There is a new face at the Oxford United Academy following the appointment of Nathan Griffith as the Academy Strength and Conditioning Coach.
Nathan, 24, has previously worked at Derby County, Birmingham City and Peterborough United while also completing his Masters degree and will focus on working with the under 18 to under 23 teams while also keeping an eye on the progress of all of the age groups, as Academy Manager Dan Harris told us:
“Firstly I want to mention Holly Pickett who worked extremely hard for the club and moved our Strength and Conditioning programme forwards in all aspects. Holly’s departure meant we were inundated with applications and had 133 people apply to join us. Nathan stood out from that list because of his experience and his qualifications.
“We have quietly been assembling a staff who have worked at some pretty big clubs. Darren Purse and Claus Jorgensen played at the highest level and Gavin Boorman, our analyst, was with West Ham and Bournemouth so we are bringing in staff of the highest calibre.
“We have restructured things a little and the focus will change to working with individuals, because in the younger age groups each player has different requirements in terms of strength and conditioning. Nathan will work with the 18s and 23s at the training ground and also work alongside Zach Bowman and Becca Cannon who are doing outstanding work with our under 9s to 16s.
“He has settled in quickly and we look forward to working with him and to all continuing to help the best players from across Oxfordshire become the best they possible can.”