Aberdeen FC Community Trust coach Craig Carter recently became the first wheelchair user in Scotland to achieve the Scottish FA Children’s Award which is the second highest qualification on the Children’s Coaching Pathway.

Craig has lower limb Cerebral Palsy which affects his ability to walk but not his enthusiasm for coaching football and participating in Sport.

Craig cites AFCCT Trustee and former Headmaster at St Machar Academy Lenny Taylor as the first person to give him an opportunity to coach. Lenny who was also Sir Alex Ferguson’s first ever Youth Coach at AFC offered Craig the chance to help coach the S1 St Machar Football team when Craig himself was only a first year pupil.

Since leaving school, Craig has pursued his passion for coaching by completing his HND in Sports Coaching in 2011 at Aberdeen College before going onto achieve a bachelor’s degree in the same field at Abertay University Dundee in 2013. Throughout his further education Craig had voluntary coaching roles with Aberdeen FC at community football sessions. Upon completing his university degree Craig became a part-time member of staff with AFC Community Trust in October 2013 and is a regular coach at AFCCT Football Participation programmes.

“The staff at AFCCT have shown great belief in my ability, I have been encouraged to express myself and this has given me great confidence in my coaching capabilities.
I have been lucky to have good mentors and work alongside highly qualified staff, AFCCT really is a great team.”

After building up over a year of experience leading and delivering sessions for AFCCT Craig decided it was time for his next challenge. This came in the form of the level 2 Scottish FA Children’s award for coaching players aged 5-12.

“The Children’s award was a great learning experience for me, the staff on the course were excellent and gave me great encouragement throughout.
“This encouragement combined with the additional support from AFCCT really made the course enjoyable and helped me to achieve the award.”

If you are interested in coaching or volunteering for AFCCT please email info@afccommunitytrust.org Or to find out more about the Scottish FA coach Education pathway visit www.scottishfa.co.uk.