Tarena is a secondary school health teacher and a football coach in her spare time. She started coaching as a good way to spend more time with her kids – that was over 16 years ago! 

Tell us about your coaching career to date. 

I coach football at Melville United in Waikato for under-12s through to our women’s first team. I started coaching 16 years ago when my kids took up sport. It was a good way to spend more time with them. 

What do you think it takes to be an effective coach? 

It’s about building positive relationships with the girls I coach. Sport NZ’s Balance is Better resources have been most helpful in understanding young athletes’ different motivations to participate in sport. NZ Football and FIFA coaching resources have helped too. Mostly though I’ve been lucky enough to have a community of coaches, friends and parents I’ve been able to bounce ideas off. 

What do you get out of coaching?  

Coaching allows me to provide a healthy place for young girls to grow up in, through their teenage years and into adulthood, where they can learn to carry each other's story. 

How do you make a difference in the lives of the people you coach? 

I’ve learned how to invite them into our community and truly value their contribution to the collective experience. Together we have learned to celebrate individual achievements and sit with each other in the more difficult emotions. We’ve figured out that this matters way more in the long run than results, especially to a young person. 

For me, they keep me young and connected to the next generation. They teach me about the realities of growing up today, which is really different from when I grew up. They make me more aware of the struggles they face that weren't even a thing as a teenager in the 90s. They are a fun generation that fiercely protect the things that matter to them. 

What’s your favourite coaching experience to date? 

I enjoy the little moments in the everyday of coaching - the girl that finds a sense of belonging, and overcomes health struggles because she has a place that values her. The kid that has no rite of passage in the sport but keeps coming back because they enjoy it; the one experiencing heartbreak for the first time and it's our little football community they want to surround themselves with. 

I love watching them progress from being dropped off, to driving mum and dad on their learner’s, driving themselves on their restricted and then driving others on their full license. That's when I look back and think, ‘we gave you a great place to grow up in, in the sport that you now love’. 

Tell us more about what you do outside of being a volunteer coach? 

I am a fulltime teacher at Ngaruawahia High School. I have taught there over half of my life, and I am so grateful for all of the people at Ngaruawahia High School that I continue to learn from everyday. My children are now 19, 18 and 15. I still play football when I can, I love the outdoors and travelling in my down time. 

“Coaching allows me to provide a healthy place for young girls to grow up in, through their teenage years and into adulthood, where they can learn to carry each other's story.”