My name is William Vazquez and I am enjoying my first term at CCSC as a football coach with the Under 11s. I wanted to share a little about my journey and my experiences in football, explaining how I fell in love with coaching the world game.
Ever since I can remember I was mad about football. I would play football with my two older brothers whenever I could (where I learnt how to play with the ‘big kids’), and when I wasn’t doing that I was playing FIFA/Football manager or watching matches on the TV. Every lunch break at college my friends and I would race out of class to quickly organise the teams for our ritual lunchtime match (we would have loved to have been able to train every day as the kids do at CCSC!).
As I continued my love of football, I was fortunate enough to step into the representative scene and enjoyed playing for teams such as Manly, Northern Tigers, Bankstown and the Central Coast over 10 years. I still remember the various tournaments and trips away with state teams, state titles and college competitions. These are some of my best childhood memories! It is for this reason that I am greatly looking forward to our mid year trip away to Kanga Cup!
After trialling and training with Sydney FC’s youth team, I began to have regular knee injuries that seemed to pop up every time I began to gain momentum in my push for a career in football. This is an experience that made me who I am, as I learnt how to deal with setbacks and challenges in life – if you are faced with challenges you need to continue to fight and make the most of your situation. This is something that I hope to carry with me not just in coaching but in life, sharing my story to encourage those going through tough times to continue to break through any barriers that may crop up.
After advice from my doctor I decided to stop playing football at a high level and quickly moved into coaching! I immediately fell in love with the challenges and the rush of sharing the football experience with players young and old. Since beginning eight years ago, I have coached all ages and levels, starting with my Under 10s at Gosford, through to my current roles within the Central Coast Mariners Academy.
I am very much looking forward to the year ahead and hope to share my passion for football with the boys and girls of CCSC!
How lucky you are to have Will coaching at your football college. My son Josh had Will as a coach at CCMA U/9’s last year and had an amazing experience. Not only is Will a talented coach but has a special connection with kids and really is genuinely interested in each and everyone of them.