Seventeen local football coaches recently completed their Uefa B licence qualification run by the Scottish Football Association in conjunction with the Bermuda Football Coaches association.

The course was conducted by Donald Park, the head of coaching education at the Scottish FA, a former professional player with Hearts and Partick Thistle.

The course, which ran in three parts, began in March, continued in September before final practical exams were completed in October in Glasgow.

The 138-hour long course required participants to have already attained a Bermuda FA C licence, which is equivalent to the SFA C licence, before being eligible to participate, and is divided into practical and theoretical sessions.

The Uefa B licence is designed for coaches working with all age categories in an 11v11 format.

The theoretical sessions covered topics such as a philosophy of coaching, how players learn, how you plan and deliver a coaching session, development of fitness programmes and how to analyse player and team performance.

Practical sessions took place on the pitch and included principles of attacking and defending, midfield play, counter attacking and set plays.

Scott Morton, the president of the BFCA, was delighted with the quality of coaches.

“The standard of coaches on display was impressive; we had a lot of Bermuda’s senior coaches participating in the course, including the new president of the Bermuda Football Association Mark Wade.

“We were able to help subsidise the cost of this course and without the generous financial support of the BFA this would not have been possible.”

The coaching initiative which began in Bermuda in 2012 has now certified 115 Bermuda C license coaches and 24 Uefa B license coaches.

Morton added: “The standard of coaches now out in the clubs is making a real difference to the technical development of football in Bermuda.

“At a youth level our coaches are part of the community and we should never underestimate the difference that the discipline and structure of their training sessions can make to a young person’s life.

“We see our coaches as positive mentors and role models to Bermuda’s youth and they have a very positive impact both on and off the field”.

The successful coaches taking the course were former Bermuda captain Khano Smith, an assistant coach at professional women’s side Orlando Pride, Devarr Boyles, Dennis Brown, Don Vickers, Mick Ward, Danvers Seymour Jr, Richard Todd, Cal Blankendal, Sergio Goater, Mark Wade, Scott Morton, Derek Stapley, Troy Lewis, David Martins, Aaron Denkins, Corey Hill and Robert Bean.