Youth Foundation Phase
The Foundation Phase covers the U9-U12 teams with the main focus of training on having fun, enjoying their football while mastering the fundamentals of the game.
At this level, coaches and teams focus on mastering skills, learning deliberate practice, expressing creativity and enjoying the game. This is with the aim to make sure they are technically sound, have the physical movement, make them one-v-one solo artists, learn how to adapt and learn while playing with no fear.
At Foundation level, the teams will play regular friendly matches against other academies such as Scunthorpe, Rotherham and Burton Albion in order for all players to learn more about game play. As part of an extended games programme the Foundation Phase actively seeks friendly matches against category one and two Academies to help create varied challenging fixtures.
They will also have the option to attend football festival weekend and the Sheffield Trophy which focus on enjoyment of tournament football.
We aim to provide the youngsters with opportunties of tours every season with most recent years seeing the Foundation Phase head to Belgium and Milan with teams from Florida, New York and Arizona also visiting the Eco-Power Stadium to play our teams.
In the 2022/23 season Rovers introduced the Yorkshire Youth Champions League Cup competition which sees all Yorkshire Academies come together to play in a season-long competition in the format that takes inspiration from the UEFA Champions League.
Since 2022, Rovers' Foundation Phase has started to partake in Futsal competitions which adds an extra dimension to programme for players in the younger age groups.
Lead Youth Foundation Phase Coach: Adam Pilgrim
