Gary Warren vows to take Ross County's revamped youth vision to every corner of the Highlands and Islands
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Gary Warren believes Ross County’s new youth vision offers a “massive opportunity” to draw deeper from a well of talent all across the Highlands and Islands.
The Premiership club’s new academy manager will head up a very familiar-looking team at Victoria Park, but the shift in roles and responsibility is designed to sharpen the academy’s focus and identity.
Crucially, there will be a greater emphasis on consistently reaching all corners of the region to unearth more hidden gems, while forging a clear developmental pathway from youth ranks to the first team.
The population of the Highlands and Islands has been estimated at close to half a million, but the challenge lies in how those communities are thinly-spread across a third of the Scottish landmass and one-tenth of the UK’s.
Warren’s step up to the leading role allows former Caley Thistle team-mate Carl Tremarco to embrace the twin role of head of professional academy and loans.
Gordon Duff, who has led the academy through the exceptional difficulties of the Covid-19 pandemic, becomes the Staggies’ head of youth and academy operations.
Ryan Farquhar, with a tireless role out on the road for County over the last six years, takes on a more strategic role as head of foundation operations.
Those structural changes alone only hint at a “refocused” vision, but Warren - who has worked with the under 18s as head of academy for the past year - explained earlier today: “There is a great opportunity now for the football club and academy to develop and improve. These are exciting times, for me and for the rest of the staff.
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“There’s a big focus on trying to create a real culture and identity around the academy, giving it more of a Ross County feel and vibe.
“We want to allow the academy to develop its own values going forward.
“Developing our own homegrown players is the main part of what we’re trying to do, getting as many boys as we can, eventually, playing in the first team and then hopefully moving on from there, playing internationally.
“We want to achieve and strive to be the best. With the infrastructure we have here, with the coaches we already have in place and the talented groups of boys we’ve got across the age groups, that’s our job.
“My role is to try and nurture that.”
While Gordon Duff will no longer take the leading role, Warren left no doubt as to his importance within the structure.
“There is a special thanks to Gordon because he has had probably one of the toughest jobs over the last three years in terms of getting boys through and building an academy,” Warren said.
“It has been one of the hardest periods (with Covid) and he has helped me immensely, especially in the last couple of weeks and over my first year of being here.
“He’s been a great sounding board and I’ve learnt from him. If I can do half as good a job as he has done so far, then I’ll be happy.
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“I bring in my own ideas and identity, but within that I need coaches around me who can help and bring their own strengths.”
Tremarco’s role in managing the loans of young talent to other clubs such as Highland and lower Scottish league outfits is very much in tune with manager Malky Mackay’s ethos on nurturing young players such as Adam Mackinnon, Matty Wright, Logan Ross and Connall Ewan.
“It is a massive opportunity,” Warren said. “We are in the middle of the Highlands and some people think we’re in the middle of nowhere, but we have a lot of resources to use and choose from.
“For us, it is out trying to get out there more and try to use what’s around us, whether that is satellite schools or soccer centres.
“It is about trying to use what we’ve got to build and develop the academy. We need to venture out a little bit more now.
“There are already a lot of boys who travel from up north, Caithness and other parts, and we’re keen to build relationships with a lot of external companies and agencies that will help nurture and shape more homegrown players coming through.
“The under 18s has been brilliant, especially over the last two or three months, and that’s going to be led by Carl now with input from me there, and at every age level..
“The boys coming up from the 16s have really developed and kicked on.
“It is exciting times for some of those boys, with them getting opportunities in the first team.
“It is a strong area of the club where, this year, we’re hoping we can be successful.
“The vision first and foremost is to create a culture and identity that follows on and relates into the first team.
“The academy has its own structure and identity – and that marries up with the first team.
“It will allow a pathway for these guys to ultimately kick on and play out there.”
