It was decision made in a moment. But looking back now women's football coach Peter Buchanan says he wouldn't change a thing.

Buchanan began coaching the girls team at Takapuna Grammar School on Auckland's North Shore for a simple reason - one of the girls in his club team asked if him if he would. Thirteen years later he's still there.

Peter Buchanan played soccer from the age of nine, mainly at North Shore United, after his family emigrated from Scotland and settled in Devonport.

Buchanan first coached a women's team at the Lyndale Football Club, in Auckland's west, after he got injured while playing there when he was 21 years old. Three years later he was back playing at North Shore and he decided to coach a team of 14-15-year-old boys.

But he admits he found the boys quite difficult to coach. "The boys were hard work. Their egos," he says now, "sometimes got in the way.

This was quite a contrast to the women he had coached at Lyndale.

"While the women were a social team, once they were on the field they were quite serious. And I liked their attitude to learning. I enjoyed it a lot more."

Buchanan then coached senior women's teams for about 15 years on and off before taking on the coaching at Takapuna Grammar School. Over a decade later he's still there, partly because of his long association with North Shore United.

"I could see the potential for a feeder-type system between the local club and the local school, so I thought it made sense to coach there, given my affiliation with the club."

Unlike some coaches of young sportspeople, Buchanan says he hasn't experienced any issues with the parents of the girls he coaches. "I have been lucky. I have never had any problems with the parents and found most to be supportive," he says.

The team trains and plays at Takapuna Grammar School and there are still strong links with North Shore United. However, Buchanan says the depth of women's soccer at one of New Zealand's most famous football clubs isn't what it was.

"It is a little thin so we see girls having to change clubs to progress. This year many of our girls are playing for Forrest Hill Milford."

Buchanan has provided 100s of hours of coaching to Takapuna Grammar School over the years but he says it's less full on than it was. Coaching and organising the team takes up about six hours per week but it used to be more.

"We used to train Monday and Friday with our game Wednesday but in recent years, with the majority of girls playing club, we have reduced this to one training session at school as clubs generally train twice weekly with a game on Saturday or Sunday."

It's also helpful he now has an assistant coach. Morgan Owen has assisted Buchanan with the coaching in the last two years and she has been invaluable, he says.

"Basically, we've job-shared, which means if I get held up through work, or something crops up at home, Morgan can step in and the girls don't miss out. It has also taken the pressure off me to have to be there every session."

Morgan is an ex-pupil and player who had plenty of talent, says Buchanan.

"Morgan was a good player herself and she wants the girls to play, not just bang the ball up the park. That's important to me."

So, what's kept Buchanan coaching all these years?

"I love seeing improvements in play and skill level. There are always individuals in teams who are a delight to coach. Their enthusiasm and enjoyment towards the sport are what drives you. These girls are not necessarily the better players but they work hard and add so much to the team."

And what's the biggest coaching challenge with a school team?

"Juggling club soccer and other school sports and activities is the most challenging aspect of coaching schoolgirls. Boys generally play one sport in winter and one in summer, whereas the girls might play netball and hockey, do dance, etc."

Buchanan has no formal coaching qualifications and admits he's come close a couple of times to doing "his papers" but in the end "never got around to it".

"I wasn't sure of the value," he says.

He does, however, like to keep learning and is often on-line looking for new ideas to make training interesting and challenging.

"One of the things with school teams is that you never know how many girls are going to turn up. Some weeks you have a full squad, other times only six turn up. So it pays to have plenty of options."

Buchanan says he's famous for "putting the cones out and then taking them in again".

Something he plans to do for a while yet.