I am not a football fanatic myself, but I do enjoy the sport a lot! My
enjoyment is fulfilled by the teaching, the accomplishments (not the
trophy cabinet), the mentoring and playing of course. However, my two
children Nathan & Nicholas are the ones responsible for me getting
myself the coaching hat.
I have never regretted a minute of it though. Fellow coaches will agree with
me on how tough and demanding it all gets, but this is compensated by all the
fulfillments it also brings. It is a heck of a journey, one which I highly
recommend for you to undertake if you ever get a chance. Maybe for 10-15 years
max, as it can drive you up a wall...😀
My journey started back in 2009, when my eldest Nathan decided he was going to play
Football. He had not been interested in the game till the age of 7, to which he joined
St Joseph's U7. It was a team coached by Chisum Sanchez and Collin Figueras who also had
there children playing in the Team. Nathan was 2003 born though, which meant he was on his second
year of U7 and would move on to U9 the next season. It was Nathan and Callum the players
who would stay without a team for their first year of U9, so I was asked by the coaches to help
the club out in trying to form a team. It was a wild ride indeed trying to put a Team together,
but we succeed in the end.
There were a lot of players out there who had already been filtered out from their teams, teams
which they started playing at a very young age, but now they had been asked to leave...now this
is another reason why I strived....and boy I did! I mean kids can develop right up till they are
about fourteen, but some of them will never have enough football in them to make it to top teams and
start playing 11-aside football. At this age everyone has to realise that they were not made to
compete at this level. Am talking of fourteen year olds playing in 11-aside football, and not seven,
eight and nine year olds who are told they are not good enough for their teams.
To be continued....
