Boreham Wood Football Club are delighted to announce, that due to the expansion of our Academy provision. We are to take on Gerard Prenderville in the new exciting full time position of Elite Player/Development coach and U/21 manager.
Gerard will officially join us from Dagenham and Redbridge on Monday, 1st September and is a qualified UEFA B Coach. He is 
someone who both our Academy Manager Billy Hunter and Academy Director Luke Garrard have got to know well over the years and as such, we’re all thrilled he has decided to commit to us and help us with our continued growth.
Gerard has built up a very good coaching portfolio in recent years, that includes joining Watford’s Harefield Academy in 2008 under Nick Cox and followed on from there, by joining the Dagenham and Redbridge Academy in 2010.
At both clubs he coached various age groups, planned sessions and built relationships with local clubs to assist recruitment. He has also been instrumental in setting up Dagenham’s College scheme with Barkingside College and in our opinion, he has done a fantastic job at a very limited facility..
Gerard will arrive here as a senior coach, with a very clear brief, to bring his energy, enthusiasm and experience to the club and will be tasked with working closely with our Academy Manager Billy Hunter, Academy Director Luke Garrard while liaising directly with first team Manager Ian Allinson when necessary.
He will be expected to improve all areas of our Elite Players match-day experience and their coaching programmes. He will be asked improve our links with local clubs, help facilitate and progress any possible loans to help our Academy players development and his remit will cover the entire age groups from our 16 to 19 PASE Scheme up to our under 21’s..
As a club we have always been very clear in our outlook. We believe at our level, that certain Academy’s facilities elsewhere are chronically under staffed and have little or no true investment put in to them and in truth are not fit for purpose.
We believe a youth structure like ours needed to be nurtured and as such we embarked on an investment programme many years ago. We have always maintained the importance of investing in top class coaching and we want our coaches to improve themselves while with us and as such we give them the tools and facilities to do their job.
We believe Gerard has identified that, as a big reason to why he chose to come to us. Like us he believes in the development of young players at grass roots and non-league level and understands he can make a real difference here at Meadow Park.
Our PASE and Elite programme’s have been built up carefully and slowly over the last fourteen years and we believe, they are now the perfect fit for coaches like Gerard.
As an experienced football man, he will be encouraged to bring his own personality, quality and expectation to the role. He will be encouraged to explore, improve and gain further experience in both the management side of the job, as well the coaching side. As a club we see coaching and management, as two totally different skill sets and though both are very important, they are not similar in our opinion and require vastly different mind-sets.
By giving people the opportunity to test themselves in both at the club, it broadens the coaches minds and it produces personnel who understand the different skill sets, appreciate the problems that each job brings..
We’ve explained to Gerard, we do not want sterile, cliché or bland coaches, who speak and act like a chapter from a coaching manual. We want people who are great role models, great coaches and bring their management skills and leadership qualities to our young talented players..
We are again this year going to be the largest Sports/Education PASE Academy in the UK, however we are the largest scheme for a few simple reasons. Firstly the boys always come first, as such they choose us over our rivals because we invest in our scholars, because we invest in our transport system, because we invest on our medical department, because we invest in our facility and because we invest hugely in bringing the best staff to the club..
Secondly, we have a long history and track record of success for our boys, in National Cup competitions, in local leagues and cups, in getting students to American on Scholarships and in producing young England College Internationals.
We believe that Attitude, Discipline and Desire, will always win over pure ability alone and that is our pre-requisite for giving our players success. In appointing Gerard, we’re certain we are ensuring that our track record of achievement will continue and flourish..
WELCOME TO BWFC GERARD..
