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Third Year of We Are Coaches Kicks Off Nationally with a Huge Success in Newfoundland and Labrador

More than 70 women sign up for a soccer coaching clinic in St. John’s
Increasing the number of women coaches at the community level benefits participants, parents, and sports organizations

Ottawa, May 28, 2007 – The Coaching Association of Canada (CAC) kicks off the third year of its We are coaches program in cooperation with the Canadian Soccer Association, Softball Canada, and Hockey Canada. By the end of the third year, CAC expects 18 new communities to join the program bringing the total to 44 organizations. Designed to encourage more women to take community coach training and become coaches at the community level, the program has grown and spread during its first two years and will be even bigger in 2007-08.

The St. John’s Soccer Association is a dramatic example of the program’s success. With a week to go before the June 2 clinic, more than 70 women had signed up to take the one-day community coach training program providing the basics of the rules of the game, simple drills to keep kids active while teaching them skills, safety issues, and ethics.

Brian Murphy, the senior administrator and organizer of the clinic attributes his success to “the popularity of soccer, the community spirit in St. John’s, and a network of people who got the word out faster than any e-mail promotion that I could have set up.” Participants in his programs range in age from 9 to 57 years of age and the 64 teams are almost equally split between males and females. “Newfoundland and Labrador soccer is booming.” With that comes the need for more coaches, says Murphy who added that local stores are also supporting the clinic by providing free coffee and doughnuts for the breaks.

“The normal clinic size is in the high teens or low 20s, so the success of St. John’s is worth noting” said Sheilagh Croxon, consultant for CAC’s Women in Coaching program, of which We are coaches is the grassroots component.

Throughout the spring, 22 coach training courses specifically for women are occurring in hockey, soccer, and softball. For a complete list of the current communities participating in the We are coaches program please visit www.coach.ca/wearecoaches/communities/index.cfm.

“Demographics is destiny” says Croxon. “More women are taking part in sports on women’s-only or mixed teams and it is appropriate to provide women coaches as role models and balance. Beyond that, there is a practical limit to the number of men who are able and willing to coach. If we don’t recruit more women, there won’t be enough coaches.”

More than 95 percent of an estimated 1.2 million coaches in Canada coach at the community sport level. While the number of female participants in sport is growing significantly, it is estimated that less than five percent of the coaches in these three sports are women.

When community level coaches put enjoyment and safety ahead of winning they can have a great influence on kids participating in the sport. The idea is to provide enough reinforcement so that the kids want to continue to be active. Whether coaches have the skills of a seasoned athlete or a novice, NCCP community sport coach training will supply them with the basic knowledge and skills to help them be great coaches.

This program is funded by Sport Canada and is supported by national, provincial, and territorial sport partners.

About the Coaching Association of Canada.

CAC is a not-for-profit amateur sport organization with the mandate to improve the effectiveness of coaching across all sports and at all levels of the sport system. Visit www.coach.ca for more information about coach education and training.

The Women in Coaching program is a national campaign to increase the number of coaching opportunities for women at all levels of sport. Since 1987, women coaches across Canada have benefited from professional development grants, National Team Apprenticeship Program grants, Best Practices grants, and National Coaching Institute scholarships. The program also develops resources for women coaches including the Canadian Journal for Women in Coaching.

We are coaches is a specific project of the Women in Coaching program aimed at increasing the number of women coaches specifically at the community sport level.

The NCCP is a training and certification program for coaches, in both official languages across Canada in 66 sports. The program meets the needs of a wide range of coaches – from those who introduce youngsters to sport to those who work with Canada's high performance athletes. Since its inception in the mid-70s, more than one million coaches have participated in the program, which is designed to develop the skills, knowledge, and attitudes required to coach effectively.
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