Young People Stephen Watson (left) and Christopher Haliday (right) demonstrate their football coaching skills to Chris Lyttle MLA (inside right) and Terence Brannigan, Chairman of Glentoran and board member of The Prince’s Trust (inside left) after participating in The Prince’s Trust ‘Get Started with Football’ programme
Eleven young people got the opportunity to take their first step onto the coaching ladder by participating in The Prince’s Trust ‘Get Started with Football’ programme at the Oval, Belfast (Monday 25 – Friday 29 July 2011).
The week long programme - delivered by the Glentoran ‘Our Club, Our Community’ Programme - aims to give young people the skills and confidence to move into coaching grassroots football by guiding them through the Irish FA’s ‘Grassroots Introductory Award’ and an extensive training course on the fundamentals of coaching.
The young people also got the opportunity to undertake various awareness courses associated with grassroots football including the Irish FA’s ‘Safeguarding Children and Young People in Football’ and FASA’s ‘Give Drugs the Red Card’ Campaign.
In addition to learning new football coaching skills the young people also developed a number of essential skills, including communication, teamwork, planning and time-management.
One of the participants, Stephen from East Belfast, said; “I have really enjoyed my week at Glentoran. I am a big Glentoran supporter and the chance to participate in the programme and learn the basics of football coaching was a great experience. I learned so much, made some new friends and now I am really keen to get more involved in coaching at my local football club.”
Christopher, also from East Belfast, said: “I thought the programme was really interesting and enjoyable. I have never coached anyone before, but it was great to get involved and learn new skills. I would definitely be interested in developing my coaching skills and volunteering to help coach children at a local team or youth club.
Ian Jeffers, Director of The Prince’s Trust in Northern Ireland, said: “This programme proves that with a bit of support and encouragement young people can achieve their aspirations and with our continued mentoring we will help each of these young people into training and education opportunities over the coming weeks. A big thank you to Glentoran’s ‘Our Club, Our Community’ programme and for all the team that have delivered this very successful programme, the model we have developed here can be rolled out to any club in the Province.”
To celebrate the achievements of the young people they got the opportunity to play an exhibition match at the Oval against a Prince’s Trust Select XI that included Chris Lyttle MLA and former Glentoran player Chris Walker. The Young People won the match 2-1.