EIGHT NEW LEVEL 1 COACHES FOR SPAIN
Cricket España can now boast a further 8 level 1 coaches in Spain after all the candidates completed and passed the ICC Europe Level 1 Coaches Course at La Manga last weekend
In addition to the new level 1 coaches, the Junior Director of Cricket Neil Brook completed the second part of his level 2 assesment , having completed the first part in Copenhagen, Denmark earlier this month.
The course, funded by CE and ICC Europe ran from Friday the 15th April through to Sunday the 17th with practical and written assesments required in order to complete the course. The event was co-ordinated by Neil Brook, and the coaching co-ordinator for Spain Manny Fernandez and was tutored by Dave Gelling, of Hampshire CC and ICC Europe. Gelling oversaw the previous level 1 course Spain had in 2007 and was also the coach for Portugal in the ICC Division 3 championships at La Manga in 2009.
The successful candidates took part in various coaching activities based on technical, practical and communication skills and then the candidates had to run an activity themselves as a coach that was then reviewed by the tutor. The candidates also had to pass a 24 question multiple choice exam paper, with the questions based on the events covered throughout the weekend.
The successful candidates represented 4 different clubs from 2 different regions of the Spanish cricket scene.
Spanish international Armaghan Khan, (Cataluyna) came straight from 2 Spanish Twenty20 games against the top Dutch club VOC of Rotterdam to join the coaching group Friday night, as did Manny Fernandez who played in the second game as a late replacement for the injured Mark Spencer.
La Manga club members Hugh James, Joel Brook, Alfie Harris and Tom Vine represented the local interest, and the octet was completed by Adam Langhans of Madrid and Jon Algar of San Fulgencio.
For Algar this was the second successful completion of an ICC Level 1 course in recent times, having just passed the Level 1 Umpires course last month the took place in Madrid. As a sideline, Algar should be further complemented for the 1000 Euros he raised for his club after walking back from the capital city to San Fulgencio immediately after the officials course had finished. The 450 km walk took 8 consecutive days in total and on completion Algar was greeted by club members who helped him celebrate this fantasic achievement.
All the 8 candidates also completed a first aid course and will now be expected to use their skills by running coaching courses in their respective communities. Many thanks to the candidates for giving up their time to complete the course, to Manny Fernandez and Neil Brook for co-ordinating the whole event, and especially to the tutor Dave Gelling for making the whole weekend both fun and purposeful at the same time.
Cricket Espana hope to hold some “in house” coaching courses sometime later in the year. Anyone interest in doing such a course should contact either Cricket España through the website or contact the CE secretary at howden.john@cricketspain.org
Top Row L-R, Dave Gelling, Adam Langhans, Jon Algar, Tom Vine, Alfie Harris & Armaghan Khan
Bottom Row L- R, Manny Fernandez, Joel Brook & Neil Brook (Director of Junior Cricket)