Thanks to some substantial funding from the Local Network Fund and the Football Foundation, Sale United has been able to embark upon a project to allow its volunteer coaching staff the opportunity to enhance their level of coaching qualification, without a cost to them.

Firstly, many of our volunteers needed to upgrade their basic qualification from the Junior Team Manager’s award which the Football Association had deemed to be no longer “fit for purpose”, to the FA Level 1 Coach award. The biggest difference in the new award is that candidates get a chance to see a Football Coach demonstrate a number of simple exercises where the emphasis is placed on the game itself “being the teacher” rather than actual coaching.

Candidates are asked to deliver one of these exercises to demonstrate that they are capable of setting up and managing safe practices for young prospective footballers.

Angela Cullen receiving Traffords Coach of the Year 2004 Award

In the late summer, seventeen of our coaches undertook to upgrade their award in this way.
Others have done this at different times over the past couple of years since the project began.

Whilst none of our volunteer coaches are obligated to further their training, it is always encouraged by the Club, as we believe the benefits can only be good for the junior players at the Club.

Since the project started we have seen three of our staff progress to their Level 2 Coaching Certificate. These are Stewart Heywood, Angela Cullen and Brendan McPhillips. The Level 2 award introduces specific coaching topics including technique and game play in a 6 v 6 situation. As part of this award candidates have to produce a coaching log of sessions completed over a period of a few months.

Stewart Heywood has taken this one stage further by becoming the Club’s first member to gain his Level 3 FA Coaching Licence, through the funding received. He now joins two other Club members who have already attained this level; Stewart Hamer and Tom Moroney.
Again, the Level 3 award is a progression of the Level 2 award introducing more players to the game scenarios.

Sale United representatives meet Trevor Brooking

Stewart met Sir Trevor Brooking, the FAs Director of Football Development at a recent FA conference and was personally congratulated by Trevor for being amongst an elite band of coaches in the UK, who have been successful in gaining their Level 2 and Level 3 at the first time of asking.

Our success at developing young coaches has meant that in the Summers of 2004 and 2005, Sale United has been able to run a Summer Soccer School aimed at the entire community, not just Sale United players. This is just one of the many benefits brought about by our coach education project.

The calibre of Sale United coaches has also been recognised by the Trafford Sports Development Unit in that they have awarded Coach of the Year to a Sale United coach for two years running. Continuing from the success of Angela Cullen last year, Stewart Heywood has been honoured with the award this year.

Stewart Heywood being presented with his certificate for Trafford Coach of the Year 2005 by Daniel Newhall and Steve Hayes

Stewart Heywood is now the Club’s Head Coach, and in liaison with Stewart Hamer is now working on a new coaching strategy which will be implemented on a phased basis over the next ten years . It has already been implemented at the lower end of our junior membership.

There are two main factors that have brought about the success of our coach education project:-

1) The funding gained from the Local Network Fund and the Football Foundation; without which we could not have made so much progress in such a short time.

2) The dedication and commitment of our volunteer coaching staff, who have all given up many hours of their free time to enhance their coaching expertise, for the benefit of our membership.