Twenty nine FAI staff have graduated as Coach Developers/Coach Developers Assessors through a Sports Ireland educational initiative.

This event at the Sports Pavilion at University Limerick also marked the first time that Sport Ireland Coaching, as a QQI service provider, awarded the Certificate in Sports Coach Development.

The graduation marks a first for the FAI who, for the last 14 months, have been upskilling their full-time coach education staff as Coach Developers. 

The largest cohort of people graduated on the night came from the FAI with 29 Coach Developers and two FAI auxiliary coaches graduating with the QQI award, there were also 14 staff who graduated as Coach Developer Assessors.

The partnership is part of an ongoing project between Sport Ireland Coaching and the FAI to train up more than 80 staff as Coach Developers in the next 12 to 18 months. 

Sport Ireland Coaching Director Michael McGeehin said: “Keeping up with international best practice, in 2014, Sport Ireland Coaching introduced the concept of Coach Developer and Coach Assessor to the Irish Sports system with the first CD course delivered in 2015. Since then, 83 Coach Developer Courses have been delivered along with 15 Coach Developer Assessor courses, not only all over Ireland but also internationally.  

“This graduation not only celebrates the hard work of those graduating, but it also recognises the support and sacrifice of their partners, families and friends, and is an opportunity to say thank you to them.”   

In total, 56 Coach Developers and Coach Developer Assessors from an array of sports around the country graduated.

Sport Ireland Chief Executive Dr. Úna May added: "The graduation of 56 Coach Developers and Coach Developer Assessors across 21 counties is a reflection of the excellent work being carried out by Sport Ireland Coaching. The graduation marked a number of firsts as well as recognising the hard work, commitment and passion of our coaches, and crucially supporting their development and with that the development of their respective sports."

There were 12 female recipients on the night and the first female FAI Coach Developer, Aoibh Hall graduated with the QQI Certificate in Sports Coach Development award. The Head of Education and Development in the FAI, Niall O’Regan, also graduated on the night. He said: “I have an ethos of lifelong learning.

“We had an amazing experience of working with Hayley Harrison from Sport Ireland. It's all about learning and every opportunity you get to challenge yourself is great, and coming back into education, and getting to work and meet with your peers and colleagues is always great.   

“The Sport Ireland Coach Developer course is something I'd recommend to every NGB to do because it's not just beneficial in terms of a qualification, it's beneficial in terms of the environment it creates among the staff, and it's about bringing the best quality coach development to all of our coaches.   

“The main thing I took away from the course was to create the most enjoyable experience you can for people, if people are having fun they're going to learn and that's one of the most important things Hayley did with us all.  

“For us in the FAI what we want to do is ensure that we are providing the best learning environment and the best experience for our coaches, so when Sport Ireland informed us that the QQI developer had now been recognised in an academic sense - it's something that's world leading because it doesn’t exist in any other training that we've done in the past.   

“So having our Coach Developers not only going through a sport specific Coach Developer programme, but also having them get an academic qualification and credits along with that has actually encouraged a number of the staff who are very experienced in their years to actually go back to education. Because they've now started to realise that they don't have to have a fear of education.   

“The experience of doing the course assignments and understanding the way it would be assessed in a university setting has been amazing so it really has been life changing in terms of the way we are going to approach coach development.”  

FAI Director of Football Marc Canham added: “Education is a huge part of the development of a Coach. It is excellent to see so many of the FAI’s coach educators enhancing their knowledge with Sport Ireland’s Certificate in Sports Coach Development and this can only raise the standards of coaching within our game. I congratulate all those who graduated.”

FAI’s Sports Ireland Coaching Developers Graduates

Niall O’Regan

Jason O’Connor

Jason Donohue

Keith O’Halloran

Richard Fitzgibbon

Rob Sweeney

Mark Connors

Orla Haran

Aoibh Hall

Glen Byrne

Adrian Carberry

Paul Martyn

JJ Glynn

Graham Kane

Damon Kearney

Garry Coady

Thomas Heffernan

William Kinsella

Barry McGann

Danny O'Leary

Martin Doyle

Tommy Carberry

Ian Hill

William Doyle

Tom O'Connor

Ross Kenny

John Cotter

Darren Aherne

Brian Dorrian

FAI’s Sports Ireland Coaching Developers Assessors Graduates

Niall O’Regan

Richie Fitzgibbon

Tom O’Connor

Brian Dorrian

Gerard Glynn

Tommy Carberry

Aoibh Hall

Jason Donohue

Darren Aherne

Will Doyle

Rob Sweeney

Mark Connors

Ross Kenny

John Cotter