Soccer coach Luke Noonan enjoying his leadership role with Coerver Coaching Munster

Luke Noonan is currently the Business Development Manager working across Coerver Coaching Munster and 3v3 Ireland. 

He has been in this role for about six months now, however, he has been with Coerver for almost two years first working as a coach.

His role still involves coaching in the evenings across some of our many venues, but during the day he is in the office working on events like the Winter Series with 3v3.  That means he has to organise for 3v3 football events which will see 640 children partake in the series from multiple clubs across Cork.

“The Coerver Schools Programme is part of my role where I am actively looking for local businesses to partner on the initiative which would see children in a school of their choice enjoy free physical activity using the Coerver methodology," Luke said.

“With 3v3 we are also currently rolling out an All-Ireland Series of events for 2014, 2015 and 2016 born kids, which will see the overall winners travel to either Real Madrid or Manchester as part of their grand prize depending on their age category. 

"The Real Madrid prize will see the players train and go to a Real Madrid match, where as the Manchester prize will see the winners represent Ireland in Manchester United's training ground as part of a UK 3v3 Event.

“We also have great partnerships with the DDSL and CWSSL which have led to great events like the recently held 3v3 event in the Sport Ireland Dome in partnership with the DDSL which saw almost 600 kids participate across two days, so events like these take quite a bit of planning.

“In Coerver and 3v3 I work very closely with Tim Mawe, who is a Uefa A license coach, and has great experience in football. 

"Tim does a lot of our session planning across partner clubs and weekly academies across Coerver. 

"Denis Behan, who has great experience not only as a coach but also a professional player, both in Ireland and the UK.

"Derek Coughlan, again similar to Denis, he has great experience not only as a coach, but also a professional player both in Ireland and the UK. "He also brings a wealth of expertise having previously worked with the FAI.

"Daniel Bennet and Zoran Teodrovic both work full time as coaches in our weekly academies and bring a wealth of experience from different sporting backgrounds.

“It's amazing to say that football is your full-time job and I don’t think the coaching aspect is something that can be complained about as, if the kids are not enjoying a session then it probably is down to poor planning or execution as football is so enjoyable. 

"So, I would say I don’t face too many challenges coaching young players.

“I get great satisfaction from coaching with kids, but it’s far from a linear path to improvement. 

"I work with so many different kids of different abilities, that it is so rewarding to say all players of different abilities improve over time. 

"This can even be seen in our recent schools' programme where we worked with children with additional needs in Our Lady of Good Counsel, where the kids were truly amazing to work with. 

"Then, on the other hand, only last season I was part of the management team with the Cork Youth League where we won the Munster and FAI Inter-League title which was a very different challenge but also equally as rewarding."

Noonan is also doing his masters degree in MTU with Sports Ireland on coach education and has two years remaining that will certainly give him many other opportunities in the future. 

He certainly has a bright future ahead of him in the sport as his dedication and passion to learn from different coaches is a great trait that any young coach should have to succeed.

“I am currently doing a research masters in MTU with Sport Ireland looking at coach education, so I am excited to be working on that project which will take me into 2027 and hopefully may open more doors in the future.

“On a more personal side of things, I would like to continue on the UEFA pathway and also my personal coaching roles with College Corinthians, which again could lead to more doors opening down the line, especially with the League of Ireland continuing to grow year on year.

“Finally, I would like to thank Louis Nolan, the former Cork Youth Leagues coach and both Tim Mawe and Denis Behan of Coerver, who have shown great faith in me as a coach,” Noonan added.