Coaching Little Sprouts

Coaching little sprouts, or in other words guiding little children in developing their talents into their full capability is a fulfilling career. This is something which I have always loved about teaching. I am about to introduce you to one such amazing person.

Introducing The Coach-Vinod Appu

Vinod Appu is the coach of Football Academy under Team Naadanzz, a team of 16 children, in Thrissur. He has been a football coach for about 5 years now. A Senior Software Engineer by profession, Vinod’s love of football led him to coaching similarly passionate people.

Vinod is working in Ashling Microsystems, Kochi, Kerala and has been in the IT field for the past 11 years.

Football is his passion and so on every weekend and any other holidays, you can find him on the grounds coaching children starting from the age of 5 years. For the past 2 years, as it is work from home, he coaches for at least 2 hours every morning as well on working days.

Love For The Game

Growing up in the village of Mambully, Thrissur, Vinod spent his childhood playing football in the nearby temple grounds and fields with his friends.

While working in Technopark, he used to play football in the tournaments conducted at Technopark. It was during one of these games, that a comment from one of his friends made him think about being a licensed football coach.

First Coaching Experience

“A dedicated coach always makes a positive impact on the team’s life.” This is something that Vinod had strongly felt.

Vinod started his coaching career in 2016, as a youth coach with Pratibha FC Ulloor coaching U12. He was under the guidance of Mr. Aji Sivapalan, the head coach of the senior team, for 5 years. Vinod also coached corporate teams of QuEST Global and Tata Elxsi.

Achieving The First Professional License

During this time period, he felt the need to be more skilled about coaching and went on to get his D license from Mumbai in 2017. He was mentored by Mr. Mangesh Desai, Assistant Coach and Head Of Youth Development of Real Kashmir FC. He is also an instructor in AIFF (All India Football Federation).

Though his attempt at C license from AFC Bangalore in 2018 was not successful, Vinod went forward to learn something different. He had lots of dreams about running a football academy someday and so went ahead to do something which could help him do that.

Coaching at FC Madras / Mahagony FC

Joseph Vaz, cofounder of FC Madras was Vinod’s mentor from 2019. His main aim was to learn how to manage an academy. Vinod was also coaching U12 team till he returned to his hometown, Thrissur in 2020.

Coaching At Thrissur

After running around collecting all the experiences, Vinod was back in his hometown, Thrissur and felt the time had come to make a difference in this quint little village of Mambully, Kandassankadavu . Naadanzz at that time was a small arts and sports club without any focus on football. He approached them with the initiative of starting a football team.

So he started Football Academy under Naadanzz, which got a great response and had around 60 children initially. But then corona struck, and he had to put a stop to his dreams for a little while.

But once the restrictions were lifted, Vinod started coaching again but it was more difficult due to the widespread fear of corona. So this time there were only 5 children. But he still had high hopes for those children and he went ahead with the training.

Team Naadanzz

The hard work and hope Vinod had, paid off. Now he has a good team of children training as passionately as him. Working as the head coach, he not only trains children but also mentors assistant coaches.

Also, as the number of children training with his Football Academy has grown and so he has started coaching at 2 different places.

The children get a chance of training on the turf at the cost of 1000 Rs per month and on normal grounds at 300 Rs per month. He also pays the assistant coaches who are training under him. All these without any other backup or sponsorships, only with the salary that he makes from his IT job.

Engineers To Coaches Initiative

Along with the coaching and his job in Technopark, Vinod has been attempting to make a difference in the football world.

He started an initiative to bring forward more soccer coaches from Technopark. this was heavily inspired by Just For Kicks project. The plan is to train more than 50 coaches within 5 years, who are engineers by profession but is passionate about football. As well as allocate coaches to schools, so that they could get hands on experience in coaching.

Vinod along with his friends, Santhosh ID, Vineeth P Joseph and Rajith VP, have already organized 4 workshops in Technopark, where engineers who would love to train as coaches had attended.

They have also trained more than 10 coaches so far where some of them working part time in football academies in Trivandrum.

To know more about this initiative, I have linked the details below.

Engineers to Coaches

What’s Next

Vinod wants this Engineers to Coaches initiative to be recognised by AIFF because, if it happens, this project will get an incredible reach within Technopark and more Engineers who are passionate about the game could be trained as coaches.

They could also get more experienced coaches to assist them in their football workshops. They would get a chance to assist LNCPE (Lakshmibai National College of Physical Education) coaches as well.

Sponsorships

Vinod also wishes he would get more sponsorships for his Football Academy under Team Naadanzz. Then, not only would he be able to help get the coaches training under him licensed, but also provide transportation so that his players could play away matches, be able to train in beaches, buy more training gears for his team to name a few.

If you would like to contact Vinod in regard to any questions regarding his coaching, sponsorships, or the Engineers to Coaches initiative, I am linking his Facebook and Instagram URL below.

Summing Up

Sometimes all it takes is the hard work and determination of a few to bring about positive changes in the life of many.

As my first interview, I am glad to have chosen Vinod Appu. His passion to the game of football is changing the lives of many, slowly but steadily. With just the earnings out of his pocket, Vinod Appu is making a difference in the lives of many children. All because of his love to the game of football.

I sincerely hope this initiative of Engineers to Coaches gets recognized by AIFF. At the same time, I also wish his efforts for Team Naadanzz gets acknowledged and he gets more sponsorships for his team. All the best wishes to Team Naadanzz.