FA coach mentors Steve Smithies and Steve Pritchard delivered a coaching course for 16 BAME candidates in Nottingham last week with the help of former Notts County, Derby, and Birmingham star, Michael Johnson and community leader, Idris Mohammed.
The Level One coaching course, part of ongoing activity to help diversify the coaching workforce, was run via the FA Coach Mentor programme.
Pritchard, FA regional coach mentor for the East Midlands and Smithies, who covers the South East region, worked with Jody Caudwell at Notts FA, and Colin King from the Black and Asian Coaches Association.
Johnson, also a former Jamaica international, was impressed with the turnout and enthusiasm of everyone involved:
“Kids need role models and the more that we can do to encourage coaching courses like this across Nottingham the better and I am delighted to be supporting the activity," he said.
Pritchard added: “It has been fantastic to pull together the resources of The FA, the Black and Asian Coaches Association, and Notts FA to deliver this programme.
“Working closely together we are able to engage with more people and create role models, both male and female, that will in turn provide greater opportunities to the communities that historically football hasn’t been able to reach out to.
“Plans are already in place for the coaches from the course to deliver coaching session at the Embankment during the summer and it is hoped that an Asian Football Club will be based at Unity Casuals Cricket Club in the not too distant future.
“This coaching course would not have been possible without the support and drive of the local Asian community who have been instrumental in wanting to create opportunities for football and Unity Casuals Cricket Club has made this possible with the free use of the facilities.”
