United manager Russ Wilcox is delighted to announce that John Schofield will become the club’s new assistant manager.
The former Gillingham assistant will join up with the Iron’s coaching team for the first time on next week – once he returns from holiday.
Wilcox, who played alongside Schofield at Doncaster around 20 years ago, believes the 49 year-old will be a success at the Iron.
The United boss told The Iron Player: “I’m very pleased to announce that John Schofield has agreed to become our new assistant manager.
“I’m very excited about that. He has a wealth of experience right from management all the way to coaching.
“He has been in this job for the past seven or eight years and he comes into this job having had two good years with Gillingham,” Wilcox continued.
“You look at his last two seasons with Gillingham and he had two good years. He had one promotion and one very good season under his belt. He knows what League One is about.”
He added: “He’ll be able to give us a big heads up on most of the games.”
Wilcox sees Schofield’s experience in the coaching and management game will be extremely beneficial to the Iron as they look for a second successful campaign.
He was part of the coaching staff that helped Gillingham achieve promotion from League Two in 2013 before they had a secure campaign last time.
“He’ll bring a bit of everything to Scunthorpe next season,” Wilcox said.
“It’s his experience that will be key and he will bring a lot to us all both on the training ground and on a match day.
“He has experienced that quite a lot recently and under a number of different managers.
“John will bring a lot of enthusiasm to the group.”
The Iron manager continued: “Bringing John into the club is a good coup and it is a good move for him as well having just left Gillingham.
“He doesn’t live too far away so that is always a good thing – and that is handy for him as well.
“Me and John go back a long way.
“I played with him a lot at Doncaster and we did all of our coaching badges together. I did my pro license with him as well which is key.”
Wilcox added: “I’ve not worked with John on a day to day basis as of yet but I am looking forward to that.”
United’s new assistant manager will be joining up with the rest of the management team next week and Wilcox has said he is buzzing about making the move to the Iron – a club where he has previously worked as a coach.
“He is absolutely buzzing about joining Scunthorpe.
“This club ticks a lot of boxes for him. We are just fortunate that he has left Gillingham and Peter Taylor wanted to move in a different direction.
“He has given a good service to Gillingham and he is really excited to come on board.”
He added: “John will be back with us for the staff meetings on July 1. We get going again with the players again on the third but he’ll be in the building in the next couple of weeks."