Twenty-four participants, both male and female, from registered clubs and the local football community spent five days learning from FIFA instructor and OFC women’s football development officer Nicola Demaine.
Football Federation Samoa (FFS) CEO Sarai Bareman opened the course with some inspiring remarks directed at the participants.
“Samoan people have an incredible natural athletic ability. As coaches, you have the ability to make a huge impact on young athletes and children with these natural abilities,” Bareman said.
“With the right coach, players can go a long way in football. The quality of their coach and the training sessions they participate in makes all the difference.”
She said coaching a team is one of the most challenging, yet rewarding tasks that can be undertaken beacuse the coach has the opportunity to create a postive environment where players can develop a love of the game and teach new skills.
“Like the players, a coach cannot be successful if they are not trained mentally and physically on how to deliver their sport.”
Bareman added that it was nice to see some new faces taking part in the course who can go back to their respective clubs to share what they have learned.
The course has the long term goal of coaches who are well equipped with the knowledge, skills and experience to develop the players of tomorrow.
Demaine was very pleased with what she saw throughout the course, especially during the final day where the coaches ran practical sessions during a festival with 60 girls, aged six-seven years old, from a local school in attendance.
“It went really well. I saw some confident coaches emerging who were all keen to have a go and did some good work work in terms of coaching tactics and running exercises,” Demaine said.
The FIFA Women’s Coaching Course ran from Monday, 2 September through to Friday, 6 September with a Girl’s Festival rounding out the week’s activities.
For more on Samoan football go to www.footballsamoa.ws

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