Suns guns to coach junior sides

 

Matthew Galea

November 20 2014

Shepparton News

Goulburn Valley Suns have come good on their commitment to deliver the region’s best coaches to their juniors.

In a major acquisition to the club’s junior coaching stocks, Football Institute coaches Frankie Lagana, Reno Lia and Craig Carley have joined the Suns’ junior coaching team.

With technical directors David Davkovski and Shaban Mehmet, the club boasts five Football Federation Australia accredited C-license coaches, with three set to do the B-license next year.

Experienced local coach Pat Kielty is also on board once again, after serving as junior technical director last season and will do the C-license this year.

Shepparton South president Gino Cirillo has also given his backing to the Suns’ juniors, getting on board as a junior committee member.

Davkovski, who coached the senior team for the second half of last season and debuted five juniors, said the appointments were important to ensure the club could offer the best junior program in the region to justify the cost of registration, which last year was $1500.

‘‘It’s encouraging for us that they’ve got on board and we’re looking forward to working with them in 2015,’’ Davkovski said.

‘‘I’m sure the parents and kids are as well.

‘‘We had to treat the parents like customers. They’re paying customers and we have to give them value for money and we think these coaches deliver that.’’

Junior trials have already started for next season’s sides and numbers were already a lot better than they were before last season.

‘‘It’s been very encouraging to start with pre-Christmas and now that we’ve got the coaches we can really start planning for next year,’’ Davkovski said.

‘‘The numbers have been good for players, but the biggest priority for us was getting the best coaches in town.’’

Mehmet will coach the Suns’ under-12 side, Lagana has the under-13 team with Lia assisting, Carley is in charge of the under-15 side, with Davkovski taking care of the under-16 and 18 sides.

Kielty will float across the group.

Lagana, Carley and Lia will also deliver the club’s community programs.

The Suns will be entering four teams in this weekend’s Australian Football Skool gala tournament, with teams competing across under-12, 14, 16 and youth (under-18) divisions, offering trialists a chance to shine in match play.