Built from the
grassroots up.

It began with the players.

AcademyOne began with players asking me, as their coach, for help with gym programmes. I wanted to support them, but I needed a practical way to get those programmes to them, follow their progress and make adjustments as time went on.

It had to work beyond one player or one team. I searched for a solution that could scale across multiple teams and keep that work together. The right fit never presented itself, so I started to look at what I could build myself.

The first version was a simple dashboard with a gym workout creator and run tracking. It gave the idea a starting point: a way to connect the work players were doing away from the pitch with the support they received from their coach.

Then I looked at the rest of the week.

Once that first dashboard was in place, I began to think about the other problems I faced as a coach. A normal football week meant moving between different apps and conversations to work out who was coming to training, what we were going to do and who we were playing at the weekend.

Then there were the match updates, the scores, the club conversations and the questions or issues that needed attention from a player or parent. The information mattered, but it was spread across so many places. Keeping everyone in the loop became a job in itself.

I could see other coaches at my club working through the same challenges. It seemed likely that the coach a mile down the road was doing the same, and the coach a mile beyond them. These were shared problems in the everyday running of grassroots football.

Those shared challenges gave me a reason to bring more of the football week together in one place.

The turning point was a team sheet.

The moment that really brought the possibility home was when I added my own team to the application and started setting them up for how we were going to approach our next match. Seeing the team sheet in front of me made it feel real.

That was the moment it grew from something I was building for myself into something I wanted to pursue and develop further. I could see the team and the match preparation coming together, and I wanted to explore how much more of the football week AcademyOne could connect.

What began as a physical exercise tracker was becoming a platform for the work around a team, with the possibility of bringing the whole club together.

A connected club starts with its people.

Players, parents, coaches and club leaders are the pillars that hold a club together. Each sees football from a different perspective, but their weeks and their decisions are connected.

Those four perspectives guide the decisions we make about AcademyOne. We want players to take part in their development, parents to stay informed, coaches to prepare with purpose and club leaders to see the work across the club.

AcademyOne has grown considerably from that first dashboard. The question behind it is still practical: how can we make the football journey more connected for the people living it?