{"id":654761,"date":"2025-12-25T21:59:16","date_gmt":"2025-12-25T21:59:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/654761\/"},"modified":"2025-12-25T21:59:16","modified_gmt":"2025-12-25T21:59:16","slug":"great-britain-development-and-academy-head-coaches-confirmed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/654761\/","title":{"rendered":"Great Britain Development and Academy Head Coaches confirmed"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img width=\"620\" height=\"400\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\" class=\"attachment-post-thumb size-post-thumb wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\" data-lazy- data-lazy- data-attachment-id=\"199414\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.americanfootballinternational.com\/great-britain-development-and-academy-head-coaches-confirmed\/great-britain-2025-bafa-head-coaches1\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/www.americanfootballinternational.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Great-Britain-2025-BAFA-Head-coaches1.png\" data-orig-size=\"1200,833\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Great Britain \u2013 2025 \u2013 BAFA Head coaches1\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/www.americanfootballinternational.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Great-Britain-2025-BAFA-Head-coaches1-300x194.png\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/www.americanfootballinternational.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Great-Britain-2025-BAFA-Head-coaches1-1024x711.png\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Great-Britain-2025-BAFA-Head-coaches1-620x400.png\"\/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0<strong>Great Britain American Football<\/strong>\u00a0national program has announced Adam Lillis as the new head coach of the\u00a0<strong>Development<\/strong>\u00a0team and Michael Davies as head coach of the\u00a0<strong>Academy<\/strong>\u00a0team, completing a refreshed coaching structure aimed at strengthening the pipeline for future national team talent.<\/p>\n<p><strong>New structure, clear pathway<\/strong><br \/>As part of a broader reorganization, the\u00a0<strong>Great Britain Academy<\/strong>\u2014formerly the U17 squad\u2014will now include players up to age 18, allowing more flexibility in scheduling games against U16, U17, and U18 opponents. The\u00a0<strong>Development<\/strong>\u00a0team replaces the former U19 national team and will focus specifically on bridging the gap between the\u00a0<strong>Academy<\/strong>\u00a0and the\u00a0<strong>Men\u2019s Performance<\/strong>\u00a0squad. Both teams will align closely with\u00a0<strong>BAFA\u2019s U19 Regional Series<\/strong>, which operates across five regional franchises in the\u00a0<strong>UK<\/strong>\u00a0and provides competitive 11-a-side gameplay for emerging athletes.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Experience and vision for development<\/strong><br \/>Adam Lillis brings a decorated coaching background to the\u00a0<strong>Development<\/strong>\u00a0role, having worked with the\u00a0<strong>University of Kent Falcons<\/strong>,\u00a0<strong>City University Wolfpack<\/strong>, and the\u00a0<strong>East Kent Mavericks<\/strong>, in addition to previous experience within the\u00a0<strong>Great Britain Men\u2019s<\/strong>\u00a0program. His leadership earned him\u00a0<strong>Adult Contact Coach of the Year<\/strong>\u00a0at the 2024\u00a0<strong>BAFCA Coaching Awards<\/strong>. Lillis emphasized the importance of a seamless pathway, stating, \u201cI\u2019m really looking forward to working with Kev as the Men\u2019s Performance head coach and having an impact on this new pathway\u2026 The goal is that Coach Davies will coach up these players in the Academy and when they reach 18, they\u2019re in a really good shape to join Development.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Michael Davies continues his tenure guiding the nation\u2019s youngest contact players, moving from\u00a0<strong>Great Britain U17<\/strong>\u00a0to lead the reformed\u00a0<strong>Academy<\/strong>\u00a0team. Also active with the\u00a0<strong>University of Warwick Wolves<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0<strong>Coventry Phoenix<\/strong>, Davies stressed the value of early exposure to structured play: \u201cIf we can bring them into 11-a-side football at 14 years of age, by the time they reach 18 they\u2019ve had four years of experience using the same terminology, the same types of playbooks.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Looking ahead to trials<\/strong><br \/>The national program will hold trials later this month, with the\u00a0<strong>Men\u2019s Performance<\/strong>,\u00a0<strong>Women\u2019s Performance<\/strong>, and\u00a0<strong>Development<\/strong>\u00a0teams competing for spots on\u00a0<strong>January 24<\/strong>\u00a0at the\u00a0<strong>University of Derby<\/strong>, while the\u00a0<strong>Academy<\/strong>\u00a0team will try out on\u00a0<strong>January 31<\/strong>\u00a0at the\u00a0<strong>University of Salford<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0<strong>February 7<\/strong>\u00a0at\u00a0<strong>SGS College<\/strong>\u00a0in\u00a0<strong>Filton<\/strong>. With a clear structure and dedicated leadership,\u00a0<strong>Great Britain<\/strong>\u00a0is building a sustainable future for American football talent across the\u00a0<strong>UK<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.britishamericanfootball.org\/2025\/12\/great-britain-development-and-academy-head-coaches-confirmed\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">British American Football<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The\u00a0Great Britain American Football\u00a0national program has announced Adam Lillis as the new head coach of the\u00a0Development\u00a0team and Michael&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":654762,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5018,3,4],"tags":[24398,748,393,4884,200282,200283,12,1144,712,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-654761","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-britain","8":"category-uk","9":"category-united-kingdom","10":"tag-american-football","11":"tag-britain","12":"tag-england","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-great-britain-development-and-academy","15":"tag-head-coaches","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-northern-ireland","18":"tag-scotland","19":"tag-uk","20":"tag-united-kingdom","21":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115782455461307061","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=654761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654761\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/654762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=654761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=654761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=654761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}