Irish Football Coaches Take Another Leap Forward
On the weekend of August 28th to 30th the Irish American Football Coaches Association (IAFCA) hosted the second IAFCA Annual Coaching Convention at the Camden Court Hotel in Dublin, Ireland.
Five top coaches from the British American Football Coaches Association travelled over from Scotland and England to provide football lectures and coaching qualifications to over 110 of Ireland’s coaches over the 3 day period. The convention also provided the opportunity for Darrin O’Toole and Mark Lawless to become the first IAFCA coaches qualified to deliver the BAFCA Level 1 qualification, which the IAFCA has adopted as part of its own coach education programme.
Darrin O’Toole, Technical Director of IAFCA, stated, “This year was a huge step forward in the development of Irish football through the development of our coaches. Our coaches have now committed to a process of self-improvement which can only be seen as the way forward for our sport overall.”
At the black-tie dinner on Saturday evening, held at the Iveagh Restaurant, Coach Andrew Dennehy of the Dublin Rebels received the 2009 IAFCA Coach of the Year award. President of BAFCA, Jim Messenger, and Coach Riq Ayub, Head coach of the Great Britain National Team, were both presented with special achievement awards by IAFCA to acknowledge their role in the development of the Irish coaches association.
Jim Messenger said; “I was again extremely impressed with the quality of the event and the enthusiasm of all the IAFCA coaches. We have built a strong friendship both at association and at the personal level and it was a real pleasure to work with our fiends in Ireland again.” He continued; “The IAFCA has a nucleus of coaches with a real passion to drive their game forward and I have seen the strides they have made over the last three years. I am very pleased they are now in a position to begin developing and delivering their own coach education programme. Adoption of the BAFCA model will give IAFCA a flying start and help both associations to share good practice in the future.”
The convention saw twenty-seven new coaches qualify at level one and twenty-four senior coaches complete Level 2 accreditation. Building on this event, the IAFCA now plan to run a seminar in November 2009 for new coaches to attain Level 1 certification. The event will also feature a lecture session from special guest Paul-Vincent Miraval, EFAF Director of Coaching.
