MAY 2020, The Central Coast Academy of Sport continues the ‘Our People Series’. A series of media alerts designed to shine the spotlight on the amazing work done by a committed group of highly qualified individuals, today we shine the spotlight on Mitch Ede the Head Coach of the Central Coast Academy of Sport AFL Program.
Mitch Ede – Head Coach AFL
Spending a big portion of his life playing the game, Mitch Ede’s experience, enthusiasm and dedication to the sport makes him an easy choice as Head Coach for the last three years within the CCAS AFL Program. Some outstanding achievements within the sport for Mitch have included Sydney Swans reserves in 2002 and 2003, positions that most upcoming AFL players would aspire to fill.
Mitch’s fulltime appointment with AFL NSW as Central Coast Development Coordinator further concretes the AFL pathway, and ensures that the CCAS athletes are getting the best coaching possible. AFL is a fast paced, physically demanding sport requiring fitness, strength, agility, technical and tactical understanding and quick decision making. Along with some of Mitch’s qualifications such as a registered Personal Trainer for more than 10 years and Sport and Recreation Certified, Mitch is able to add knowledge and experience together and produces a quality program to address all of the attributes that make up the game. Mitch’s coaching proficiency and popularity was evident in the amount of applications that came through CCAS.
Part of what makes Mitch’s programming so successful is his coaching philosophy. Creating an environment where the individual can be inspired, involved, challenged and to continually develop their skills to support key individual and shared goals. The CCAS athletes developed skills throughout the course of the program and were able to progress on those skills on a weekly basis. A visit to a training session clearly shows Mitch’s passion for the sport, with his experience and coaching philosophy clearly evident.
Of his involvement with the CCAS AFL Program, Mitch says:
“The program has had some fantastic improvements over the previous 2 years. Extra training sessions, Raw Challenge team building day, live-in camp and an inter-academy session with HAS with the highlight of the 2019/2020 program being the introduction of our first CCAS Girls Development Squad. In addition to the incredible program, it wouldn’t be where it is currently without the quality coaches involved. From the start of the 2018, we have increased our coaches from 5 to 11 across both squads, which allows us to dedicate time to more specialized coaching. I thoroughly look forward to where the 2020/2021 program will take us.”
The Sport of AFL has had huge growth of recent years. AFLW teams have nearly doubled since its inception in 2017 again highlighting a pathway for talented females in the sport. Mitch brought four extra quality female coaches into the CCAS program in 2019. A bonus for CCAS as having extra quality support for the girl’s development squad to lead into a Girls Female Talent Squad within CCAS.
