Socorro Vaz charts Goa's football progress through Futsal

Socorro Vaz charts Goa's football progress through Futsal















Margao: It’s rainy season in Goa, and it rains cats and mouse in the coastal state of India. Time to have some real hot hot pakoda’s and roasted cashew nuts along with your evening tea before you venture out to play football in the muddy water of your local playground.

The local playground may be available or not available for Rui and his friends depending on which grounds they want to spend playing football. Local grounds constructed by government and maintained by Sports Authority of Goa in different villages and cities are a strict no go for Rui and his friends.

Rui is not the only one in football-crazy Goa who wants to enjoy playing football in the rainy season. There are many others. Gavin is one of them and he has had no problem of rains and lack of grounds throughout the season for the last three years.

Gavin is a new breed of young aspiring footballers who pay to get trained in football, a new trend which is creeping into the state, like in some metropolitan cities of the country.

For Gavin and his friends, the muddy waters and getting wet in the rains is not a problem. He trains indoors at Chowgule College Indoor Futsal grounds.

For three days of the week he trains for two hours on the watchful eyes of Socorro Vaz, an Asian Football Confederation (AFC) C licence coach for the last ten years and an AFC Futsal level 1 coach for the last 3 years.

We charge a small fee per month for each child as we have to pay a rent for use of the facilities here,” says Socorro, chief coach and founder of Youth Futsal Academy.

“We start from the age of 4 years and above.

“I was one of the three Goan participants selected by AIFF to attend the Futsal Level 1Coaching Course organized by   AFC in December   2011. After finishing the course I wanted to do something for Futsal in Goa and with the single purpose of putting into practice what I had learnt, I started the youth Futsal Academy in February 2012,” recalls Socorro.

“The parents of some of the Margao schools had been urging me to start a coaching programme for many years after I stopped coaching Manovikas in 2007. We started with 22 students and now we have an average strength of 60 per month. We train both boys and girls.

“We are focusing on Futsal as it builds up a lot of skills which helps the footballers in the normal game of football,” said Socorro, who completed the Futsal level 1 License Course in 2011.

The 55-year-old from Fatorda, Margao is not new to coaching young footballers of the last two and a half decades he has been coaching schools and higher secondary schools in and around the city.

He has also numerous coaching seminars and grassroot coaching course conducted by Goa Football Association and All India Football Federation widening his knowledge and imparting the things he has learnt to the children.

“I participated in a football course conducted by Goa Football Association under Chief Indian Coach Islam  Akemedov in the year 2000 and five years later I was there for an AIFF Grassroot coaching course held in Kolkata conducted by Dr. Saji Prabhakar,” recalls Socorro.

He also was one of the few coaches from Goa who benefitted from the tie-up between GFA and Portugal Universities in the field of football.

 “Teaching and Training youth  Footballers For coaches , conducted by the Faculty of Sports Sciences and  Physical education of the University of Porto Portugal, Workshop on Nutritional Plan for Peak Performance for footballers conducted by Dr. Jose Augusto Santos  (Ph. D) University of Porto Portugal and  Teaching and Training Youth Footballers  For Coaches U-12”conducted by Faculty of Sports Sciences and Physical Education of the University of Porto, Portugal, were some of the courses conducted I have had the privilege to attend,” said Socorro.

Socorro also attended Grassroots Coaching Session conducted by Manchester United at Manchester United training grounds at Carington England for three days in August 2008.

He is also qualified to handle any emergencies on the play field having under training on Sports injuries and First aid conducted by Directorate of Sports , Government of Goa and Basic Life Support Training Program organized by Disaster Management Cell Indian Medical Association Goa State Branch in Association with Goa Football Development Council.

Besides coaching Manovikas School U-12, U-14 and U-17 Boys and Girl Football teams from the year May 2001 to October 2007 he has also coached the state U-14 team for the All India Football Festival in Kolkata in February 2005.

Two years later, he accompanied the State U-16 team as manager for the Sub-Junior nationals in Uttaranchal and earlier assisted the State U-15 team in their training sessions in Goa ahead of their exposure trip to Portugal.

Besides his coaching at the Youth Futsal Academy Socorro used to also train the Fr. Agnel Ashram Multipupose High School U-14 and U-17 Teams and Higher Secondary Teams for the last four years till recently when he joined Goa Football Development Council (GFDC) in January 2014 as a Football Development Officer Coaching.

“I have also been associated with Salgaocar Sports Club age groups earlier (U-15 & U-16) teams from September 2007 to September 2008,” he recalls.

Training timings and contact details: Mon: 4:00 pm - 6:30 pm, Wed: 4:00 pm - 6:30 pm and Fri: 4:00 pm - 6:30 pm
Location
Contact Info
Phone
+91 98 81 240261


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

PLASTIC

Godrej Nature's Basket: when evolution is done wrong

Home for the Aged at Nagao Verna to be renovated