Investment in Training is the Key for Cornish Sharks & the Cornish Youth Academy

The Cornish Sharks are proud to announce the addition of 13 new level 1 coaches to their coaching staff.  A special course was held at the Newquay Sports Centre and all participants passed with flying colours.  The Sharks are especially proud as they now have the UK’s first female American Football Coach.

The Cornish Sharks American Football team in Newquay has been building a successful senior team since they started four years ago and in the last eighteen months have been working to grow their youth team the Junior Varsity Sharks also based in Newquay.  They also want to expand the youth teams across the county so that Cornish based teams can play each other to gain experience before having to travel further afield as Team Cornwall to play more experienced youth teams.

The secret of the success of the youth teams, as has been the case with the senior team, is the quality of coaching and as Coach Smallworth, Head Coach of the Sharks explains “We have so much raw talent in the county and in order to give youngsters all across the county the opportunity try American Football and perhaps to play for their local team, we needed trained coaches.  I spoke to our Sharks players and I was absolutely delighted as well as surprised that more than 20 expressed an interest in taking their coaching badges.  13 were able to take part in this training course and a further course will be held at the end of the season so that those that couldn’t make it this time will have an opportunity to qualify later.  They will take their first aid and safeguarding children courses next so that the Youth Academy will have a secure core of coaches all trained to a high standard and CRB checked so parents can be confident when their kids attend any of our sessions.

“We have a number of coaches across the age ranges from 17 to 55 years and our youngest Coach is Rhiannon Smallworth who is studying a National Diploma in Sports Coaching, Fitness & Development at Truro College has become the first female American Football Coach in the UK.  This is very exciting as we hope that Rhiannon’s love of the game will encourage more girls to join the academy.

“We are grateful to the British American Football Coaching Association and the Cornwall Sports Partnership in Truro for arranging the course for us and look forward to the growth of the Cornwall Academy of American Football.”

Anyone interested in playing American football in Cornwall please contact Coach Smallworth on 07885277691 for information about our Youth and Senior Teams.