Soccer Coach Weekly

JF Scarfo is both coach and club manager at Alpha Football Intelligence in London, a grassroots club with the motto ‘Play at pace, attack the space’. During the Covid-19 lockdown, the French-born, Uefa B-licensed coach used his time to watch, review and clip videos of pro games. Now, he uses both these clips, and clips of his team playing, to help his players improve. SCW caught up with JF to talk...

In a 15-year career to date, Ash Civil has coached in more than 10 different countries. Uefa A qualified, Ash made the decision at an early age to coach internationally in order to stand out from the crowd. Currently, he is head coach at Tampereen Pallo-Veikot, a third-tier club in Finland, where he also works alongside the director of coaching and sporting director to develop talent pathways to t...

Having developed a love of the game in the English city of Stoke-on-Trent - birthplace of rock guitarist Slash and pop icon Robbie Williams - an invite to work at a soccer camp led Tim Bradbury to the US. Adding to the qualifications earned in the UK, he went on to gain the USSF A License, USSF National Youth License, USSF DOC License and the USC Master Coach Diploma. Now director of coaching at E...

Brian Murphy wants people in soccer to open up more about their mental health. The Irish-born, Australia-based coach freely admits he had such a bad year in 2019, battling depression amid a turbulent period in charge of New Zealand amateur side Fencibles United, that he tried taking his own life. “I felt like a failure again,” Murphy says, candidly. “I went to a really dark place. I have a beautif...

If you were to walk past a session put on by Billy Ready, chances are you may not see a soccer ball being used. Instead, the 25-year-old has been known to challenge youngsters by throwing a tennis ball, multi-sided reaction ball or even an American football into small-sided games. Billy, the son of former Wales international defender Karl Ready, also reduces complex coaching points into bitesize r...

Jake Brown has been on a journey, in many senses of the well-worn word. He hadn't set out to be a coach - but after taking his first off-field role as kitman of the Scotland women's national team, with his sister Frankie in the team, he now holds the Uefa B licence and has helped a number of young female players become professionals. And Jake has also kept on the move himself, first head...

Since his coaching journey began in 2004, Frank Lopez has built up a wealth of experience in youth soccer, as well as the male and female adult game. He has spent time in London at Barnet FC academy, and at AFC Wimbledon, where has coached in the academy with the women’s first team. Having achieved his A License in 2018, Frank recently moved from London to Brisbane for a second time. He is now the...

The African Coaches League (ACL) was set up in 2020 by Ezirim Kennedy, with the aim of leveraging coaching to lift people on the continent out of poverty. Now, with around 1,500 members, it hopes to solidify its presence and its purpose. An offshoot of the Yagazie Foundation, a charity that "engages and enables the vulnerable, the marginalized and the less privileged teenagers and youth"...

"It's incredible to watch other people thrive through sport, especially football," Sarah Nickless tells me. "it's such a powerful tool." And Nickless sees many benefit from the power of sport in her role as development officer at AoC Sport, an umbrella membership group for colleges in England. Her role centres on developing the next generation of leaders, and she has...

Like many grassroots coaches, Marcus Renzi juggles a couple of roles in the men's and women's game. He is head coach for both Leckhampton Rovers reserves - a men's team playing in a local division in south-west England - and the University of Gloucestershire women's second team. But Marcus faces challenges the vast majority of coaches do not - as he has been a wheelchair user s...

Sarah Lowdon doesn’t do things by halves. When Becky Burleigh - her leader for a number of years at the Florida Gators - announced her retirement, rather than buying her a gift, Sarah wrote her a book about what she had learned from her. Over the years, Sarah has tried to take on as much knowledge as possible in order to have a sustainable career in the game. She has the USSF A License and USC Pre...

Jon Cotterill-Bolsover has performed a variety of different roles in both the men's and women's game. He has been a goalkeeper coach, club chairman, head of performance and development and strength and conditioning coach. Jon has now set up his own firm - World at Her Feet - which works with female players in off-field areas such as performance analysis and sports science. But his specia...

Two years ago this week, Optus Sport named Ben Cahn on a list of 10 coaches 'knocking down the door' for a job in the A-League, Australia's top flight. Last year, at the age of 33, that potential was almost realised as he was narrowly pipped to a vacant post in the division. Englishman Ben is currently in charge of second-tier side Olympic FC but admits he is "guilty of being o...

Not too long ago, Derek Johnston made the leap into coaching full time. The belief he had in himself has been validated - he now works in four different coaching roles in and around Glasgow in Scotland. His current CV reads community outreach coach at Cumbernauld Colts, women’s first- team coach at Stenhousemuir, one-to-one coach at Oliver Performance Academy and soccer academies coach at Scottish...

Sam Hudson has spent almost 10 years as a coach. Roles coaching at camps and clubs in the US, including New Jersey Soccer Group, were followed by time spent at academies in the UK, including Derby County. Now an Academy coach at Aston Villa, Sam has recently published his first book, Football in a Pandemic, an insight into the strategies and tactics used during the 2020- 21 Premier League season....

George Roberts began his coaching journey as a community sports coach, delivering PE sessions, after-school clubs and soccer camps, writes Steph Fairbairn . He worked at development centres and shadowed some coaches at Centres of Excellence, and is now with Plymouth Argyle. He is the under-nines' assistant coach at the English club's academy. UEFA B qualified, George also works as a mark...

Manisha Tailor, assistant head of coaching at English Championship club Queens Park Rangers, has long been convinced of the benefits soccer can have on mental health. When she was 18, Tailor’s twin brother developed depression, then schizophrenia. Football has been one of the ways she has been able to reconnect with him. Through her work as a coach and a former school teacher, Tailor has identifie...

Having played at a semi-professional level in England, Wayne Cleverly moved to Canada aged 26 and developed a career in coaching. Formerly the foundation-phase manager at Calgary Foothills Soccer Club, Wayne now splits his time between his own academy, through which he consults for clubs, coaching the Canada men's national futsal team, and working as a coach developer for Canada Soccer and Al...

Sian Osmond was taken to her first soccer match at six months old. She cried every time her dad's team scored. But tears quickly turned to cheers and by the age of 18 she received the FA Level 2 coaching badge. A further decade on, the 28-year-old has the Uefa A License and is head coach of London Bees, who play in the third tier of the women’s pyramid in England. What started as medical cove...

Hannah Duncan has always started early. At a time when the regulations allowed it, she was playing in senior matches at the age of 14, and took her first steps on the coaching ladder at 17. Now 32, she continues to combine playing and coaching - she took a girls team through from under-11s to under-16s, has taken a representative team to the world-renowned Gothia Cup and is now coaching a boys&apo...

Matt Bee admits first impressions were not on his side when he was given the head coach role of Burnley Women back in 2016, at the age of just 22. Although the team was then in the fifth tier of women's soccer in England, it was still a gamble to appoint someone so young. "I distinctly remember people's faces when I first walked in," he said. "I remember them looking me up...

Tom Hartley spent three years running a player development programme at Arsenal Women before joining the Football Association. He worked on the FA Skills Programme, which encouraged participation for five- to 11-year-olds. After 10 years with the FA, Tom joined UK Coaching, where he is now Coach Programme and Pathway Manager, working alongside 30 coaches across a variety of sports, all of whom coa...

Since leaving school and starting to coach in the community more than 15 years ago, Simon Goodey has built up vast experiences in the game. Having worked at youth-academy level for Colchester, Fulham, Bournemouth and Southampton, Simon’s latest challenge is coaching in Spain - a country he first worked in for a year back in 2015. Now a PE teacher at an English school in Madrid, and a coach at Club...

Rob Atkin’s varied coaching career spans over 30 years. His roles have included football development officer at Newcastle City Council, a coach at Newcastle United academy and head coach of Newcastle United Women. Rob has since returned to the grassroots game, working with the junior teams at Blyth Town FC. As a Football Association coach mentor, coach education is also high up on his list of prio...

Sherlen Lindsay is a foundation-phase coach at Fulham FC, working with the London club's under-nines and under-10s. A UEFA B licenced coach, he previously worked at both the Arsenal and Crystal Palace development centres. His full-time role is supporting the physical education staff at a special educational needs secondary school.  SCW caught up with Sherlen to discuss his passion for the fou...