Football NSW hosts Youth Female Coach Development Program

a group of people posing for a photo

During these school holidays, Football NSW played host to 18 players from the Girls Youth League One and Girls Youth League Two competitions, offering these 13-to-18-year-old participants from across the competition the opportunity to gain their Foundation of Football coaching qualifications in a more comfortable environment amongst like-aged and minded individuals.

“The Youth Female Coach Development Program (YFCDP) encourages young female players to take their first steps into coaching,” explained Legacy Plan Development Officer: Coach Education program lead, Pete Nowakowski.

“It is great to have players from Gladesville Ravens, Sutherland Strikers, Manly United, Marconi Stallions, Sydney Uni, and Hills United attend the session. Opportunities like this allows young players to give back to their local associations and junior club programs and develop life skills such as organisation, time management, communication, and reflection.”

“I’ve done some coaching with our GSAP teams before, but didn’t know how to set up a session properly. This course gave me some great ideas on the structure of a training session to help it flow from one activity to the next,” said one participant during the course.

“It was great to see how easy small changes to games can make a big difference to keep it buzzing,” explained another participant on the course.

“You can’t be what you can’t see,” exclaimed Football NSW Coach Education Tutor, Amy Shepherd. “If we want to see more women at the top level coaching, it starts here at this level with these young girls today. Getting the right opportunities to start developing their coaching voices and personality is key and will open up more doors for these players and coaches moving forward to be successful.”

The Youth Female Coach Development Program is supported by the NSW Government’s Her Sport Her Way and Legacy Program. For more information on Coach Development, click here: https://footballnsw.com.au/coach-hub/