Stevenage FC has been part of the football landscape since 1976, and today its academy holds Category Three status within England’s Elite Player Performance Plan — one of the pathways professional clubs use to develop young players from grassroots level through to first-team football. Behind that academy sit around 200 players spread across multiple age groups, along with the coaches, parents, and guardians who need to stay in the loop on everything from training sessions to matchday logistics.
Running a football academy app-worthy operation with that many people involved is no small task. Before Spond, Stevenage FC’s academy staff were juggling WhatsApp groups, spreadsheets, and another scheduling platform just to keep players and parents informed. Tom Farr, Head of Coach Development and Youth Development Phase Manager at the club, has seen first-hand how much of a difference switching to Spond has made since the academy adopted it during the 2022/23 season.
“It makes it easier, quicker and simpler to communicate and log things with players, parents, staff and guardians,” says Tom.
From WhatsApp and Spreadsheets to One Football Academy App
Before Spond, Stevenage FC Academy relied on a scattered mix of tools: WhatsApp threads for team chat, spreadsheets for tracking squads and attendance, and a separate platform that never quite fit how the academy worked day to day. None of it was built specifically as a football academy app, and it showed. Coaches were duplicating admin across multiple places, and there was no single, reliable way to reach everyone at once.
Tom came to Spond on the recommendation of another coach, a route into the app that’s common among clubs at every level of the game. Once the academy made the switch, the appeal was immediate. “The simplicity, and ease of use to do what you want to do,” is what stood out most, Tom explains — a marked change from tools that felt, in his words, “dated and not functional as well as it could have been.”
Saving Time and Strengthening Communication
Admin has always been one of the biggest drains on a coach’s time, and Tom is candid that it was a real pain point before Spond: time-consuming, repetitive, and spread across too many channels. Centralising communication in a single football academy app has changed that.
With every player, parent, and staff member in one place, event and matchday communication runs far more smoothly. Tom uses Spond primarily to manage events and matches, and it has become the go-to way of confirming who’s needed, when, and where — with far less back-and-forth than the old WhatsApp-and-spreadsheet combination ever allowed.
Simplifying Squads, Trialists, and Match-Day Admin
One of the standout benefits for Stevenage FC’s academy has been squad management. “Allowing all players in one place allows us to share squad lists easier to all involved, including trialists,” Tom says. That’s a particular challenge for an academy environment, where trialists move in and out of sessions alongside contracted players, and coaches need a quick, reliable way to update everyone without starting a new chat or spreadsheet each time.
The academy uses both the Spond App and Spond Club, giving staff the flexibility to manage individual team communication alongside broader academy-wide organisation. That combination has made it far simpler to keep players, parents, and guardians aligned, whatever their level within the academy structure.
The Right Football Academy App for Stevenage FC
Tom is unequivocal that he’d recommend Spond’s football academy app to other clubs and coaches — “absolutely,” without hesitation. What used to be scattered across WhatsApp, spreadsheets, and a platform that didn’t quite fit is now handled in one place, giving coaches at Stevenage FC’s academy more time to focus on developing players rather than chasing admin.
For a Category Three academy managing 200 players across multiple age groups, that shift matters. Squad lists, trialist updates, and matchday communication all run through a single football academy app now, rather than being pieced together across several disconnected tools. It’s a small, practical change that’s made a real difference to how Tom and his colleagues work day to day.
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