EVERYTHING WE DO IS BASED ON FUN... AND BUILDING CONFIDENCE
Edinburgh coaching stalwart Barr can’t get enough of giving back
grassroots unsung hero
SEAN BARR VOLUNTEER COACH, EDINBURGH SOUTH FC
There’s a place in football for everyone, boys and girls of all ability
AS a football-mad kid, Sean Barr used to turn up two hours early for his primary school games at Drum Park.
Now a youthful 51, you’ll still find him following that same enthusiastic routine — at the very same venue — on any given Saturday morning.
Barr’s decade-long involvement with Edinburgh South’s hugely popular Soccer School is a good example of how grassroots sport works.
There are training sessions and games for kids because volunteers make them possible.
They do it because it needs done. And, yes, because it’s great fun. Occasionally infuriating. Mainly hilarious. But always rewarding.
‘When I was eight or nine years old, I used to go along for our school games at Drum Park,’ Barr, who also coaches an Under-16s team, told Sportsmail.
‘And I was there two hours before the game. I was so excited, I couldn’t sleep. And that was before every game.
‘I just remember going up there, being unable to wait for the football to kick off. Then I’d be playing all day, talking about it afterwards. And I know the other kids were thinking: “This guy’s a bit… different”.
‘I still get that feeling on a Saturday morning. Two hours before Soccer School starts, I’m up at Drum Park — and I’ve still got that excitement. The difference is it’s not just for me, but for the new kids coming through.
‘One day that will go, I’ve no doubt. But, for the last ten years, I’ve felt that way.
‘You’ve got maybe 70 or a hundred kids coming down and you know it’s going to be great fun.’
Like every grassroots volunteer, Barr is quick to stress the team effort required to put on sessions for kids from five upwards.
Soccer School has become a flagship programme for a community club who, having previously charged the princely sum of £2 per session, with a free strip thrown in after six weeks, are now able to offer it free of charge.
‘We’ve got loads of coaches helping out and they do all the work,’ said Barr. ‘I just put the framework in place.
‘And every year we hand over 50 or 60 kids to the new age group for soccer fours, which is the first stage of playing games.
‘But it’s built on fun. Everything we do is about confidence building.
‘I love the kids at five or six, asking me where I was stationed during the war, telling me I’ve got a mullet… the kids are great.
‘Personally, for me, giving out strips is one of the best feelings as a coach. Because they all want a strip. They see their pals wearing the Edinburgh South kit and they want to feel part of the club.
‘It’s their first-ever club football kit, for these kids, so they’re really excited.
‘I played with the club from about eight or nine, then went away and played for all sorts of teams.
‘In about 2010, when my son Liam was six, I came down to watch Soccer School — and I thought there was something unique in the way the coaches, Sandy Walker and Arthur Smyth, communicated with the kids.
‘I thought: “You know, that’s the way forward, giving back to the community”. So that’s when I thought I could maybe try this.
‘At that stage we had maybe 25-30 kids coming along, aged five, six and seven, mainly.
‘I said I would become a coach, be quite happy to give back to the club that helped me when I was a kid.
‘We then had an explosion of kids born around 2005, in the south of Edinburgh. So we suddenly were coaching 80, 90, then 100 or 110 kids on a Saturday morning. It continues to this day to be those kinds of numbers.
‘We have had about 2,000 kids come through the Soccer School in the last 10-15 years. People want to come because they enjoy the product, the confidence building. And it’s not even two quid any more. It’s free now. They don’t pay a penny.
‘We don’t try to be the best club in terms of ability. We don’t just take the best players. There is a place in football for everyone, boys and girls of all ability.’
The more kids a club takes on, of course, the more coaches are required to provide proper guidance.
While parents are the main source of recruits, South have been working on getting some of their current players involved at a very early age.
Barr explained: ‘We’ve already got some of our Under-16s and Under-18s kids, who are still playing at the club, coming down to do a bit of coaching at Soccer School so they can gain their badges — and give something back to the community.
‘We’ve got a lovely spread of younger coaches coming through. But also life-skilled coaches centrally positioned to support them.
‘We need coaches. They don’t grow on trees. It’s very, very hard to obtain coaches.
‘So it comes from parents. You try to get positive people involved, confidence-building people.
‘When you are coaching at Soccer School, you can tell the type of people who might make good coaches. The minute you ask that question, you can see them thinking: “Oh, I hope I don’t get asked to do too much”.
‘As soon as you get over that line, it’s really enjoyable. But it’s hard to get out of it!’
At the best clubs, there is always someone to pass on advice. And, as the army of volunteers can testify, enthusiasm goes a long way.