In Australia, many sports have become professional, creating many fulltime careers for not only the players but also the team officials, administrators and support staff. At the same time, education …

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In Australia, many sports have become professional, creating many fulltime careers for not only the players but also the team officials, administrators and support staff. At the same time, education departments have appointed teachers to oversee sporting competitions at local, district, regional, state, national and international levels.

But this whole system begins at the local school and district level. This article looks at how a local teacher involved in their chosen sport as coach can go about selecting players into positions in a regional team to play in a state championship. Because he or she has been appointed to the team to coach, she or she may not know all the players well enough initially to make the best selection of players in positions.

As one such coach over a 30 years period, I will share how I personally worked out the best possible way to make the selections for that first crucial game of the championship. It is important to note that the teams I had rarely had more than three training runs together. Much of these training sessions attempted to create some team work and instil a simple game plan.

My first step was to give each player a form to fill in about his playing career. This included playing positions in his club and school teams, where he preferred to play, any past representative experience as well as his height and weight.
I would then collate all this data relating to the players' playing experience on an A4 size diagram of the football field. Then I would look to make my initial selection on the basis of this data. As well I would use my view of how each player performed at each training run. Then I would select my "first" team. Then I would pair up the extra players as interchange players with those already in my "first" team. Every player in the squad would play in each game except when injured.
At the last training session, I would give each player a piece of paper on which to write their choice as captain and vice-captain. I do this because most of the players would know each other even though they play in different school and club teams.
From the players' berita bola terbaru and from what the manager and I had seen, we would chose the captain and vice-captain and make an announcement at the end of the last training sessions or at the beginning of our trip to the championship venue.

On the journey to the championship venue or prior to the last training session, each player would be given a diagram of the football oval with playing positions and asked to submit their team to be considered by the coach. Working through their selections and based on my ideas on the "first" team, I would rework my initial first team. Then I would consult with my team leaders for their opinions of my 'latest' team. Following this discussion, we, (coach, manager and team leaders) would finalise the starting team for that first game along with the interchange arrangements. Every player would play at least 50% of that first game.

This first game will often bring to our notice players who perform better in these higher quality games while others don't live up to their promise. It also give the coach ideas on how best to use his players in the remaining games as many players often play in positions in their club or school team that help that team but may not be the best position for their individual talents.

During these first and subsequent games, the team leaders are consulted about team changes and tactical advice.
The beauty of this approach is threefold.
• The players have some ownership of the process.
• The team leaders are getting experience in team selection and offering advice on game tactics.

• The coach gets to know his players and their abilities more quickly.

One last point: at the regional selection trials/carnival prior to the final team selection, I would also seek advice from the teachers looking after each district team playing in the carnival or from the teachers accompanying their school players to ensure no players of merit were overlooked.

The approach saw my teams win three state championships, make the final of the championships multiple times and created opportunities for a number of "unknown" players to play themselves into a state schoolboys team to compete in the all Australian national schoolboys football championships, the longest running national school championships in Australia that began in 1923.