The starting year of record is 1974. At this time there were 19 coaches in Leinster with the relevant qualification being provided by the NCA. Initially the coaching certificate was provided in three forms – Advanced, Distinction and Standard.
The first three advanced coaches were Noel Mahony, John West and Robin Waters. There were a further five coaches who received distinctions. The following year Vinnie Savino, the only coach still active from this period, joined the ranks. By 1975 the total number of qualified coaches had increased to 33.
In 1977 there was a big push to increase the number of advanced coaches and Brian Bunworth, Denzil Tipping, Bill Dalton-Browne and Vinnie Savino achieved a distinction.
Courses were not held every year so the overall numbers grew quite slowly. At the same time coverage was quite good with 13 clubs having NCA coaches on their books. In 1978 another push saw 18 new coaches qualified. In 1981 a Teachers Award Certificate was added. . That year was also notable as a certain Brian Kelleher qualified, later to become Director of Coaching.
By 1984 75 coaches had been qualified through the NCA system. That year we also saw the first women coaches.
A re-organisation of coaching structures saw the appointment of Vinnie Savino as the first Director of Coaching. A new course for a Senior Coaching Certificate [below that of Advanced Coaching Certificate] was introduced. The first of these was held in Dublin in 1985 and nine people qualified – Ray Daly, Brian Grehan, Richard Davies, Brian Kelleher, Kevin O’Herlihy, Jeff Smith, Michael Marsh, Ian Cox and Tim O’Brien.
Another coaching course was held in 1987, which was now known as the Club Coach Certificate [and with Distinction]. By the following year the ranks [though not all were active] had increased to 91, including an active Women’s Section.
Brian Kelleher took over as Director of Coaching in 1990 and more Club Certificate courses were held in 1992 and1995. In 1990 Savino and Kellegher were appointed as NCA Staff Coaches. In 1995, after the ECB came into being the designation was changed to ECB Staff Coach 1 (indicating an upgrade to allow tutoring up to ECB Level1 courses). In 1999 the two were further upgraded to Staff Coach 2 which allowed for conducting ECB Level 2 courses. At this point the list of coaches named in the LCU Handbook was culled to include only active coaches. There were four advanced coaches. Chris Gibson who qualified in the UK, joined the ranks of Robin Waters, John West and Murrough McDevitt. There were six active Senior Coaches, Ray Daly, Kevin O’Herlihy, Michael Marsh, Ian Cox, Paul Ridgeway and Peter O’Reilly. There were 47 coaches listed in all.
Another, and the last NCA Club Certificate Course was held in 1997 and in 1999 the whole structure changed as the LCU signed up for the ECB coaching structure and converted the NCA Certificates into the corresponding ECB levels. At this point the number of coaches had risen to 93.
In 2001 the full ECB based structure as it applied to Leinster looked like this:
Staff Coaches [2]
Advanced / Level 3 [7]
Senior / Level 2 [15]
Club / Level 1 [108]
Total : 132 [out of 162 qualified since records started in 1974].
A number of Advanced NCA Certificate holders converted to ECB Level 3. Brian O’Rourke joined their number and was the first person to complete the new format course.
The first batch of Level 2 coaches qualified in the same year, Brian Gilmore, Fergus of Flynn, Eddie Lewis, Caroline Archer, Jonathan Walsh, Miriam Grealey, Catherine O’Neill and John Wills.
In 2005 a further Introductory Course was added to the range [by this time the Teachers Certificate was known as the Training Certificate Award].
In 2003 Brian O’Rourke joined Kelleher and Savino as Staff Coaches and in 2006, Pete Johnston became the latest ECB L3 Coach.
In 2005 ECB handed over the accreditation of courses to First4Sport in the UK, as the responsible body for coaching qualifications across all sports. The staff coaches were confirmed separately as tutors (to deliver courses) and as assessors (to examine and grade coaches at assessment).
In 2010 Brian Kellegher qualified as a field-based trainer. This involves both mentoring of recently-qualified tutors and signing them off as competent after a period of practical course delivery. He also qualified as an internal verifier. This role involves the Quality Assessment of course delivery and ensuring that the standard of assessments is consistent, in addition to signing off assessors as competent.
By 2010, by which time responsibility for running the ECB Courses in Ireland moved to Cricket Ireland, 283 coaches had been qualified since 1974. At this point the Leinster handbook reported the following:
Staff Coaches 3
Advanced / ECB L3 Coaches 6
Senior / ECB L2 Coaches 19
Club Coaches / ECB L1 Coaches 157
Leinster Clubs Covered 23
With further changes taking place at Leinster Cricket Association and ECB/ICC levels, look out for more articles on coaching over the winter.