Colchester United's Football in the Community team has welcomed two new members of staff, as they continue to build an exciting programme of events for Colchester and the local area.
The new faces join at an exciting time for the community scheme, following the recent launch of their Unite Our Communities strategy.
Carla Dickinson
My previous experience has been within coaching and development both here in the UK and the USA and I have just returned from studying a Master’s degree in football coaching with the United Soccer Association of America.
I currently coach a women’s FA Premier League side as well as the Essex senior representative squad.
My current role as Foundation Phase Development Officer is three-fold where I am responsible for our Development Centres (U7s to U11s), our term-time programme, as well as coordinating our Holiday Activities.
Mark Harris
I started teaching PE in 1986 and finished as Head of PE at Tendring Technology College with responsibility for training new/existing teachers and creating community programmes.
I spent a considerable amount of time working with local clubs to improve provision and developing coaches and also worked with Volleyball England as a senior staff tutor.
I have coached football at a number of local clubs along with three decades of running school teams. I believe I have a good grasp of how our sport needs to develop as we meet the challenge of turning our young people into healthy and active participants and creating a pathway that leads to excellence.
I am committed to raising aspirations throughout our community for coaches, teachers, players, parents and all those who believe that investing time in developing opportunities for our youth is time well spent. However, time spent developing our coaches is essential if we are to embed those skills we all want to see each time we watch football.