Rodney Njirich has good reason to be pleased with what’s been achieved on his watch as Junior Coordinator. Njirich stepped into the role late last year and has overhauled Inglewood United’s junior set-up to bring it in line with the club’s ‘big picture’ goals. “As a club we are moving in the right direction,” commented Njirich “We started with a blank canvas and six months later the picture of where we want Inglewood to be is beginning to take shape … I can see a great future for the clubs’ juniors, girls and boys.”
To say Njirich has been busy during the last six months would be an understatement. “When I came on board in December I did ask myself what have I walked into, but today the club is buzzing,” said Njirich, who has worked hard fine-tuning the coaching structure. “Getting the coaches accredited and familiarising them with the FFA’s National Curriculum was out first step. That’s given us some sturdy foundations on which we’ve built to the point that we now have the right people helping us work with players of all abilities.”
The responsibilities of the Junior Coordinator are many and varied. “It includes arranging kits for all junior players upon registration, managing weekly fixture adjustments, working with junior coaches to ensure they’ve got what’s needed at training and on match day, sending countless emails in response to queries and, when the first team plays at home, setting-up ball boys and half-time games for the 6 to 9 year olds,” explained Njirich, who also coaches Inglewood’s under-8 and under-11 teams as well as devoting three hours every weekend to Football West’s Skill Development Program.
Njirich, a former State League player, moved into the junior’s arena eight years ago with Bayswater and was planning to take a deserved break when the opportunity to join Inglewood came along. “Let’s just say I was persuaded by a close friend of mine, Inglewood’s Technical Director Goran Stajic, to join the club,” he commented. “I’d been coaching juniors since 2006 and was looking to take a break and be a parent for a change. I have three children who play and the prospect of sitting on the outside of the fence and watching them sounded like fun.”
And although that break hasn’t yet eventuated, Njirich isn’t complaining. “I’ve no regrets, it’s a new era for me,” he said. “It wasn’t my plan to continue coaching, and the Junior Coordinator offer came along few months after coming on board. There’s no greater reward than seeing the difference you can make to developing players and getting teams to gel. And knowing my work has helped someone gain selection in a specialist program, like SAP, or for Western Australia is the icing on the cake. At 45 I’m still learning things from other coaches, and, hopefully, those coaches are picking up something new from me.”
