New license brings new knowledge to Wagga United coach

Several years between accreditation for the well experienced coach, he said unlearning has been a significant part of ensuring he can give the best to his side.

The club invested in two C licenses earlier this year to help provide their players access to the best coaching possible.

"Myself and Shandi Gibbons, in the team, were fortunate enough to be put through the C license course for coaching, so we can actually start to develop the women's side of the club as well," Samson said.

"Going off last year when I got to know a lot more of them helping out here and there, there was a struggle towards the end of the season where other people were injured or just stopped playing and we had a lot of girls that had to play both grades.

"Now we have 34 registered players and it's really showing, we can feel the game is growing and it's all about developing the girls as a team and individually."

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Samson said it's not just the team developing but him also as he puts to use his new skills and knowledge.

"I had the senior license back from the old system which I renewed every couple of years but it'd always been a focus to eventually be able to do the C license and given this opportunity I jumped at it," he said.

"It was really interesting having to unlearn certain things to relearn the best way to develop players individually and as a team as well.

"Definitely in terms of the technical language that's being used to explain drills and why we do certain things to the girls has really been awesome.

"I've found that a lot more players in the team are a lot more confident now in coming to me and ask questions, rather than not wanting to be the one to ask when they're not sure."

With a massive influx of new players to the club this year Samson is hopeful the club is setting itself up for long term success.

Despite a disappointing 6-1 loss to open their season against Junee, Samson is pleased with how they held themselves.

"I was pleased with what I saw, there's a whole lot of new girls that have never played before so seeing them get on field and make the most of it, people can look at results and say oh well they could have done better, but there was a lot of positive signs that I saw, and I was very proud of the team as a whole," he said.

With more than 25 years experience in soccer, Samson is excited to continue sharing his knowledge with new and old players of the game.

United have a bye in round two of the Pascoe Cup and will focus on developing their game play over the coming fortnight.

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