January 2022
Young United Football Club – Sporting Director
A grassroots football club in Nairobi with big ambitions and even bigger ideas. Extremely grateful for this opportunity as working with Dexter and the rest of the team at YUFC has given me the opportunity to express my vision of how I think a football club’s operations should be run.
September 2021
The Kenyan Football Scene: Specialist Instructor CAF ‘B’ License Course – Football Kenya Federation
FIFA, CAF & the FKF have made a concerted effort to educate and certify football coaches in the country. This role gave me the opportunity to put some of the theoretical concepts around learning design that I had recently picked up into practice. As coach education is something I am extremely passionate about, I remain grateful to the technical team at the Federation for the opportunity to leave a mark on the next crop of elite coaches in the country.
December 2020
No Longer a Beginner: Assistant Coach – Tusk Sports
Tusk Sports was set up to search for and give opportunities to young, talented athletes in the country. I got to experience what being a part of a professional technical bench was like and had the opportunity to implement a lot of the ideas I had picked up over the last four years. Because of all the missteps we made, my biggest takeaway from this experience was how critical having clarity of purpose and roles is within environments like these.
September 2019
My trip to Ghana: Strength & Conditioning Coach – Right to Dream
The best football academy on the continent. I got to see what a fully professional sports environment looks like. Working with genuinely world-class athletes also exposed me to the process of elite talent recruitment & development – technically, tactically, physically and mentally. I learned that extremely high expectations and standards are the bedrock of high performance environments.
April 2019
Finally: Rugby Coach – Strathmore School
Rugby had always been the sport I excelled most at. I had had a chance to represent the country at U20 level and was part of a team that won a leg of the National Sevens Circuit in 2013. I was surprised that it had taken me this long to start actively coaching the sport. The experience was short-lived but taught me that knowing something and being able to teach it are two very different things.
January 2019
Into the Deep End: Performance Lead – Kisasa Sports
Culture eats strategy for dinner! Kisasa Sports brought together different specialities within the field of sports science in order to provide athletes & sports teams with the full spectrum of performance services. This role showed me how culture could become a competitive advantage. Oluniyi and the rest of the team invested in prioritized learning, open communication and collaboration in order to get the job done. And it reflected in the work we produced – everyone we worked with was always thoroughly impressed!
September 2017
Talent ID: Scout & Trials Coach – Green Sports Africa
GSA was set up in an effort to connect talented footballers to opportunities outside the country. This was my introduction to the global football eco-system and the role recruitment played within all of it. I am forever grateful to George, Kassim and the rest of the team at GSA because this role opened my mind up to all the opportunities present in the global football industry.
September 2014
The Beginning: Football Coach – Strathmore School
I remember it like it was yesterday – a group of kids standing in the middle of the field and my old coach telling me that they were my responsibility now. I had never coached a minute of football in my life before this. The next five years after that hold some of my dearest coaching memories. This role taught me that patience and showing belief in young people are the most powerful tools in a development coach’s arsenal. I also learnt the “how-to” of coaching through all the mistakes I made.
December 2012
My First Job: Basketball Coach – Strathmore School
Smack in the middle of my first year in University, I was invited back to my old high school to coach the Under 14 basketball program. I remain eternally grateful to the school’s administration for taking a chance on me then. Over the years, this role allowed me to grow my understanding of how to put the human being before the athlete and that there are more important things in youth sport than the win-loss column.