What a great start it was to our coaching careers, when we got the chance to coach the under 13 West Hampton Rovers side. We knew we had a fantastic opportunity of having a great year filled with great fun and memories when we took on the job. It was a new experience for us as coaches and for the players to have young senior players coaching them instead of parents. As we all know, we did have the perfect season by beating East Brighton in the Grand Final, however it wasnt as easy as it looked. At the start of the season the boys were still trying to find their feet, and we as coaches were still trying to figure out how it all worked.
For the first half of the season we never really had a full strength side in, but this gave a wonderful opportunity to all players to step up when needed. The turning point in the season was when we gave the players a players review, in which we concentrated on what each player is valued for as a team member. We had a few pointers as coaches on what we thought they could work on to become better players. We monitored this as coaches and we saw in every player improvements in many areas, whether it was tackling, talking or even 3rd and 4th efforts. This created the boys to become better players, and we are confident this will continue through to 2011. This showed through into the final series as it all clicked together. Every single player did their part which eventually ended up with us becoming the Premiers of the under 13 West.
This season consisted of many great memories some of which are:
- An undefeated 2nd half of the season
- Some awesome goals to both Decs and Matty
- The turning point of the season with a close win against Oakleigh and Lloyd sneaking a few crucial goals at the end
- The great plays that consisted of the ball going from one end of the ground to the other without the opposition getting their hands on it, which showed the class of the team we have.
- And who could forget that amazing team effort with 22 contributors in the Grand Final win over East Brighton who had beaten us twice during the year, but we did it when it mostly counted.
This year could never have been as successful as it was without the help from all the parents. You have made our job as coaches so much easier and we thank you for all your help, and I hope to see you ready for 2011.
This year hopefully has been a year where the boys have learnt some of the skills and leadership that we as coaches have been given through our years of being involved at Hampton Rovers. We believe that every player has the ability to become a great player at Hampton Rovers and that there will be many more years of success. We as coaches have become really good friends with our bunch of kids and are looking forward to 2011 as we go up to the top division where we will have more memories and even better times, and you never know, we could even go BACK to BACK.
SEE YOU IN 2011!
EDDIE TURNER & JESSE LOVIG
U13 WEST COACHES
