Hi all,

Karlos here! This is my first post so please excuse any bad grammer or my dodgy writing style!

I'm a 25 year old native of the Republic of Ireland and I'm moving to Toronto for a year in October 2005. In Ireland I work in administration but my real passion is coaching soccer. I'm a registered coach with the Football Assocation of Ireland, The English Football Association and also the NSCAA in North America. I'm hoping that when I come to Toronto in October, I'll be able to get involved in the local soccer scene in some capacity at any age group.

I coached in Boston, Massachusetts back in 2003 and it's probably been my most enjoyable coaching experience so far. I believe it was great for me and also the team I was involved with to be working with someone from a different country with different ideas and philosophies on the beautiful game.

I've a couple of months before moving to Toronto so I intend to get involved on this forum to make some new friends in your soccer scene. I look forward to getting to know some more of you online and sharing our footballing knowledge and experiences and would love to contribute some articles on the soccer scene here in Ireland if anyone is interested. I noticed the picture gallery also and have a lot of photos that I may upload at a later date


Take care

Karlos

Last edited by Karlos on Tue Feb 07, 2006 3:54 pm; edited 1 time in total

Hi all,

I'm now settled in the Toronto area for the last number of months and am now looking to get invloved with coaching a local team that's TTC accessible as soon as possible.

Below is bit more information about myself. I'd be interested in any paid or volunteer positions out there.......but ultimately i just want to get back coaching as soon as possible so please feel free to contact me here. I'm not just looking for Head Coach roles, I'l be happy helping someone out in a assistant or staff coach role too.

Here's a little more background information about myself....

I've been coaching for about 5 years now - 3 years as a semi-qualified coach (working towards UEFA certification). Currently I hold qualifications in coaching & psychology with the FAIreland & the English FA. I am also an active member of the FA Coahes Organisation and the National Soccer Coaches Assocation of America. I am learning all the time with my coaching experience being a key part of that. I've coached at a wide variety of age groups over the last age. I've spent 2 years coaching U-12 & U-13, then 2 years with a Senior Team in Dublin. In between all that I spent 3 months coaching in Massachusetts, USA..

I still haven't really made up my mind on what aspect of coaching I prefer - Adult or Kids as both intrigue me. I really enjoy the development work with kids and it's great to see improvement in kids without having to worry about results. There's plently of fun and enjoyment in the coaching and it's rewarding knowing that your helping to put someone in love with the game - even if it only means that when they are in their 30's they still love a kick about with the lads. A tricky aspect of all that is convincing parents that winning 20 medals when your 10 or 11 isn't necessarily going to make you a better player and herein lies the main problem with youth football. It's amazing how people still think we need to coach kids to win. Play hide and seek with a 3 year old and he'll want to win - there's never any need to coach winning, not in my eyes anyway!

On the opposite side, I throughly enjoy the adult amatuer game as I really feel a coach can make a difference to a amatur team. Many teams in the amatuer game play the same system right through the league and get by on physical rather than technical brilliance. Coaching to win is definetly a different game but one that brings good satisfaction when you can bring something new to the table that helps get results. Just even spending time on set pieces in Amatuer Football can make all the differnence and it's a great learning ground as players will constantly question why you want to play in this formation or why you want the ball wide instead of long. You get challenged a lot and I enjoy that aspect of it.

I suppose a happy medium for me would be around the U-16 - U-18 age where playing to win becomes important in the development process. It combines those two aspects that really drive me - performance and winning.

The one area i am interested in gaining experience in, coaching wise is Women's football. I find the game really intriguing especially after watching the Canadian U-18 team in a match in 2003. The Technical level was truely astonding and the speed of the game was surprisingly fast when watched from the sideline. It's definetly on my to-do list to get a better understanding of the women's game.

Hello Karlos,

I am not looking for coach sorry, but i play gaelic football in toronto
and would like to know if you would be interested in play you can check out our team on our website.

http://www.togaels.homestead.com/Home.html.

regards

Rory

Karlos why dont you go here http://www.cpsl.ca/ and click on teams then Toronto Supra. They are looking for coaches for summer. Hopefully they still need someone.

thanks for all the help lads but sadly still no joy in even finding a team in my locality (Queen & Bathurst Area).

I'm still looking aound though and hopefully there's a team out there who could do with a bit of coaching. Just looking to keep my football brain ticking over for the summer evenings and weekends. The search continues...