BY Obakeng Maje

The South African Football Association’s (SAFA) Level 3 Pro Licence coaching course has come to an end with 25 participants being awarded their attendance certificates.

The graduation ceremony is expected to be held next month after all the examination papers have been marked.

The closing ceremony was held on Tuesday, 12 June 2012 in Pretoria.

The course started with the first phase six months ago (16 January).

The SAFA Level 3 Pro-Licence coaching course is the highest coaching qualification offered in South Africa. It was conducted over a period of seventy days (70 days) in seven phases made up of different modules covering a variety of topics.

The closing ceremony was presided over by SAFA COO Dennis Mumble.

“This is a remarkable achievement for the Association. For me it has been a personal objective to see the establishment of a coaching culture in South Africa that will improve the performance levels of our players and thereby help this Association become the world-class institution it aspires to become. It is an opportunity for former players to get formal coaching qualifications. You will be asked to train other coaches as well around the country since we have a huge task to train at least 150,000 coaches over the next ten years for us to become competitive in world football” said Mumble.

“This course took 13 years from conception to reality. SAFA believes the players, coaches and referees are what the game is all about and our philosophy is to honour them. For me is it gratifying to stand here and applaud you for the hard work you have put in. We would like you to become part of the Development Framework of South African football so we can return to being among the best. With your wealth of experience we will be calling on your services and we hope you will be ready to serve this nation.”

This is the second group to attend this high-level course. The first one took place last year.

“SAFA has invested four million rand into the course and there is nothing comparable to it on the continent, which makes this group a special one. We had 29 guest lecturers, most of them South African. The participants spent about one thousand hours studying, training and doing research, which shows the intensity of this course,” said Michael Nees, Director of the SAFA Coaching Education Department.

Throughout the course, Nees was assisted by local instructors Steve Coetsee, Frans Mogashoa and Urban de Kock.

“We would like to thank SAFA for this wonderful opportunity to improve the state of the game in the country. This was a real eye-opener. Very difficult, but it was worth it. We should go out there and give back to our communities in our small way for the benefit of South African football. We have been charged with an important role of improving the lives of young players and we should not shy away from it,” said Augustine Makalakalane, one of the participants and captain of the class. Makalakalane is the former Banyana Banyana coach and is now coach at North West University.

“I have been a coach for many years, but I have never been through such a thorough course. It shows that one is never too old to learn and there is a wealth of information that we can tap from to improve the game in this country. Spain has one coach for every ten players, while for South Africa the ratio is one coach to over 300 players – that is why today Spain is on top of the world, they invested in coaches, we also need to change that if we want to be counted with the best,” said another participant Calvin Johnson who is with Royal Bafokeng Academy.

Phases of the Level 3 Pro-Licence coaching course:

Phase 1   16 – 29 January 2012
Tactical training and Modern Match Analysis

Phase 2   6 – 15 February 2012
Modern Match Analysis

Phase 3   27 Feb – 7 March 2012
Physical training and Sports Science

Phase 4   10 – 19 April 2012
Psychology and football training (Mental skill training)

Phase 5   5 – 10 May 2012
Pedagogic – teaching as an instructor, Youth Development and technical training

Phase 6   21 – 30 May 2012
Integration of all different coaching modules

Phase 7   4 – 13 June 2012
Examination and Closure

List of participants:
1. Sheldon Roux    (Durban Classic)
2. Augustine Makalakalane   (North West University)
3. Selaotse Mosala    (Tuks)
4. Steven Bezuidenhout   (Westville United Football Academy)
5. Dylan Deane    (SAFA Western Cape U20)
6. Roscoe Krieling    (Under 14 Western Cape)
7. Alan Clark     (Sandton Academy)
8. Karabo Mogudi    (Wits University)
9. Allan Freeze    (Platinum Stars Development)
10. Klaas-Jan Top    (Tiger Kloof Educational Trust)
11. Thomas Nare    (Mamelodi Sundowns)
12. Richard Lovell    (Diambars Football Academy)
13. Cameron Cox    (Diambars Football Academy)
14. Fabian Randalls    (Mamelodi Sundowns Youth)
15. Scelo Qwabe    (Thanda Academy, KZN)
16. Calvin Johnson    (Royal Bafokeng Academy)
17. Ian Palmer    (Maritzburg United)
18. Ian Gorowa    Mamelodi Sundowns)
19. Tracy Pepper    (Broga Academy)
20. Anna Monate    (SA U17 Women)
21. Rulani Mokwena    (Mamelodi Sundowns Youth)
22. Martin Donald Mojaki   (SAFA Francis Baard region, Head Coach)
23. Brandon Truter    (Cape Town All Stars)
24. Themba Ngwenya   (Mamelodi Sundowns Development)
25. Edwin Johannes    (SASFA)