Keith Coffey on coaching at the Shamrock Rovers Academy: ‘If we're just teaching these kids football, we’re wasting their time. It's person first, player second.’

Christine Allen reports from the Shamrock Rovers Academy at Roadstone

“At Shamrock Rovers, we’re big on developing the people, not just the players. If we're just teaching these kids football, we’re wasting their time. It's person first, player second.”

Keith Coffey (Shamrock Rovers)

When I sat down to have a chat with Keith Coffey, the Head Coach of Shamrock Rovers Under 17 women’s side, I didn’t expect the conversation to be just shy of an hour.

Truth be told, I could have listened to the 26-year-old talk all evening, so enthusiastic and passionate was he about not only his craft but the players, his colleagues and the Rovers Academy to boot.

When not preparing matchday packs and poring over opposition video analysis prepared by Ben Smithers (“We don't win nearly as many of the games that we do if it's not for Ben's work,” he tells me), Coffey teaches History and Religion at Confey Community College in Leixlip – a career that appealed to him as a youngster in junior infants.

“My maths teacher used to bring me in on Saturdays and I absolutely hated her for it,” he reveals. “But when she was talking to me in person she was always showing me that she was doing it for the good of me. I remember just sitting there thinking… I'd love to be that for somebody when I’m older.”

With a squad of 18 players and a team of specialists looking to the young coach for guidance at the Academy’s Roadstone HQ, the Lucan native is most certainly that.

Kick Starter

Coffey’s journey from player to coach started 11 years ago when then Director of Football for Peamount United, Jason Carey, saw a potential mentor in the Greenogue Captain and encouraged the youngster to pursue his coaching badges.

“I was probably a bit humbled that somebody thought that of me (that way)” he confides. “I’d always be really open minded to stuff like that so I said ‘alright g’wan, I’ll give it a go.’

“I did my (FAI) Kick Starter One and Two (courses) when I was 15 and then I started jumping in with the academy at Peamount helping out and stuff like that. I did a couple of the FAI summer camps and a few Peamount summer camps and I just loved it.”

Coffey would operate in the dual role of player/coach with the Peas until the age of 18, when he made the daring decision to leave Ireland to improve his coaching acumen in the United States for three months.

He tells me that he wanted to “sink or swim” in America, and discouraged his friends from joining - the teenager meant business.

While travelling so far from home was very much out of his comfort zone, not even a freak weather event was going to stop him.

“I remember my first day,” he recalls with a trace of a smile in his voice. “I flew from Manchester to Atlanta and that was about a seven-hour flight - then I got off the plane and my boss handed me keys to a car and said ‘Right your first gig is in Florida, off you go.’ I drove nine hours in a lightning storm - I hadn't even figured out how to use the wipers for the car.

“I’d move around every week - Alabama, Georgia, Florida and South Carolina. I’d stay with a new family every week. Just being around young people and helping them and coaching - and even being around the parents thinking of activities for the kids to do every single day. I enjoyed that challenge.”

On returning to Ireland, Coffey was more certain than ever that coaching was a role he wanted to pursue. His first opportunity came when he was 20 years old with Jason Carey offering him the role of Assistant Coach for a Peamount Under 10 boys side.

His connection and loyalty to Carey, Rovers’ Head of Women’s Football since 2022, is clear.

“Jason is an absolutely unbelievable person,” he enthuses, “He's a really good crutch for me and he's at every single training session. He’s always there to give advice, he gives me the freedom because he trusts me, but also within the methods of being a Shamrock Rovers player.

“If I pick up the phone now he'd answer me…I probably don't leave that Peamount boys team if Jason Carey is not head of football at Shamrock Rovers.”

Under the tutelage of Ray Healy (whom Coffey credits with instilling his core values of respect, drive, integrity and organisation), Coffey built incredibly meaningful relationships with not only the club but his players.

Coffey tells me that this month a number of the boys from the squad that he coached and developed at Peamount lifted the Under 17s FAI Cup.

“I cried my eyes out like a baby at the full-time whistle because I've had those lads since they were ten years old,” he admits. “You've seen them growing up and you've seen all their challenges from primary school to secondary school. I only left them there to come to Rovers in May. I'm still very connected to those lads.”

Coffey acknowledges that it was a real pull on the heartstrings to leave the club that he was loyal to as a boy - yet there were to be several familiar faces amongst the setup at Roadstone, most notably Carey, and this proved to be the clincher for the ambitious youngster.

“It was nearly impossible,” he concedes. “I thought about it for ages and I asked so many opinions. Only the fact that it was Jason again…the size of the club and having gone up and seen the facilities around the academy and the ethos. Wayne Ashbrook is the 19s manager and he was my Director of Football for a period at Peamount as well when I was a coach. So I was stepping into a safe environment with people I trusted and loved and who I was loyal to.”

On entering the Rovers setup Coffey was charged with recruiting a team of coaching staff - his first port of call Terry Gleeson, an experienced coach who had a proven track record of success at Peamount.

“I would say me and Terry now probably have about six phone calls per day, seven days a week,” he tells me “Terry hasn’t missed one training session from being sick, he hasn’t been on a holiday…he has been absolutely phenomenal for me.”

It’s clear from speaking to Coffey that he drives high standards, and will accept nothing less than 100% in terms of commitment and dedication from his colleagues.

Yet there is an unmistakable warmth to the Under 17s Head Coach that makes you want to do well by him - whether that’s as his player, a member of his coaching staff or a part-time sports reporter having the privilege of telling his story.

Rewards

On asking Coffey to describe the most rewarding aspect of his role with Shamrock Rovers, he said: “Quiet moments with players…a couple of weeks ago I had one of my strikers and we were setting up a touch to finish. We played the game and she did it perfectly - touch, bang, bottom corner and as she's running back to the halfway line, she just looks over to me and smiles.”

“Those little moments,” Coffey continues. “Every single day we have these little wins and those are big for me, those quiet moments.”

Coffey, however, is resourceful and has utilised his environment to improve his coaching calibre amidst a “relentless” schedule, crediting Under 19s Coaches Wayne Ashbrook and Barry Scullion for their time and willingness to help.

“God love the two of them, I lived in their pockets last season. Any chance I could get I was in with the 19s, sitting on the bench and in the dressing room learning from them - they won the league unbeaten last year. The answer is never no from them.”

S&C

Strength and conditioning have always been an important part of a young player's development, yet the plague of ACL injuries affecting female footballers globally of late has highlighted just how crucial the speciality is to player safety.

Charged with ensuring that the players' bodies are as prepared as can be for the athletic demands that are placed upon them are Strength and Conditioning coaches Sinéad Murray and Rob Keogh, whose commitment to the Academy Coffey tells me is unquestionable - regardless of the season.

“[On December 28th] Me, Eoin and Sarah from the S&C department were up at The Roadstone in the classroom planning out our pre-season to the T. These are the games we're playing, this is the amount of the minutes each player is going to play in these games, this is the amount of gym work they're going to do, this is when they're going to be tested.

“Then the parents were brought into a meeting to outline to them exactly how this is going to go, the journey the kids are about to go through with their bodies because it's going to take a toll on them…”

Coffey tells me that the Rovers Under 17s are in the gym twice weekly with Sinéad and Rob and that a physio is on hand 24/7 if needed. Load management is of particular importance.

“If one of my girls plays with the Under 19s on Sunday, their minutes have to be logged with the S&C department. It’s always a thumbs up or a thumbs down and we always listen to that.”

Yet despite the time and energy that Rovers invest in injury prevention, injuries can be unavoidable - Katie Sherlock injuring herself in training in pre-season - her second ACL in the space of one year, Coffey describing the moment as “gutting.”

Given the recent entry of Under 17s Rovers players into the senior squad, I ask Coffey how a club can assess if a player is ‘ready’ for that next step.

The Rovers coach is resolute in his belief that young players should not be rushed into a senior squad before they're ready, believing that their entry should be - a gradual  “experience” - a view shared by the club.

“Most clubs in the country pushed all of their 2007-born girls up to the Under 19s this year,” he reveals. “We were probably the outliers - we didn't do that because we would be a believer in ‘let the kids develop.’

“There’s this sprint to the top. Yes, it looks great on social media…but ultimately what does that look like? How often are they playing? How much attention do they get when they step up? If a player is technically and tactically ready to play senior football, are they socially and emotionally ready? These are the considerations we take into account when working with our players.''

Leadership

One way in which Coffey’s coaching staff have fostered personal growth within the group is via the creation of a ‘squad leadership team’.

Divided into four segments, this initiative gives the players ownership and responsibilities for the following key areas:

- Player welfare

- Kit management

- Pre and post-match

- Warm Ups

One member of that leadership squad is Lauryn McCabe, whom Keith credits as being “the funniest kid you’ll ever meet in your life.”

Despite the global status of the 16-year-old’s older sister Katie, Coffey insists that Rovers treat the teenager like every other player at the academy.

“Lauryn is very much her own person,” he states. “I’ve never once said to Lauryn ‘Katie this or Katie that’ because she’s such a good kid and a smashing footballer. We just want Lauryn to be Lauryn, whatever that looks like, without any expectations, we just want Lauryn to end up being the best version of Lauryn that she is.”

At 26, Coffey has already achieved so much, yet I was excited to know what’s next for the Lucan native.

“Whatever the best version of Keith Coffey looks like as a coach, that's the rabbit I'm chasing all the time. Once I'm doing quality work with good people then I’m happy.”

You are Keith, you most certainly are.

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