FOOTBALL Federation Victoria recently completed its first regional advanced coaching course in Geelong with 29 coaches attending the FFA/AFC C Licence (Youth) course.

Coaches from Bendigo, Ballarat, western Melbourne clubs and the majority from the Greater Geelong area participated in the course conducted under the guidance of FFV Technical Director David Smith .

When asked about how the course came about, Smith praised those who had helped get the course up and running.

"This course was arranged following the level of interest from three regional associations Geelong, Ballarat and Bendigo, and the support Foddy Kyprian and Tonci Prusac provided in helping to get it going was immense," Smith said.

"We identified the need to provide more opportunities for coaches from non-metro areas to attend courses and upskill their coaching accreditation.

"The success of this course shows the need to continue to work with regional areas to develop coaching quality and numbers."

This course also provided FFV with the opportunity to continue to increase female coach participation on advanced coaching courses and through a scholarship program, the FFV Technical team recently introduced in order to help more female coaches become advanced coaches.

Five regional based female coaches, two from Ballarat and three from Geelong  participated on this course.

"The girls were great on the course. Their involvement, football knowledge and presentation skills enhanced the quality of the course and having a good number of females allowed them to work as a group on a number of sessions and presentations," Smith said.

"This alone challenged not only the girls but also the other groups due to the quality of their practical and theory presentations."

While the C Licence (Youth) course has been conducted, Geelong has also seen three community courses conducted in the last two months, with Skill Training, Game Training and a Senior Certificate courses seeing a further 61 participants investing in their own coaching development, showing that the region has really got behind coach education.

Further to this, both Geelong SC and Geelong Rangers have signed up for the Club Coach Coordinator (CCC) program,which is a club-based program run to assist new or inexperienced coaches, offering support and resources while they coach their own club team.

With over 40 clubs signed up statewide, FFV is looking for more clubs in Geelong Region to participate and, as part of his Regional Development Officer role, Foddy Kyprian will be the area mentor.

These opportunities no doubt are a significant reason for the growth in participation of Football in the Greater Geelong area.