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Sports Last Updated: Apr 22, 2017 - 2:38:07 AM


2017 Sir Jack Hayward Soccer Camp Coach Abbie Sadler
Apr 20, 2017 - 3:43:31 PM

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Abbie doing what she does best – working with young players

A Woman With a Mission...


Trekking through a mountain range in a howling gale, driving rain and freezing temperatures is the sort of thing the toughest soldiers endure to be selected to join the Special Forces. Freeport-bound soccer coach Abbie Sadler did it because she wants to be at the top of her game.

She was one of a select group chosen by the English Premier League for the 40-hour endurance test in some of Britain’s toughest terrain – an area used by the world famous SAS for its training.

The EPL wanted to take the UK’s best youth soccer coaches and turn them into a really elite group ready to develop the top pro soccer players of the future and Abbie, who is one of the four coaches coming to Grand Bahama to lead this year’s soccer camp, passed the challenge with flying colours.

In fact she did so well leading her team on the trek that the military organisers of the test “kidnapped” her as part of the ordeal so her team would have to survive without her. “It was one of the hardest things, physically, that I’ve ever had to do,” she says. “I’m not sure I would do it again but the point is I have done it now.”

The fact she was specially chosen for the course by the world’s most famous soccer league is a measure of how good she is at her day job and also what a treat young players will be getting at this year’s Sir Jack Hayward camp where not only will the coaches be great but the fee for the week has been slashed by almost a half from previous years.

The camp is being held once again at Freeport Rugby and Football Club just after schools break up for the summer. It starts at 9am on June 19 and lasts until June 23. Numbers are being strictly pegged this year and registering early is absolutely essential to avoid being turned away.

Abbie comes to Grand Bahama during her post-season break from her job at Premier League team Swansea City where she is assistant head of the academy set-up developing young pro players of the future. She helps the club find local young players from age five to eight and oversees their development as they grow older.

“I want to bring in young players and help as many as possible progress to the foundation phase, meaning Swansea City have a wider pool of local players to choose from. It is exciting to find a home-grown player at age six or seven and help them develop the Swansea way – it is better than bringing a player at age 15 and trying to redevelop them the way you want them to play,” she said.

During her first season at Swansea City Abbie was assistant head of the foundation phase of the academy, where she managed the pre-academy programme, helped with the older kids and was head coach of the club’s under-nines. In her second season she was promoted and became head foundation phase, where she oversees age groups from under-seven to under-11 and is head coach of the under 10s.

Prior to Swansea she was at second tier pro soccer club Bristol City, where she led a team of coaches working on sport in the community, and before that she was a coach working for the UK governing body the Football Association, lead sponsors of the Freeport camp for the last eight years. There she coached at schools, clubs, and the country’s soccer development centres as well as training teachers and other coaches.

It is an impressive resume for a 29-year-old who is clearly headed for the top but she still has her feet firmly on the ground. “The biggest highlight working with young players is seeing them grow, not only as footballers but as people, developing in confidence, self-esteem and social skills. I like to provide fun and challenging activities, and see them reach their potential,” she said.

Abbie has been to Freeport for a previous camp and was a very popular figure among the local young players. “I am very much looking forward to the trip and being back on Grand Bahama. In fact I am on a countdown now even though it is two months away!”

The Sir Jack Hayward Soccer Camp 2017 will be restricted to 100 people – much fewer than in previous years. It costs $100 for 25 hours coaching, uniform, lunch and the chance of a cooling lunchtime swim.

Registration forms are ATTACHED BELOW or available from Town and Country, Yellow Pine Street; Barefoot Marketing, West Mall Drive; and the rugby and football club at evenings and weekends.

Watch out next week for the second story in the series and another coach to meet.

Coaches Announces for Sir Jack Hayward Soccer Camp


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