The South Coast Flame youth girls’ program coaches have been announced for 2022.

To date, it has been a very successful spell in the Girls Conference League with multiple title wins since the club began competing in the competition.

Technical Director of the youth girls’ program Daniel Naumovski was pleased with the development of the program over the past four years.

“Each year it gets stronger and stronger,” he said.

“We brought in video analysis last year, we brought in a full-time strength and conditioning program to complement the football.

“We are going to add in sports psychology, individual player development plans.”

Lachlan Raymond will coach the under-16s team for next season which will be his fourth season with the club.

Raymond has coached across the Girls Conference League program with the Flame in that time with the  Under-14s, ’15s, and ’17s teams.

See Lachlan’s feature profile here

Eric Tehovnik will oversee the under-15s squad after transitioning from the NPL 2 Youth boys set up at the Flame.

This will be Tehovnik’s first head coaching assignment after previously being involved in an assistant capacity.

Paul Waine will be the coach of the under-14s side for 2022 in his first year with the Flame.

Waine has extensive coaching experience in the NPL program coaching with Western NSW developing many players over the years.

Naumovski emphasised the importance of selecting coaches who buy into the core values of the South Coast Flame model.

He also explained the key role player development had in the program.

“It’s more than just a football coaching licence we look for. It’s the right character, the right person,” he said.

“The end goal is how many players can we have come through our junior systems playing in our first team and how many of those players can we send onto being a young Matilda.”

Piper Cowan was part of the under-17s Girls Conference League squad in 2021 that was on target to win the competition before the cancellation of the season.

Piper received a call up to the Young Matildas training camp squad this year.

See post here

Former Matilda goalkeeper Belinda Barter will be the female goalkeeper coach of the program.

Barter brings national level playing experience and a proven track record of developing young goalkeepers.

Her ability to communicate and critique technique will see our goalkeepers thrive in this environment.

She is a great personality to have around the playing group and she always works well with the head coaches to deliver purposeful and game realistic sessions.

South Coast Flame are also happy to announce the Girls Skills Acquisition Program Coaching Team for next year.

Mick Southwell is the technical director of the program who has been involved with the club since 2014.

Southwell explained that striking the ball, first touch, one-on-one skills and running with the ball are the four key elements of the program.

“They tell us that’s about 95% of the game,” he said.

“It’s just wonderful to see girls come into the program that want to learn and want to improve.

“They just love the environment, and they love to see how each other are improving.”

Nathan Gough will coach the under-13s team in his first year with the club.

Gough is a passionate individual who has experience coaching with the Sydney FC Skills Training Programs and Holiday Camps.

The under-12s will be coached by Jarrod Pollard who is heading into his fifth season with the Flame.

Southwell has been pleased with the progress Pollard has been showing in the program and believed the players he has been coaching have come in leaps and bounds.

“As a developing young coach, he’s become very mature, speaks very well to the girls, encourages them no end,” he said.

Southwell will coach the under-11s team in addition to his role as the technical director.

Libby Loveday has been involved with the Flame from the beginning and in 2022 will be the under-10s coach.

Loveday has experience coaching at the grassroots level as well as playing within the Girls Conference League set up at the Flame.

We wish the coaches of all programs in 2022 the very best of luck.