Teachers coaching after school deserve pay, says Coughlan

TEACHERS with coaching qualifications should be paid if they coach pupils or students after school hours, according to former world champion Eamonn Coghlan.

And yesterday he was at the National Coaching and Training Centre (NCTC) in Limerick to launch a scheme which will provide former top athletes and players as well as experienced international coaches into the National Coaching Development Programme (NCDP).

These days the Chairman of the Boards enjoys putting something back into athletics through coaching children at his local school but he said outside of the satisfaction one might get there are no incentives in athletics for a coach and he paid tribute to those who give their services freely.

“But there should be payment for teachers with coaching qualifications who devote time to coaching outside of school hours,” he said.

“In the United States it is treated as an extra class and teachers are paid an extra $5,000 a year for it. “I can see the logic behind that. If I want a Maths grind for my son I have to pay 30 and I don’t mind doing that. I don’t see why a teacher with a coaching qualification should not be paid for coaching.”

The new scheme launched yesterday will provide for the assimilation of experienced international players, athletes and coaches into the NCDP at level 2 or level 3 and according to Coghlan introduces a system for recognising the qualifications and experience of top players and athletes.

To date the NCTC has turned out more than 15,000 coaches and over 400 tutors have been trained involving 50 national governing bodies who actively participate in the programme.

Most of those would have begun with the introduction course followed by level 1, 2 and 3 courses. Now there will be a level 4 one year full-time course or 2 of 4 year’s task-based course.

The director of the NCTC, Dr Pat Duffy, said that at the moment the participants would fund themselves but they were hoping that they would be part-funded by their national governing bodies or that sponsorship could be found. Under the new scheme experienced players and coaches would be entitled to apply for assimilation at level 2 or higher.

Istvan Balyi, planning and periodisation expert, has been an exciting addition to the NCTC and he pointed out that it was the case that less talented players who had to work harder subsequently became very good coaches.

Dr Balyi is a planning and periodisation specialist and sport science consultant to the National Coaching Institutes in British Columbia and Manitoba and to Pacific Sport National Sport Centres in Greater Vancouver and Victoria in Canada.

He was recently appointed to the NCTC’s technical advisory group which will define the athlete capacities needed by Irish athletes at the different stages of their development.

The scheme has been welcomed by John Treacy, chief executive of the Irish Sports Council who said they were pleased to have provided support to the NCTC to put the initiative in place.

“We have a wealth of experience in this country at the highest levels of sport and it is vital that our coaching system picks up on this expertise,” he said.”

The first phase of applications for the scheme has a deadline of March 1 and the second phase of applications will be called for in September, 2003 and details can be obtained from Elizabeth Stundon at the NCTC.