3 seasons later....

I have just finished my 3rd season coaching football.  Wow, I never thought for one minute that I would do it or love it so much!  Having never worked with children, other than my own, it was certainly different!

So what's been my football philosophy?  I wanted a group of players that were comfortable on the ball, who played out from the back and most importantly....enjoyed themselves!

So the season finished last week, and this week I start preparing for next season.  First decision is probably the worst, who do we take forward and who do we cut from the squad?  What an awful thing to have to do to 9 and 10 year olds!  But with a current squad of 17 (for 2 x 7v7 matches), we need to get down to a max of 14 (for 9v9).  I'll let you know how I get on :(

Getting into coaching

Like many boys, football was my life for years.  I went to coaching schemes and started playing competitively at u10s for a local team.  Over the years, I played for a number of teams until injury (and getting married/having kids) cut my competitive playing days short.  In my head, I could have made it!  Realistically, I didn't have a chance but that never stopped me dreaming!

In 2009/10, I took my son to a Saturday morning coaching session on the local school field.  Being the first there over a few weeks, I got talking to the coach and helped out with keeping the kids in order.  As the summer approached, all the parents (mainly dads!) were approached at the end of a session to see who would "help out" for the following season.  I have emphasised the "help out" as this was the important thing for me.  "I don't mind helping", I said.  So that was me thrown into it for my 1st season!

2 weeks later, I chose the 16 boys that would make up the squad, was given a set of balls, bibs and cones and sent on my way!  In at the deep end!

The rest is history.