Nepean FA breaking coaching accredited records
In what’s been seen as a first for any Association in NSW, Nepean Football Association has confirmed that one hundred percent of their Division 1 coaches with the appropriate FFA Community Coaching qualification and over ninety percent of its ALDI MiniRoos teams officially have an accredited coach.
Spanning across three years, Nepean Football Association has seen as many as 1700 coaches spending well over 400 hours and attending 70 courses in achieving this unbelievable feat spearheaded by the Association’s Football Manager James Rankine.
“This is quite possibly a first for any Association within Football NSW, or even Australia and its all thanks to a lot of hard work and passion from a cluster of people.
“This ranged from all the club committees, coaches and parents who encouraged, convinced and attended and became advocates as well as the vision and belief of the Nepean FA Board members and staff and support from Football NSW and FFA Coach Education departments.”
Football NSW Community Coach Education Manager Oscar Gonzalez praised the hard work and efforts of Rankine who was the driving force behind this magnificent achievement.
“When James Rankine first approached me to discuss the implementation of a more wide-reaching Coach Education plan for coaches within Nepean FA, I said that I would support his efforts, however, felt this would be a mammoth challenge.
“To James’s credit and through hard work and determination he has proved to all and sundry that this is possible and his Association is now a model for all throughout NSW and Australia.”
In season 2017, Nepean FA had over 1300 coaches for 1092 teams and 800 had some form of FFA Coach Education qualification which is an amazing statistic.
Rankine continued on by saying that it was the influx of fully accredited coaches that has helped with the development of the world game within the Nepean FA area.
“The Nepean FA has a large footprint with over 12000 players, 31 clubs so we had some courses with over 90 people in attendance and some with as few as 5.
“We held them in the freezing cold and the blazing sun as well as rain and fog.
“The consistent theme though was always functional game skills in a safe, fun environment and this was the same from our ALDI MiniRoos all the way through to the Senior Certificate.
“The Nepean FA Board made the commitment a few years ago to make the Nepean FA footballing experience better for all participants and one of the strategies that they believed strongly affects this outcome is coaching and the best ways to make a positive change is to give positive role modelling and also educational opportunities.
“The FFA Community Coach Education program is a great place to start so we set out a plan to encourage people to attend these courses.
“We started with a progressive roll out of the ALDI MiniRoos Certificate and next year will see all our Under 5 to 9’s having this qualification.
“Season 2017 saw the introduction of all Division 1 teams needing to have an appropriately qualified coach appointed to their teams. Failure to do so resulted in those teams being ineligible for competition points until they complied with all 112 Division 1 teams within the Nepean FA now being compliant.
“Courses will again be held for the 2018 season with another round of courses being scheduled for before Christmas and again prior to the season beginning in around April.
“The ALDI MiniRoos Certificate courses will be offered in hubs with all new coaches and any interested parents and family member encouraged to come along as there can never be too many with this important information.”
Rankine has seen this initiative as an important part of improving not just the quality of football, but the enjoyment and longevity within the game for both players and coaches.
“By staying up to date with the latest information and getting support our coaches will not feel as burnt out or as most say at some stage, have nothing else they can offer their team.
“The sessions they provide their players are more engaging and interesting and the players are then more likely to stay involved in the game for longer.
“Everyone wants a more active society and less anti-social behaviour and keeping people involved in sport at all levels can play a big part in achieving these goals so the Nepean FA are playing their small part and are more than happy to do so.”
Nepean FA General Manager Linda Cerone was proud of what the association achieved.
“Eight years ago, Nepean FA Directors and Club Delegates first recognised that one of the best ways to improve the experience of playing football and the skill levels of teams and players was through the coaching they received.
“As an organisation, we’ve worked hard towards implementing small, progressive and vital changes to bring about our current success.
“I’m really proud of the contributions made by all Nepean FA Directors and Staff members to bring about the changes we’ve made to Coach and Player Education with everyone contributing in some way to the overall success.
“We’re looking forward as an organisation to continuing with our best practice focuses in order to keep improving what we offer to all our stakeholders.”
Nepean FA President Frances Refalo echoed Cerone’s statement.
“My fellow Board Members and I have been working hard towards several strategic plans, coach education being one of them. It was agreed that we as an Association wanted to improve the quality of football within our footprint and in turn improve the experience that our stakeholders are having while participating in our sport.
“The organisation is excited about the figures recently released regarding coach education, this would not have been achieved without the hard work of not only the Nepean FA Staff but more importantly the club volunteers, who become the advocates of this initiative.
“It’s been many years of small steps and changes and we are now, especially in our juniors, seeing the results.”
