s successful Development Player Pathway centres.
Since the arrival of high performance director Nick Johnston in 2013, Warriors have launched Junior Academy Centres across the West Midlands and have seen 17 players called up to represent England from under 16 to under 20 levels during the 2015/16 campaign.
“I’m delighted to be taking over as academy manager and look forward to continuing the hard work all the academy staff have put in over the last few years,” said Gale.
“Our academy is in a better place than it has ever been and is set-up to flourish. We’re already working with the most talented players across the West Midlands and we’ll be continuing our focus on producing outstanding players, who will eventually play for our first-team,” he added.
Johnston said: “Chim has worked closely with Mark Hewitt in recent years and has the knowledge base required to ensure our academy offering continues to move forward.
“Mark will continue to play a key role in our academy set-up as we look to produce young players who have the physical, technical and mental ability to perform at the highest level.”