Victor shares passion with the next generation
Our Junior Club have the benefit of a number of former senior players mentoring our next generation as coaches this year. Those coaches include Bevan Brocklehurst, Pete Twidle, Will McGee, Kerrin Simpson, Tony Natoli, David Isaia, Ben Nansett, JP Tocker - and 33 test All Black and former Marist St Pats captain, Victor Vito.
We caught up with Victor about his experience giving back to the junior club.
What team are you coaching and how long have you been coaching them?
I'm coaching the Marist St Pats Year 5 Wolves and I’ve been coaching them since the beginning of term 2 this year. Before that I was coaching junior touch for my Y3/4 and Yr5’s at my kid's school.
After a long playing career, what do you take from your own experiences that you try to share with the players?
I try and make sure that at these ages they first of all just love turning up to play with their mates, because that’s the most important part.
After that if we can teach them the skill of listening, they can then begin to love the process of getting better at the little things like catching, passing, tackling, cleaning out - then of course attacking with ball in hand to score, we’re onto a good thing.
It's really important to tell them that, as much as we love winning, we aren’t too worried about the results just yet and we are more interested in honest effort on attack and defence - because the result will take care of itself if you do that.
What is the most rewarding part of being a junior coach?
The most rewarding part is seeing these kids begin to value the importance of teamwork and realising that in rugby, everyone has a role to play and that you need people with different strengths to help you to come out on top.
Often they get down on themselves for not scoring a try so it’s our job as coaches to make mention and reward the less celebrated but equally important actions like cleanouts, a draw and pass, tackles or steals etc that helped the team to perform.
Any words of encouragement for people thinking about coaching junior rugby?
For anyone thinking of getting involved with coaching Juniors, I say don’t hesitate and go for it! As a former professional rugby player, I still remember where my self belief and love of the game started, and that was from coaches that not only believed in me but also made the time to instill the many values of what makes our game so great like fun, hard work, teamwork and respect.
MSP Supporters
Shamrock Club
