Coaching and Refereeing Success at SOUL Church
On Thursday 31st October and Friday 1st November, Norfolk FA delivered a coaching workshop and referee course to volunteers at SOUL Church.
The coaching workshop Norfolk FA delivered was the Stepping over the Side-lines project, which is designed to help volunteers recognise their current strengths and how these could be related to coaching and supporting a football session. The programme involved theory based discussion followed by practical observation and delivery.
Nimesh Patel (FA Regional Coach Development Officer D&I) led the delivery of the event supported by Dr Darren Moss (FA Coach Mentor D&I) & James Buhlemann (Norfolk FA Football Delivery Officer - Coaching & Volunteering)
James Buhlemann reflected on the workshop: "This was a fantastic event of be involved in with an inspirational group of people and community church! We are always looking to support the recruitment of new volunteers and help build new volunteers confidence to step over the side-line and help their local grassroots team & community. This particular project has been a great example of Norfolk FA's work to support a more diverse and inclusive volunteer workforce."
Nimesh Patel added: “Firstly, it’s great to show the strong partnership between the County FA and the regional Coach Delivery team. James put me in touch with SOUL Church and that shows how invested Norfolk FA are to improving coaching for historically under-represented people. Secondly, to deliver a stepping over the side-lines event for a church group is the first of its kind in the Country. I was able to work with a cluster of people who thoroughly enjoyed taking their first steps into thinking about coaching. The plan is now to maintain engagement through bespoke mentoring for the cohort and support them through our dedicated coach development group.”
The volunteers involved in this project will now receive tailored mentoring to support the implementation of what they have learnt from this project into their grassroots clubs and communities.
On the Friday, Harvey Newstead (Norfolk FA Football Delivery Officer – Referee Development & Youth Council), delivered an FA Referee Course to 15 participants, which gave the referees the knowledge of their role as a referee and the understanding of the Laws of the Game which involved practical delivery. Level 5 Senior County Referee, Ashley Hickson-Lovence and Chair of the Norfolk FA Inclusion Strategy Advisory Group, Gabby Evbota, also attended the course to deliver talks to the new match officials.
Harvey Newstead said: “It was an inspiring day with an excellent group of new referees. I am looking forwarding to working with them to provide mentoring over the next few months to support them gain their qualification.”
Steadman Noble who is secretary at Soul Church FC said: “With this training for 8 volunteers and 15 referees from black and minority ethnic backgrounds, this will enable us to contribute to the diversity of the game in Norfolk, something Soul Church is very proud of! Crucially, it will also help us to strengthen the Christian League ensuring we are able to have sufficient match officials for our games thereby offering greater religious inclusion for children and families that prefer not to play on a Sunday.
"All in all we are really happy we were able to do this event for Soul Church and I would like to thank Gabby Evbota, James Buhlemann and Harvey Newstead for this amazing opportunity to partner with you at Norfolk County FA.”
To find out more about Coaching in Norfolk, please click here. To find out more about Refereeing in Norfolk, please click here.