A FORMER West Cheshire College sports student spent the summer of a lifetime teaching football in America.
For the past four summers Jake Edwards, 22, has coached football in the States but this year was made extra special because he was given the prestigious role of director of football camps in America.
Jake, from Wirral, who studied BTEC National Diploma in Sports and a Foundation Degree in Sports at the college, was given the promotion thanks to his years of experience in coaching.
During his time in Seattle, Washington, Jake was responsible for looking after more than 40 football coaches.
He said: “I have always had a big interest in football coaching so I signed up with a company called Challenger Sports to coach football in America.
“For the first three years I was in Baltimore and this summer I was in Seattle.
“My role as director included making sure all of the camps had the right equipment, that the children were separated equally between the coaches, giving first aid treatment and getting people to sign up for next year’s camp.
“The camps are for children aged three-18 and it is nice to work with the different age groups as they learn using different skills.”
And Jake, now a University of Chester student, believes the college course back home helped him during his time in America.
He added: “As the course was vocational, I developed a lot of hands-on skills that I used for the role.
“I loved my time at the college, the tutors were excellent and really helpful and I enjoyed it so much that I have recommended it to quite a lot of my friends.
“Before I started the course I only ever wanted to be a football coach but the course has made me realise that I’ve got a lot of options, including working in football analysis and developing football in the community – it has really opened a lot of doors for me.”
