Involvement In Community Coaching & Women's Football

[CammyF 6,877]

I have been thinking of penning an article on the problems that community coaches and teams face today for a while. I have a friend who used to coach local youngsters and had an youth team that were relatively successful in the fact that not only did they hold their own in cups and leagues, but had a working relationship with Raith Rovers. This was when Jimmy Nichol was the Raith manager and he took certain players from this team and allowed them to train with Raith. A few of the players made a successful transformation into football, the most successful would be Eddie Forrest who played with Motherwell, Airdrie and a few others and is still playing at East Stirlingshire - http://www.eaststirlingfc.co.uk/play...ieForrest.html.

 

However, there was always obstacles to overcome and these would range from arranging and securing council pitches to actually play the games on, securing referees, encouraging youngsters to participate and off course, getting adults involved in a positive manner helping with coaching, travelling to games, putting up nets etc. All of these obstacles just to allow 15 youngsters to play football and hopefully use this as a stepping stone to professional football. Again, this was voluntary and my friend did this due to the love of the game and held done a full-time job as well as running his team and there was very little support from council, SFA, parents et al.

 

To my shame, I then completely forgot about the problems and issues that befall community coaching and local teams until I moved jobs last year and started in a company where three of my new work colleagues were involved with youth football / community coaching. One of those involved, Wee T, also plays women's football as well as being involved in community coaching with Motherwell FC. Through talking about football, it wasn't long before we realised that we also shared a love and passion for Rangers Football Club, so our working relationship developed around Rangers and football rather than business!

 

When Wee T left for pastures new, we kept in touch and still meet at Ibrox occasionally and keep in touch and I encouraged Wee T to join the GersNet family and to properly introduce her, suggested that given her experience in women's football and community coaching, we should collaborate on an article that outlines the problems, success, need and development of both. Below are Wee T's thoughts, concerns and experiences of being involved in the vital role as a community coach and being involved in competitive women's football, which is in its infancy in Scotland. I have to admit that I am completely naive when it comes to women's football in Scotland and apart from Wee T, the only other player I have heard of is Scotland's Julie Fleeting MBE who has had a wonderful career playing for Arsenal ladies and who has scored 103 goals in 104 appearances for Scotland - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julie_Fleeting

 

My name is Wee T, I fell in love with football from a very early age, my Dad's a die-hard Rangers fan so I expect it came from there. I started kicking a ball about as soon as I was able to and I was the first girl to play for my Primary school football team, Gartsherrie Primary in Coatbridge, it was at that time that I won my first medal for playing football. When I moved to High School, Coatbridge High School, the prospects weren't as good for the girls when it came to football. We got the occasional 5-a-side game against other schools' girl's team's but that was about it! Through my early teenage years, this left me with playing football on the streets with my brothers and his mates. Playing football was all that mattered to me and I was trying to emulate my hero - Paul Gascoigne - I loved the way he played football, they way he'd go passed opponents so easily, the way he moved and his big daft smile when he scored! Can't say I really had a female hero in football....well maybe just Tina Turner - Simply The Best!!!!

 

At 18, once I left school and I joined Hamilton Accies Ladies B Team and played for them in one of the Women's football leagues in Scotland. We had a great team with great spirit and commitment, we went on to win the league in my first season, winning every game along the way (just like The Rangers in 1898-99). At around the same time as joining Accies I also started coaching with Motherwell FC, I had completed my SFA Level 1 coaching badges and this is what I'd always wanted to do. I was like a double-agent in Lanarkshire across the North/South divide, playing for one team and working for the other.

 

I still work with Motherwell FC at the moment as a Community Coach within a larger team and we report into the Senior Community Coach with regards to progress & popularity of the sessions that we run through North Lanarks. The sessions cover various age groups from 3 year olds up to 16 year olds. The role means that I have to coach the youngsters on various football drills, I also have to update the parents on their kids progress and some of the parents are in attendance through the sessions which we encourage to help with development. The main focus for myself, and I hope my colleagues is the enjoyment factor, its important the kids are enjoying what they are learning and that they remain in the coaching cycle and possibly move onto Pro-Youth with Motherwell FC if they are good enough. Facilities for the sessions are provided by Motherwell FC and by the local council whether it be in schools or community centres etc. As a Rangers fan I suppose I'm helping the opposition bring through new youngsters but I really enjoy what I do and as its linked to football I get a lot of satisfaction from it. Doing the coaching doesn�t get in the way of me following Rangers though and I'm home every other Saturday to get out of my Motherwell gear and into my Rangers gear to head to Ibrox!!

 

One change I did make recently, for season 08/09, was my transfer from Hamilton Accies to Motherwell FC Ladies team, thought it best to start giving my employers something back, ha ha, plus I couldn't play in those hoops any longer....even if they were red & white!! Motherwell Ladies FC play in the Scottish Women�s football leagues, we're in Division 2 South East, East & Central and this is our first season in that league. Currently we're in 4th place in the league, of a ten team league. The teams are of varying standards, with some being far more organised and structured than others, we're currently somewhere in the middle. The league itself is really well organised with all details of fixtures, results and tables etc. posted weekly. Our own team has suffered a little bit from an early season change of manager leaving us with a young inexperienced manager. We train twice a week on a 7-a-side pitch which isn�t suitable for an 11-a-side team to train and practice. Next year senior players will be part of a committee where we'll be able to have our thoughts/concerns raised in the correct forum.

 

Our season so far has been pretty mixed in different ways, mixed results, mixed performances and a whole load of different playing surfaces....I doubt the Rangers or Celtic Ladies teams in the higher divisions have to play on the pitches we've had to play on all season. Considering our team is new with players either being brought in from other teams (like myself), from Motherwell U-17's girls team or by word of mouth. Some better coaching for ourselves would have seen an improvement throughout our team, we have a mix of skilful players, whole-hearted players and some real ââ?¬Ë?triersââ?¬â?¢! For example one of our strikers, Sarah, could definitely do with some close coaching on her finishing but she does have the ability, our centre-half Amanda is a really good player, so good in fact she's been nick-named Cuellar by our small band of fans (well, the fans are basically my boyfriend, my brother, his mate and a few Mums & Dads), also our Goalkeeper Kirsty has improved superbly with some good coaching from our Goalie coach Bobby, she is arguably the most improved player! Also there's daft Dione, sheââ?¬â?¢s fast, skilful, hard in the tackle and has a shot as hard as a guys! Then there's myself, playing as the playmaker in midfield, there wasnââ?¬â?¢t much coaching needed here as I'm close to the finished article....I'm not saying I'm the best player....but I'm in the top 1 ( ha ha - just kidding)! All of the aforementioned and the rest would benefit greatly from our team being better structured and organised with training & managing improvements, we're hoping Motherwell FC themselves will show a little more interest as we progress. This season has been great with many highs and lows and laughs and arguments, but thatââ?¬â?¢s what footballs all about and football isnââ?¬â?¢t about winning its about wanting to win! It has seen us travel to Kirkcaldy, Dunfermline, Edinburgh & Aberdeen and seen these teams travel down to play us. Incidentally we're looking for a new manager - experienced manager - for next season as our current manager is moving on, so anyone willing to take on this commitment can get in touch with me through GersNet. Our seasons not finished yet, but we're hoping to finish in a respectable position and have a good grounding for next season.

 

You can keep updated with Wee T�s team�s fortunes and progress on the Scottish Women�s Football website - http://www.footballcentral.org/sfa/a...tball_home.cfm

 

http://www.gersnetonline.co.uk/newsi...d=782&Itemid=1

 

Wee T & Cammy F