Football Federation Australia (FFA) recently released its Strategic Plan for 2016-19 and one of the four key principals established is focused towards FFA being the ‘leading organisation for females in sport’.
With this strategic principal in mind, FFA for a second year, will be delivering the Female Coach Mentor Program for six aspiring coaches in the women’s game.
The program has been established to provide more exposure to high performance environments for the selected female coaches as well as increase the pool of female coaches with the experience and knowledge necessary to coach at the highest level. All coaches must have completed a FFA/AFC ‘C’ License or higher to be eligible.
From the eligible applicants, FFA is proud to announce that the following coaches will undertake the six month program in 2016:
- Aroon Clansey (ACT)
- Nicola Williams (WA)
- Linda Khamis (NSW)
- Melissa Barbieri (VIC)
- Kat Smith (VIC)
- Kate Cohen (NSW)
Emma Highwood, FFA Head of Football Development, Community and Women’s Football is looking forward to seeing the fruits of the second year of the program after a successful first year.
“Although the program is only in its second year, we have seen a lot of success from the coaches who went through the program in the last year, with the majority of those now head coaches in either the PS4 Women’s NPL or Westfield W-league and one involved in club development overseas," said Highwood.
"Further to this, two coaches from last year’s program (Leah Blayney and Mel Andreatta) have been selected to assist the Westfield Matildas at the 2016 Rio Olympics with technical analysis, which speaks volumes to the opportunities that can arise from being part of the program.
“We are now looking forward to helping the next six participants on their journeys as coaches and seeing how they develop in the next six months.”
Throughout the program, the coaches will receive high performance profiling through the Australian Institute of Sport, access to high level training sessions with National Teams and receive hands on support and guidance through a mentor program.
For information on a range of available coaching courses and resources click here.