My European journey with the Ireland U-16 Women's team
We recently caught up with Ireland Under-16 Women’s Head Coach Andy Gill (pictured above) and asked him to take us through the whole process of first selecting players, and then moulding them into a team to represent Ireland at the 2017 Under-16 European Championships in Macedonia. It’s a fascinating account of the work and dedication that both the coaches and players go through to even get to a finals tournament. Andy starts from the very beginning; “Following a successful 7th place finish at the Under 16 European championships in August 2015 I was given the opportunity to take another Under 16 women programme that would culminate in a 10th place finish in 2017.” “The experience of the last programme definitely helped with selection, technical planning and organisation of meaningful international games which are so important at this level.” “The selection process began at the Under 15 inter-regionals which were held in October 2015 at NUIG. This is where I met up ...