During the half-term week in October 2019, Coach James and his U16’s Lionesses were invited to participate in the Level 1 Sports Leadership Course which was hosted by Luton Town Street League at Kenilworth Road (Luton Town FC Stadium). The Level 1 Sports Leadership Course is aimed to help teenagers take their first step to become our future leaders. This course helps teach about the key skills you will need to have in order to become an effective leader, and how and when to use these skills. The course ran over 3 days and ended with a friendly match against Norwich FC Street League.

On day 1, the course taught the girls how to be a coach, looking at the roles and responsibilities that a coach may have. As well as also looking at how to be a referee, what makes a good and bad referee. They then looked for role models that they see in sports that resembles good coaches and referees. They also conducted a full tour of Luton Town Stadium.

Day 2 The girls planned their leadership practical sessions that they were going to perform on Day 3. The aim of the practical session was to lead a training session focussing on 1 particular core skill - Passing, Dribbling, Shooting, and Heading. The girls were to plan 10-minute training sessions which include a warm-up and main session. Each warm-up had to be relevant to the main sessions.

Day 3 All 12 participants performed their practical sessions. There was a range of different core skills that were being used and the course leader was very impressed with some of the leadership skills she had seen. Coach James was also impressed and as a result, offered his striker Shanice the opportunity to lead their team’s warm-up sessions in the Quarter Final of the County Cup.

Day 4 The girls finished their final day on the course representing Luton Town Street League against Norwich Street League. The game was fairly even but Norwich managed to edge a 3-2 win against our girls. All the girls who participated in this course enjoyed it and all 12 successfully completed and passed the course.

We would like to thank Viki from Luton Town Street League for presenting this opportunity to our girls.