47 – South Yorkshire to South Africa

It’s been a while since I’ve added any pages on here but I’m hoping to get back up to speed with how Pat’s been getting on…

As mentioned last time out, while Pat was busy amputating the end of his finger (we can laugh about it now), we were having regular meetings with Dean from Evo, about a different matter.

Regardless of the decision of whether or not Pat was to carry on playing football, he’d already said he definitely wanted to carry on with the coaching of the younger keepers at Evo. It had surprised me just how much he was enjoying coaching as he’d never mentioned being interested in it before. I suppose in the back of my mind, I thought if he did finish playing, coaching (particularly with Evo) would be a great way for him to carry on in a football environment.

The Sunday morning meetings at Costa were necessary following a very brief question Dean put to me at Pat’s training one Thursday night. Dean waited until Pat had gone to warm up and then, completely out of the blue, asked me if I thought Pat would be interested in going to South Africa for a week to do some coaching?

I’m fairly sure I laughed out loud.

For the previous few months, Pat had been coaching younger age group keepers on Saturday mornings. The Saturday morning keepers are generally the boys and girls below the Junior Premier League (JPL) age groups that attend Evo training, so up to about 10 years old.

I don’t think I answered for a for a few seconds, just because of how unexpected the question was.

The idea was for Dean and his business partner Steve to go, along with Seb (head of Evo – Brain, Body, Mind), as well as Carter (Dean’s son) who would do some coaching with the outfield players at Evo South Africa in Johannesburg. The final piece in the jigsaw would be Pat going with them to coach the Evo South Africa keepers for the week.

Dean warned me there were a lot of things to put in place to get it off the ground, as you could probably imagine, but that he was also extremely hopeful it would go ahead, so needed to know if Pat would be up for it. In simple terms, the week actually happening or not would depend on the financing of the visit, based on the wider interest generated in Johannesburg.

But what can you say to that? The offer of going to South Africa to coach other keepers at the ripe old age of 16?

Once I’d digested what Dean had told me, I answered on Pat’s behalf. I thought it would be best to give an answer straight away, just to avoid any doubts as to whether he wanted to go.

For a few weeks, no more was said about it and I’d kept my promise not to mention it to Pat until anything further was decided.

Then, one night when I was picking Pat up from training, he said “I might be going to South Africa!” I told him that I’d heard it might be a possibility a few weeks earlier. He was buzzing.

As a 16 year old lad he can be a pain in the arse at times and generally his attitude is similar to Kevin and Perry but this turned him into a different kid. Even if only temporarily.

Once it had been agreed, Dean suggested us meeting up regularly. It was around this time that Pat had said he was thinking of stopping playing, so the other positive about the possibility of him going to South Africa was that we were still firmly in touch with Dean throughout. Costa was the meeting place of choice, every other Sunday morning.

Dean was still feeling his way with his contacts in South Africa but in the meantime he’d said Pat should start getting his coaching programme down on paper. This would be his coaching that he would deliver to the keepers. “No problem.” was his reply.

Generally with new skills or challenges, Pat rarely seems phased which is a brilliant attribute to have, especially as a teenager. My only worry with him being like that, is that he might be being too laid back or he’s not considering all the things that need to be done.

After Dean’s comment about the coaching programme, my brain clicked into gear. As confident as Pat seemed, I thought he might need a bit of help or at least some guidance. On the way home I asked him what his first thoughts were, about the coaching. He rattled off quite a few ideas and even started to develop them, there and then. I told him to write them down straight away. Too often it’s the case that you can have a good idea but then forget part – or all – of it.

He found an old envelope in the glove box and I had a pen in my pocket. He started scribbling. Once he’d finished writing bits down, I said that if he wanted any help or even just my opinion, to give me a shout. The general idea at this point was for him to create a training plan for the visit to South Africa, to cover five days Monday to Friday for two different age groups of keepers, approximately 8-12 years and 13-16 years. This though would depend on the take up of places when the training camp was advertised in Johannesburg.

My guess was that numbers wouldn’t be a problem, as over in Johannesburg Evo have a number of teams from u13′-u15’s, u17’s, as well as a senior team. But in reality, I didn’t have a clue as to what the interest would be.

The training programme was to be designed by Pat and delivered to the two groups of keepers. As this was his first attempt at designing a goalkeeping programme, Dean was wanting to ensure everything was up to scratch – so we made more trips to Costa as the weeks went by.

Another opportunity for Pat, off the back of South Africa but also the coaching he’d already been doing at Evo, was put to him.

“Would you like to be Evo’s Head of Goalkeeping?”

It was a question he didn’t need long to think about. The South Africa training programme would therefore be the blueprint for his future venture as Head of Goalkeeping. Dean and Pat were bouncing ideas off each other while I listened to their thoughts – and drank coffee. I made a few notes – fairly general things based on what Pat was saying. As much as anything, it was to help him or at least give him extra ideas about what could go into his training plan.

In equal parts – as delighted as I was for him, I was also nervous for him. I really wanted his week in South Africa to go as well as possible. I’ve always remembered an old work manager of mine had a favourite saying and it’s stuck with me.

“Fail to prepare, prepare to fail.”

I wanted Pat to be as well prepared as possible for what was going to be an unforgettable but also, extremely busy week. In the back of my mind, it went back to him being really laid back. I wanted him to put maximum effort in while he was still in Sheffield because that’s when I could help. Once he was on the plane, I couldn’t really do much to support him.

So the training plan would be put into practice in South Africa and then after returning to Sheffield, Pat would use his plan to train the JPL Evo keepers at their weeknight training sessions. As the weeks progressed, Pat could amend the plan adding things that he thought would be beneficial, or likewise remove parts if he wasn’t happy with them or if he didn’t think they were working.

The main things I wanted to make sure Pat was thinking about were how to develop the drills he’d got, from fairly basic to more advanced as each session progressed. For a start, he had no idea what level the South African keepers he’d be coaching were at. So he might have to move things on quickly if they were a decent standard, as the last thing you want to do is have keepers not being pushed enough as they’ll get bored easily and not be motivated. Alternatively, the keepers might take a bit of time getting used to the drills or techniques, in which case he’d have to be careful not to move them on to more advanced drills too quickly.

I became aware of this myself when I first started coaching Pat. The other keeper in the team, Jack was a great lad but his attention span wasn’t quite as long as Pat’s. More or less straight away I realised that I needed to keep Jack involved, while it was Pat’s turn in goal, otherwise he’d become distracted or bored. Simple things like pairing them up for drills – so serving to each other, or using them for a secondary part of the drill for example, me serving directly to Pat, then in the same drill Jack serving for Pat to make a diving save.

Pat had already been thinking about this. We put our ideas together and wrote down different scenarios, the positives and negatives. We crossed bits out and wrote new ideas in. I was there to help him but the content and ideas were all his.

As the training plan came together, Pat spoke with Dean and he put all the separate sections into a spreadsheet, in the same format he already had for the outfield camp. This was obviously for Pat’s benefit but also to show the coaches at Evo South Africa in advance, what to expect when the coaches arrived from England.

Over the weeks while the plan was being compiled, there was plenty of other paperwork to consider. As Pat was only 16 and not travelling with either of his parents (unfortunately) into South Africa, we had to make sure all the i’s were dotted and t’s crossed. His passport had recently been renewed, so that wasn’t an issue. As it was new territory for all of us though, we wanted to be 100% certain that there wouldn’t be any nasty surprises, for example, at the airport when it would almost certainly be too late to sort out any problems.

Apart from paperwork, there were other things to consider. Compulsory vaccinations. Pat was able to go for his second Covid vaccination, so I booked him in. We also had to consider; Diphtheria, Tetanus, Polio, Hepatitis A and Typhoid. – the first three of these were all covered by his jabs that he’d had at school.

I contacted our doctors to book him in for Hepatitis A and Typhoid. They told me to contact the hospital as they wouldn’t do them. I contacted the relevant department at the hospital. They could book him in for the vaccinations in August. Great. Except they were travelling to South Africa on 8th July.

They gave me a number for a private clinic in Sheffield city centre, so I rang them and got him booked in for the two jabs on the following Saturday morning.

It was all really professional at the clinic, apart from there apparently being a worldwide shortage of the typhoid vaccines, so he wasn’t able to have it but they put him on a waiting list, in case. The nurse said she thought it was very unlikely that we’d get a call before he was due to travel but also didn’t seem particularly concerned. But then again, it wasn’t her that was travelling was it?

So his jabs were all (sort of) up to date. The health concern that was still lingering, was his finger. He was still having to go and get it checked out. We were basically just hoping the scab would fall off before he was due to travel and that it would therefore be healed, meaning no chance of infection. Fingers crossed so to speak.

Back to the paperwork.

Dean asked me to put a letter together confirming that he would be Pat’s guardian for the week, in our absence. I put all the details into the letter; flight details and times, Pat’s passport number, Dean’s passport number, dates of birth, addresses – both at home and where they’d be staying in Johannesburg – contact numbers etc. For all the hard work everybody had put in, both in the UK and South Africa to get the camp organised, we needed to make sure Pat would actually be able to travel.

A few days before they were due to fly, we completed a health questionnaire for Pat to take with him but then another document that he’d potentially need was mentioned.

The South African Home Affairs department have a document entitled ‘South African requirements for minors travelling internationally’. It looked as though we should complete it (again, being careful not to miss anything important) and then it needed to be signed by a ‘Commissioner of Oaths’ – whatever that is?

After making enquiries, I found out that a solicitor should be able to sign the document for us, for a small fee. But not just any solicitor, so I needed to check beforehand to make sure. So on the Monday afternoon before their flight, Ciara and I went to the solicitors. Dean met us there, in case the solicitor needed him to countersign the document. The solicitor looked a little confused with the document but signed it anyway. And took the money.

As it turned out, we later found out that this document was for South African minors travelling into, or out of South Africa without their parents, such is the problem of trafficking in that part of the world. Once again, from the point of view of Pat being able to go Johannesburg, better to be safe than sorry.

So, apart from packing his cases, everything else was now sorted.

Paperwork, jabs and training plan all finalised. As was his injured finger – the scab came off, although the skin was still very weak, so we bought some tubular bandages for him to take, just to give a bit more protection when he had his gloves on.

On the Friday morning that they travelled, Ciara was working from home and I nipped back from work to see him off. Later that evening we both said it was strange without him at home. A lot quieter at least and for the next week the food bill dropped dramatically.

Over the next week or so, there was very limited contact with the travellers due to power blackouts, which are quite common in the evenings, apart from the fact that it was very much a working trip while they were away, with not much time to relax.

Apart from the weekday coaching sessions, the UK Evo group were working closely with Evo South Africa, who were going to show them round Johannesburg and Carter and Pat would also play in a couple of games for the South African Evo u18’s. Just to add to all the other documents and paperwork that were needed, Pat had to get an ID card to allow him to play in the games.

Ultimately, the week was a great success from a coaching point of view, but just as importantly, the UK Evo group were able to meet up and properly get to know their South African Evo counterparts.

As a bit of a treat, I’d bought him some new goalkeeper gloves before he went to South Africa. His other gloves were showing a bit of wear and as he was going in a professional role, I thought it would be for the best. So when he travelled, he took 2 pairs of boots and 2 pairs of gloves. He only came home with a pair of each. He’d given away the newest pair of boots and the new gloves to two of the lads he had been coaching.

He apologised to me when he came back home because of giving the gloves and boots away but he needn’t have. I was pleased that he had. It really did surprise him just how little the lads from Johannesburg had got.

Pat was lucky enough to have been given the opportunity for a once in a lifetime trip to Johannesburg, to coach other keepers and broaden his horizons but it also opened his eyes to the lives that others have. Some much less fortunate than himself.

The second and final game was a league game for the Evo SA team. Carter and Pat played. Apparently Pat made a great 1v1 save late on that the manager was pretty pleased with.

Sadly there was no footage of the game or the save but I believe Dean’s version (more than if Pat had told me!). The success of the week was enough for me to keep the faith.