We spoke with Stef Loucaides, FA Grassroots Womens’ Game Coach of the Year, as he prepares to make history by taking Kingstonians into open-age women’s football.
SK: Tell us about your interest in football and your history in the game, when and how did you get into coaching?
SL: I’m a long-term fan of the game primarily, a North London boy so follow Liverpool! (but with one eye on Tottenham). I played at Edgware Town in the early 80’s (Isthmian League) until injury ended any serious competitive progress. I would still be playing if I could! I’ve been coaching for about 12 years now, starting as many coaches in grassroots do volunteering for my son’s team. Because of my passion for the game I wanted to continue coaching after he gave up playing – so it continued culminating in my recent award as FA National Coach of the Year for the Grassroots Women’s Game. A huge suprise but a massive honour and hopefully something that will help me spread the word about ladies football.
SK: How did you link up with Kingstonians?
SL: About 5 years ago I decided that I would like to see what it would be like to work with Girls/Ladies and whether it would be different to the intensity of Boys’/Men’s game. I spent some time with Wandgas Ladies and had a great time working with them. I enjoyed the willingness to learn, to take on new ideas and the technical nature of the football, all of which combined to make developing female players and the team a much more rewarding process than my previous experience in the men’s game. I moved to Kingstonian after the U-15s’ management team advertised for a coach who might be able to push them on a bit. It sounded like a nice challenge and I found a great squad of players there showing a lot of potential, so it was an easy decision. From nowhere we made the Surrey County Cup final in the next two years and made consecutive top three/four finishes in the next three seasons, whilst being genuine title challengers in each of those.
SK: What advice / encouragement would you give to any females looking to get into coaching?
SL: In terms of ability to perform a role, it makes no difference whether you are male or female or whether you have played the game or not and there is nothing holding back anybody wishing to get into coaching. We are desperate for coaches and it is important that we get more female coaches involved. Empathy, understanding, motivation and the fact is that those qualities can be exhibited equally by women as well as men. There are many clubs looking for coaches who would be willing to help with qualifications so again, approach your local clubs and make yourself available. Kingstonian recently partnered with a local club making a big push in the girls’ game, who offered any of our U-18s an opportunity for free L1 and YM1 courses if they would commit to working with some of their young female players on a Saturday. It is these kind of opportunities that are now on offer to girls wishing to get into coaching.
I was recently contacted by an ex-Wandgas Ladies player of mine looking to get into coaching. I had no qualms about getting her down to the training ground and immediately introducing her to the U-10s. It’s a great age to get involved with, with less pressure and expectation than an established older team and it being an U-10 girls team was a win/win – the girls were excited to work with a female coach and the coach felt comfortable with the size of the group. I’d say ‘just go for it’ and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. It’s most important at grassroots to be looking to encouraging your players to have a good time whilst they are developing.
SK: What are your hopes and expectations for next season?
SL: We have a very exciting season ahead of us as the first Kingstonian Ladies squad. We are making history just by existing and that’s something that I am hugely proud of. It’s been hard work to get this far so to get the group together and start the first session in pre-season will be a massive milestone. The girls will know that they are representing a club with a long tradition and with the focus even more on ladies football will bring with it added pressure to perform. But we start the season with a really exciting squad to which we have added a number of key signings, so I think we will make ourselves proud with whatever we achieve. We are ambitious, so a trophy would be nice and I believe that this squad can achieve that. Ultimately I would like to continue playing the fast, counter-attacking brand of football that we do play, to prove how exciting ladies football can be and if we can attract a few spectators on the way, then that will be an added bonus.
SHE KICKS – the online community for women’s football
