Emily Husband passing on her passion for football
Sydney University Soccer Football Club’s First Team Head Coach, Emily Husband, is a recent recipient of the NSW Football Legacy A Licence Scholarship and was also named the NSW NPL Women’s Coach of the Year in 2022.
Her coaching career is set to go to new heights in 2023 after being announced as the Head Coach for the Central Coast Mariners’ A-League Women’s team for the 2023/24 season.
Passing on the passion for football is Emily’s core ethos and is at the heart of all that she does. Her recent awards have made her realise that her end goal is to “continue my little journey to be the best coach that I can be for myself and for my players. I work hard and I’m surrounded by people who have constantly put their faith in me, and events such as winning the A Licence Scholarship and Women’s Coach of the Year come as a by-product of that”.
“You don’t grow without challenges”, says Husband. The scholarship is a fantastic step in Husband’s coaching career, and she hopes it will continue to push her to leave a legacy of her own.
Football is in Husband’s nature
Husband’s coaching career has been immensely successful and rewarding. Starting off her career in the UK, she has since coached across the globe in the US, Fiji, across Africa and Europe, and has now made her home coaching at Sydney University.
When asked why she chose and keeps choosing football, Husband says that “growing up in England, you have a passion for the game that is naturally embedded in you. The opportunities I’ve been presented with so far, from coaching across the globe, grew my desire to stay in the game.”
The women’s game is changing
The state of football is vastly different from how it used to be a decade ago. When asked why Husband chose to go down the route of coaching instead of continuing to play, she says, “I was at a point where I was playing football semi-professionally whilst coaching at the same time. I saw a brighter career in coaching where the women’s football game was at the time. Women’s games weren’t as well funded as they are now”.
Since coming to Australia, Husband has witnessed an increase in clubs seeking female coaches for female teams, “seeing the number of female participants and coaches compared to what there were 6-7 years ago, shows how big the game is growing and I love being a part of it.”
On watching her players grow
Husband has coached girls and women of all ages, and thinks that being a part of the player’s development, helping them reach their full potential, and knowing you were there at the start of their journey is one of the most rewarding aspects of coaching, “watching them have that ‘lightbulb moment’ on something they’ve worked on for months is great to see”, says Husband.
Husband’s goal for the next year is to keep on passing the passion of football, “I want to help Sydney University grow and continue to be the best women’s football program. I’m not a planner of the future, I want to continue with them because when you focus on the here and now, everything falls in your path”, says Husband.
Husband’s story is the first in a series of highlights that will continue to grow as a result of the NSW Football Legacy Plan’s Women in Football Scholarship program. Football NSW will place special emphasis on recognising female leaders through a range of capability-building programs designed to educate and support female coaches, referees, football administrators, and volunteers in order to further develop and improve the landscape of female football as a long-term plan following the FIFA Women’s World Cup in July 2023.
