The Iron is pleased to welcome back Andy Butler to the club once more, as he takes his place in the academy as Youth Development Phase Coach.
The 38-year-old returns to Glanford Park for a third stint having first played for the club between 2002 and 2008 before again playing for the club in the 2019-20 campaign.
Over the course of his career, the former Iron academy graduate played in excess of 700 games, including 174 for the Iron, and is still currently featuring for Farsley Celtic to this day.
An outline of the restructure in the academy…
Although Interim Manager of the First Team, Tony Daws continues his role as Academy Manager.
Mark Smith, who joined the club midway through last season from Chesterfield, moves to Head of Academy Coaching and Coach Development, taking over from the already-departed Rick Passmoor.
Passmoor left the club in August 2022 to become the First Team Women’s manager of Leeds United, while Smith has previously been Academy Manager at the Spireites between 2013 and 2018 and had been the PDP Coach at the Iron since arriving in February.
Watson previously worked at the Iron between 2013 and 2017 as Lead Foundation Phase Coach before departing for Barnsley where he spent nearly five years in their Academy across various roles. He returned to the club in June initially as YDP Coach before progressing to be PDP coach following the return of Andy Butler.
Jamie Hardwick left the club in February 2022 to return to his former club Mansfield Town to take on a Head of Player Development and YDP role. Head of Academy Analysis and Strength and Conditioning Glenn Boden is imminently departing the academy to take on a similar role at Middlesbrough Under-23s.