Aberdeen Football Club’s first girls’ academy manager Jo Belot is aiming to nurture a conveyor belt of young, local talent for the Aberdeen Women first-team.
Belot, 32, spent 10 years working for the Scottish Football Association (SFA), serving as girls’ and women’s club development officer for the north region.
Having given birth to her first child, Olivia, in December last year, Belot has now joined the Dons – who bolstered their women’s football operation back in January by absorbing the under-16s and U18s youth teams from grassroots outfit Aberdeen FC Ladies.
Following an SFA restructuring of elite girls’ football in the summer, Aberdeen’s new girls’ academy – which Belot oversees – now includes three youth sides at U13s, U15s and U17s.
Belot said: “That was a big recruitment drive across the clubs in the north-east to allow us to develop those teams – and we thank them for their cooperation with that – and all of the criteria which goes with them.
“The competition we play in is now called Next Gen.
“All of the teams have their own management and coaches.
“The 13s and 17s play on a Saturday, and the 15s play on a Sunday – we play teams from across Scotland.
“We’ve had a cup competition from August to October, where we played Hearts, Livingston and Hamilton, and that then tiers off into a performance league for the next phase, and from then it’s into category phases.”
Though Aberdeen are not allowed to disclose which category the SFA have placed their girls’ academy programme in, the categories are determined by factors like “medical provision, training facilities, number of training sessions in the week, athlete development, talent ID and recruitment”.
Aberdeen’s girls’ sides train three nights a week at Cormack Park, with all home matches also played at the Dons’ training ground and filmed for video analysis.
‘The working relationship with Scott will be really key going forward’
With former Dons striker Scott Booth recently appointed manager of top-flight Aberdeen Women, Belot is determined for there to be a two-way relationship between the club’s girls’ academy setup and the SWPL side.
She says the currently semi-professional senior team are “fantastic role models for girls across the local area” when it comes to inspiring them to play football, while girls’ academy youngsters getting “exposure” to first-team football will be a “big pull” as the Dons look to sign up the “best talent”.
On readying those young talents to become Aberdeen Women stars, Belot said: “Our aim is to develop talent for the first-team.
“Local players have been a massive part of the make-up of the first-team for a number of years now and we want to continue that, and give the girls the best chance to forge a career in the game.
“I have good working relationships with (youth academy director) Stuart Glennie, head of coaching Mark Slater and the other guys within the academy as well, on things like the game model across the club.
“That working relationship with Scott (Booth) will be really key going forward now he’s in the door as well, just in terms of potential talent coming through for him to play at the top level of the game in the country.”
Aberdeen look to take on Rangers, Celtic and Hearts’ academy operations with support from sponsors Peterson
There are already success stories in the Aberdeen girls’ academy and “really promising players”.
Mia Selbie and Olivia Reid recently joined up with the Scotland U16 squad, while Selbie has also been selected for the U17 national team.
Belot has responsibility for taking the Dons’ girls’ academy programme from “almost a clean slate” to “be the best it can be” – and she is keen for Aberdeen to make the most of having the north-east patch to themselves and match the girls’ academies at full-time SWPL rivals Rangers, Celtic and Hearts.
Energy logistics supply chain solutions firm Peterson have come aboard as “official talent development partner” of the Aberdeen girls’ academy – supporting “continued improvements and investment planned across a three-year cycle”.
Belot labelled Peterson’s backing to help develop the girls’ academy “fantastic – with the company also supporting monthly awards for players at each group, as well as sponsoring the girls’ player of the year prize at the annual AFC Player of the Year Awards.
Detailing the work to build the girls’ academy which is ongoing, Belot said: “We need scouting procedures in place just to make sure we can get the best girls.
“The U13s and U15s squad we have in are essentially brand new to the club, so they’ve never been involved in the performance part of the game before, so there’s education for parents and players around expectations, commitment.
“We’ll do player education workshops around athlete development, female health and nurtrition as well – education which will hopefully stand them in good stead.
“We’re developing the athlete development programme (as well), which is strength and conditioning, sports science, battery of testing and making them more robust to cope with the demands of the game.
“And a big part of my role is developing the strategy for the girls academy over the next three to five years, around how we want to run, what our key performance indicators are around players – and part of that will be producing players for the first-team as well.”
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