Football NSW C License Course

In early February, Football NSW hosted a central C License specifically targeted at regional coaches. Holding a week long, live-in course provided an alternative avenue for coaches from rural areas to access the first step on the advanced coaching pathway at a heavily subsidised cost. The course also provided Football NSW with the opportunity to upskill three aspiring presenters from our regional areas:

• Andrew Fearnley (Western Branch)
• Nick D’Amore (Highlands FA, Southern Branch)
• Liam Dedini (Football Wagga Wagga, Riverina Branch)

The course was presented by Jimmy Van Weeren of Sydney FC and at the time of writing, both Andrew and Nick have been approved to deliver courses as official presenters of the FFA C License.

Overall, feedback from the course was overwhelmingly positive, with Andrew and Nick both noting that the environment was incredibly collaborative, with coaches from all across the state enthusiastic to not only learn from the presenters but also from each other and compare similarities between their environments despite (in some cases) having nearly 500km separating them!

Andrew Fearnley of Western Branch said “It was a good experience for like-minded coaches to share the challenges that they’ve had and given their shared regional background it had that much more impact. The fact it was live-in also enable them to work together more than if it was a traditional course. All the candidates were exceptionally positive and receptive and will hopefully be able to share what they’ve learned and the coaching philosophies that they have been exposed and developed with other regional coaches and players.”

Nick noted that “having the course held over a week and all the candidates in camp provided a strong learning environment where all candidates were able to share their learning, problems and problem-solving methods. It also alleviated the issues of candidates missing the odd module when courses are spread out over multiple weekends”.

As many candidates intimated; “The course was positive because I got to meet people from other areas who experience the same issues that I do and we now have a lot of the tools to go back to our areas and help others.”

Most pleasing of all, there were five young women on the course which is far higher than the standard number of coaches and as Andrew said, “it was pleasing to see a higher percentage of females on the course than usual and hopefully they encourage other females to get involved in coaching and undertake further development”.

Thanks to FFA for special dispensation in allowing Football NSW to run a central course and to Jimmy Van Weeren for presenting the course.

The list of coaches and their Associations are below: