Welcome to the Ben Herd Pro Performance Academy, a professional football coaching academy based in Hertfordshire, UK.
Academy Director
Ben Herd
Having come through Watford FC’s well established Academy, Ben then played for both Shrewsbury Town FC and Aldershot Town FC in the Football League and amassed over 350 appearances playing alongside the likes of Ashley Young and Joe Hart. Ben also appeared in the first play-off final at the new Wembley Stadium, 2007. Whilst also captaining Aldershot Town FC in the most successful cup run in their history beating the likes of West Ham United and leading Aldershot Town FC against Manchester United in the last 16 of the Carling Cup. Ben heads up the BHPP full time Academy which offer 16-18 year olds a full time football and education programme, in which they are fully immersed in the BHPP training methodology that has been sourced and learned over many years, which has proven results in the world of soccer.
Results of Football
We have had some incredible results in a short amount of time since setting up the Academy
We have taken players directly into Professional Football; Luke O’Nien, Sunderland AFC, Junior Morias Northampton Town FC, and Marco Merlo, FC Vysocina. More recently, we sold a player to Ipswich Town FC, and our most recent player who has signed pro is James Collins, who has signed for Watford FC. James is a regular in the Academy team, who has scored a host of goals, and has already been involved in the first team squad this season. Many of our Academy players also play regularly for Semi-Professional clubs at Step 5 and 4. Our First Team at Hertford Town FC is the most obvious pathway for our players, where we currently play 3 Academy players regularly.
Having small classroom sizes, and working in partnership with Sele School, we’ve shared excellent results in Education. With exam pass completion, players have gone on to Red Brick Universities such as Birmingham, whilst others have gained places at Universities such as; Bournemouth, Northampton, and Southampton, to study a wide range of courses such as: Construction Management, Sport Science, Sports Therapy, Finance, IT and Business.
Players have also gone on to complete apprenticeships which has given them the essential skills for employment.
Full Scholarships have been awarded to players in the U.S. enabling them to continue their studies alongside playing football, whilst experiencing living in a different country. We work closely with an experienced, family-run, company who places players in the best colleges for each individual player in order for them to succeed in football and to experience what the U.S has to offer!
