New coaches have Point to prove

UNPRECEDENTED depth has Nichols Point Soccer Club confident they can rise up the senior men’s ladder this season.

New coach Sam White said the club had assembled an improved squad, mixing experience, young talent and some new recruits for the start of the S-League season on April 28.

White will be joined in the coaching seat by fellow first-time senior coach Sam Christmas, who is at the helm of the women’s side.

Nichols Point finished at the bottom of the men’s table last year, but White believed their new found depth can push them forward in 2024.

“We’ve got some great numbers showing up to training, probably unprecedented compared to the last nine years I’ve been at the club so that’s a real positive,” he said.

“We’ll have quite a few new faces stepping into the senior team, just looking to use a bit more of that depth we found last year.

“We’ve got a lot of very skilful players and I think in the past we might not have utilised some of the basics as well as we could have, so we’ll take a step back and looking at that and there definitely will be a bit of a change in formation.

“We’ve got a couple of guys, last year our under-16s, a couple of them had a permanent fixture in the seniors team and a few more were regulars off the bench in the reserves as well, so we’re looking to bring a few more of them into the starting line-up in the seniors as there’s a lot of a potential there.”

White said the step up in coaching had been a learning curve across pre-season.

“I did my first season coaching with the reserves men’s last year and we had some really good results, so that’s led to me being handed the seniors gig this year,” he said.

“I’m really looking forward to it, wrapping my head around it and really enjoying it so far.”

Christmas said despite not having played for 15 years she was passionate about the game and keen to take the reins of last year’s runners-up.

“This is my first gig as a coach. I’m thankful for the faith the club has showed in me,” she said.

“At the moment we’ve got some pretty good numbers, a mixture of some of our juniors players coming up, older players who have been established within the group and some experienced players who have decided to put their boots back on.

“I think similar to me it’s all been re-ignited from the Matildas’ success and it’s bringing some of the experienced players back into the game. Young girls as well, huge in getting renewed interest, like all codes we’re competing with other sports so it’s great to have that limelight coming back on soccer.”

Christmas said a number of talented youngsters will continue to pull double duty on weekends, playing for their home club alongside games for respective clubs in Adelaide.

“That’s a good thing for them individually but also good for Nichols Point,” she said.

“They bring back their experiences and learnings they’ve had and that benefits everybody.”