A decade of planning for Andy Jones' job
New academy manager Andy Jones has been planning for his new role for a decade.
Now the 31-year-old is aiming to supply homegrown players for Shrewsbury Town for years to come.
Shrewsbury-born Jones still plays semi-pro as a centre-back for Airbus after stints with AFC Telford United and Newtown.
He has been appointed Town's academy manager after the departure of Steve Reece.
The new supremo joins from Shrewsbury College, where he has been a sports lecturer for the last seven years – the last two involved with coaching conditioning work with the club's scholars.
Jones, who will oversee the development of up to 160 scholars from under-eights to under-18s, said: "It's a fantastic opportunity for me and it's one that excites me.
"It's a role I've been building towards for 10 years really. It's been a long process; I've built my whole career around waiting for this opportunity and I thought this was the right time to come into it.
"I've been in education for seven or eight years lecturing full-time in a sports science role.
"I've had a number of coaching roles in the last 10 years and I've coached in Shrewsbury Town's academy for a few years as well.
"I've got a lot of strength and conditioning work in my background in the academy as well.
"Over the last two years I've been involved with the academy at SCAT overseeing the education programme with the scholars.
"I've grown up with the club really without having too much of an involvement.
"The opportunity to oversee the programme and drive a great academy forward means I've come into something really good."
Having been involved with coaching and education down the years, Jones intends to be hands-on in his new role.
He said: "I'd like to be involved with everything – not just the scholars but I want everyone to know me from the under-9s right the way through.
"I want to be involved in some sort of capacity – whether that be taking the odd coaching session with the kids, but also the local community.
"We want to make sure we bring as many initiatives in and work together as much as we can.
"With the fabulous community side that's been developed in recent years, we need to make sure the partnerships between us are very strong."
But he recognises the bottom line – to supply players to the first team, continuing: "The aim is to get as many players through to the first team to make it successful.
"We need to make sure whatever Micky (Mellon, manager) needs is there. We also want people to know what we're doing, making sure we've got the links locally.
"We're branching out to recruit as many players as we can."
