The winter football season may have wrapped up but coaches all over the country have still been busy with many taking the opportunity to upskill and continue their journey on the highly-regarded New Zealand Football Coach Education Pathway.

September was a busy month for coach development with courses held for all three of the highest qualifications on offer – the OFC/NZF C-Licence, B-Licence and A-Licence.

The courses attracted plenty of interest with over 70 candidates, including several from overseas, being put through their paces by 13 coach developers and a batch of high-quality presenters from New Zealand Football and beyond.

New Zealand Football Coach Development Manager Steven Dillon was pleased to see such a response from the coaching community and is preparing for a range of additional activity before the year is out.

“It’s great to see the continued growth of the coach developer network outside of the traditional winter football season,” he says. “This underlines the passion for coaching that exists in New Zealand and the commitment of the participants to their ongoing development.”

Some notables names are among the current intake on the OFC/NZF A-Licence with Gemma Lewis and Tracy Wrigley, who coach the Northern Lights and Auckland Football in the National Women’s League respectively, joined by the likes of former All White Fred de Jong, Canterbury United Dragons assistant coach Joseph Hall and Northern Lights assistant coach Shane Verma.

Andy Clay, who led Glenfield Rovers to the Lotto NRFL Women’s Premier League title over the winter and the Football Foundation Kate Sheppard Cup the year before, is also working towards his A-Licence while the just-completed part two – held at AUT Millennium and QBE Stadium in Auckland – featured candidates from as far afield as Brisbane, Fiji, the Cayman Islands and the Turks and Caicos Islands.

In addition to New Zealand Football coach developers Steven Dillon, Aaron McFarland, Korouch Monsef and Owain Prosser, the A-Licence candidates had the opportunity to learn from guest presenters such as All Whites coach Fritz Schmid, New Zealand U-20 men’s coach Des Buckingham, New Zealand U-20 women’s coach Gareth Turnbull and Graeme Robson, Senior Performance Planner for High Performance Sport New Zealand.

Former age-group international goalkeeper Michael O’Keeffe, who is now a sports reporter for Newshub, also dropped in to advise the coaches on building relationships with members of the media.

“We were able to involve more guest speakers than ever before and each provided valuable insight into their areas of expertise,” Dillon says.

The C-Licence that took place at QBE Stadium was also significant as it was the largest to ever be staged with 30 participants taking part.

The content was delivered by Northern Football Coach Development Officer Alec Wilson, who has come through the Coach Education Pathway himself and is now well-placed to pass on the knowledge he has gleaned.

“Having come through the pathway myself, I know what it’s like to be a candidate on course,” he says.

“I understand the course provides the tools and it’s then the coach’s individual responsibility to implement them in their own coaching environment post-course, as this is where the real learning happens. I have been fortunate enough to be involved in delivering a number of these courses over the past few years which has further strengthened my knowledge of the NZF Professional Coach Model and my own coaching practices.”

Wilson was impressed with the level of the candidates and is looking forward to seeing their progress over the coming years.

“The candidate pool brought together a wide range of experience including a former Football Fern, Wellington Phoenix player and a New Zealand futsal representative,” he says. “The diligence of the candidates on the course was outstanding and bodes well for the future of our coaches in both the senior and youth games.”

In addition to the experience gained on each course, coaches progressing through the system now have a stronger level of support than ever before with coach developers being educated all over the nation to help guide them.

“Through our ever-flourishing federation and club-based coach developer network, we now have the ability to increase the frequency and accessibility of courses while our skilled Federation Development Officer network is also working alongside coaches to help mentor them through their qualifications and beyond,” Dillon says.

New Zealand Football is meanwhile continuing to foster its relationships with the Oceania Football Confederation, Sport New Zealand and a number of Regional Sports Trusts, adding to the diversity of football coach development opportunities now available to both community and advanced coaches.

There are plenty more learning opportunities in store this year with the Junior Level 3, C-Licence (Youth/Senior) and C-Licence (Futsal) still to come.

To learn more about these opportunities please visit www.nzfootball.co.nz/GET-INVOLVED/Coaches  or email steven.dillon@nzfootball.co.nz

Article added: Friday 28 September 2018