Baxter brought in former Newcastle and Bristol coach Dave Walder to take over as backs coach in May, as Chiefs’ director of rugby Baxter took on a more hands-on role with coaching the side.
He says Hepher has had great influence with some of Exeter’s finest homegrown talents.
Exeter currently have a strong tie-up with the city’s university, but Baxter says Hepher’s role will focus on players at a younger age group to try to ensure they have the best coaching as young as possible.
He continued: “I can remember Ali working with Henry Slade when he was quite junior in the academy, working with his kicking and a lot of his technical skills, and you can see what he’s gone on and achieved.
“It’s been the same with Jack Nowell, the same with Joe Simmonds – there’s a lot of these guys who’ve come through under Ali kind of transitioning them out of the academy, and that’s very much what we wanted to do.
“We want him to take charge of bringing those guys as good as possible with as good foundations of skills and as good a foundation of professional rugby as soon as possible so it’s not waiting until they get into that 18-19 age band.
“We want to start that from at least 16, maybe even earlier, and Ali can do that.
“He can help educate the coaches, he can help guide that and drive that, and for us I think it’s a really important investment in our academy pathway.”
