Nicholas Pearson

Pacific Pines football club Inaugural coach.

This was unlike anything i had imagined.

A foundation coach is arguably the most frustrating, lonely yet oddly rewarding place you can be as a coach.

Trying to build standards and implement these into a new senior club with no real club house, a non operational scoreboard and zero love from a junior committee was challenging to say the least.

With permission from the club i wrote a drug and alcohol policy which was a drink in moderation and road safe manner to a zero Tolerance on Drugs with a very stern message sent from day 1.

I engaged with mens mental health group ACFC A chance for Change to speak to the group and we held once a quarter mental health sessions at the club, this is where our group found a sense of belonging and a new found respect for each other, it wasn't compulsory to speak but was compulsory to attend.

we created our WHY NOT US slogan which we carried the entire season.

Other things that will carry on that we set in year 1 was a 2 a year junior training attendance, if they hadn't attended 2 junior sessions they were not eligible for finals selection. 3 years on some of those then 15 year olds featured in our senior grand final win in 2023 alongside these guys that helped them 3 years earlier, it built a great line of respect from the juniors parents and coaches which was the hardest wall to break down.

Also introduced was a get to know your seniors, we invited a youth group to spend half an hour with us to bridge a gap and get a little mentoring from the senior lads, the relationships this built and a sense of one club was second to none.

Current President Luke Doherty and myself jumped right in the deep end. we had a dead line to register 40 players before March. at that stage we had 12, but this was enough to work on.

we went to work, that little black book of past team mates, friends, brothers, nephews and the guy up the road, we pulled every string to meet the requirements.

Season 1 was a success, we had every hurdle you can imagine, covid putting holt to games, teams forfeiting, and washed out rounds, logistically it was an absolute Nightmare. not to mention travel logistics, Gold coast on a Friday night, heading to UQ, Ipswich, maroochydoor yet we fronted every time, making finals in our inception year was something we are all very proud off.

Year 2 with a 80% player retention and a newly formed colts side we lost 3 games for the season, we won our conference grand final against Coorparoo - then had to play against a northern competition championship side to get our premiership, the league created a cross conference grand final for some unknown reason, never the less we won that as well.

and finally in year 3 after being promoted to a higher division in Friday night space we held the cup up again dropping only 2 games for the season by a collective of 19 points,

We had lost 11 premiership players due to retirement, heading to a higher level or other, so our growth was from within and we again found talent from our under 17s and previous years under 18s program.

In 3 years we have a win loss record of 34 - 9 and 2 premierships in the cabinet.

we are all very proud of what we have started and look forward to being the # 1 supporter.

Including with my roles as coach below are my roles at this club,

Head coach.

Auskick Coordinator (2021-2022)

Team management duties - entering all team sheets to Play HQ, Club jumper washer, pre game club set up and Pack up.

All player clearances and registrations pre Play HQ

Designing of the new club house.

Supplying new floor through sponsorship sourced by myself.

Stand alone Pre game and training attire sponsor.

Game day statition ( Post match) all games filmed and analysed.

Functions Co-Ordinator including presentation organiser and inaugural ladies day function organiser.

Woman's team umpire - Due to nil availability from League.

Reference : Luke Doherty - President - 0412 775 769

Carrara had not appointed a coach and it was November.

i was contacted by a committee member who knew i had just moved to the coast.

i met with Carrara and negotiated a package and started instantly.

a list of 63 player which i was expecting to be returning based on the committee and current reserves coach turned into 11 committed players to field 2 sides.

a recruitment drive and by feburary first training session we had put together a list of 54 players - 6 from the year previous. exiting coach was appointed at Coolangatta a division above and raided the entire playing list.

we went on to win the premiership that year with what can only be described as a group of misfits.

we had a 16 year old Jamie Whitehead who i identified in pre season junior training, a fella from Venuatu who had not played football before, 2 ex rugby league cross over players and a hand full of guys that had never played a senior game in their life.

Bring the premiership to Carrara its first and still only to this day.

2019 - Carrara Battled hard in a division above missing finals only by %.

It was this time i decided to focus on my famiy and take a year of football as i had a 3 year old son at that time and wanted to ensure i put all of my energy into raising him the right way.

i left Carrara a very content coach aged 32.

Reference - Mark Alderson - Operations Manger - 0481 712 707

Reserves Coach - Job Details listed below.

Recruitment, Retention and Relationship building.

Working closely with our Senior Coach Shane Monk to develop a strong experienced based program for both Seniors, Reserves and under 16 program.

This included player and coach interviews with incoming and outgoing players and staff.

Designing a pre season training program that was going to lift the standards of Playing, Training and overall health and mental wellbeing of our playing group and our support staff.

Liaising directly with President Andy Colenso to map a clear path forward for the club which at the time was relativity new.

i was heavily involved in the setting up of game day Cameras to better review matches, these allowed me to conduct weekly one on one meetings with my players to better educate showing deficiency's and highlighting positive moments.

Record in years previous to my tenure

2014 -2015 - 5 wins 23 losses

My first and only year as reserves coach 2016 - 13 wins 2 losses

2017-Current - 11 wins - 72 loses

The group entreated in 2016 had 16 players from the previous year remaining and 18 stayed when i left.

Reference - Andy Colenso - President - 0438 806 958