Following the announcement of the Emley AFC academy last month manager Sam Sutton has already started building his backroom staff with the addition of Pete Walker as an Assistant Coach to focus on the technical side of the squad.

Pete and Sam are no stranger having played together as youngsters. Pete said: “Me and Sam have known each other for a fair few years now going right back to when we were kids playing football when we were eleven or twelve-years-old and we’ve obviously both come down the coaching route”.

Emley AFC new academy has offered the perfect opportunity for the duo to return to work.
“Obviously he contacted me a couple months ago with this new exciting venture we’ve got here so we’re back together”, Pete added.

Pete has an important role to play in helping Sam get the best out of the academy.

“Sam has an overview of the tactical approach that we all understand and buy into and I’ll do a lot of the technical aspects. The finer details like players’ body positions, techniques, habits and things like that.”

Pete’s enjoyment of coaching at university led to him pursuing it further: “I realised I really enjoyed it. I’ve done coaching at schools, just helping out the younger ones so I’ve been coaching since I was about 16/17 and I just love getting stuck into it”.

Speaking about his previous relationship with Emley - as a visiting coach from Huddersfield YMCA where he also worked with Sam – describing it as a “home from home” and is now looking forward to calling it their actual home in the new Academy: “It’s really exciting, we’ve always liked the place and the people that are here and around it. It’s a good club in terms of the atmosphere that people generate so I think it’s just exciting to call it home.”

“The facilities in terms of the pitch and stuff are nice to play on and we’re excited to be on that and I’m sure that’ll be reciprocated by the players that come in”.

Sam Sutton, Academy Manger, said: "I’m delighted to welcome Peter to the club as one of my assistant coaches for the U23 squad. Pete is someone I trust and have worked with previously enjoying great success, so it was a no brainier to ask him to come onboard. Pete will have a big part to play for us on the coaching side, leading lots of sessions and working with individuals to enhance certain parts of their game."

More appointments to the new Emley AFC Academy will be revealed over the coming weeks.