Former Red Devil Curtis becomes a Warrior

Wednesday, 23 February 2011

COACHING tips from Manchester United manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, are about to be passed on to youngsters at Southport Warriors Soccer Club after former Red Devils defender John Curtis agreed to take up a voluntary position as the club’s Director of Coaching.

The Gold Coast United full-back will ‘coach the coaches’ in an effort to ensure only the best training advice is passed on to the Warriors’ 500-strong army of young players.

There can be little doubt the pedigree of Curtis, who came through the Manchester United youth system and went on to play and train alongside the likes of David Beckham and Ryan Giggs, picking up knowledge and experience that will now be handed down to the lucky Southport hopefuls.

The move came about after Warriors coach Steve Beever was invited to spend time with Miron Bleiberg’s side in an effort to assist local coaches in their education and expose them to a professional environment. It was there that Beever met Curtis and the idea blossomed.

“Steve Beever from Southport Warriors said the club was very keen to educate their coaches and streamline their coaching system, so he asked me if I was interested in becoming the club’s Director of Coaching,” Curtis said.

“I’m a qualified coach as well as a player and I’m more than happy to help the local football community. If I can play a part in raising standards by passing on some of my experience then it will be mission accomplished. I’ve played under some great managers have learned a lot in my career.

“I want to help Southport as much as I can. They have around 500 young players here and if we can lift the level of football education they receive by coaching the coaches, then it can only help their players as well as football on the Gold Coast.

“The aim is to create an overall coaching philosophy and structure, then we can introduce targets which will help us to measure the success of our development programs in the future.

“I’ll be putting on demonstration sessions with the coaches here and helping them refine what they teach to the players in each age group. So it’s not just about producing training manuals, it’s hands-on as well, which is what I enjoy,” he said.

Coaches and players at Southport Warriors are sure to benefit from John’s football knowledge, but will they be treated to the odd tale from the Old Trafford dressing room as well?

“Maybe,” he smiled.
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