EP11: Chronicles of a Coach - Lizzie Hall and Lee Smith

On this episode, we are joined by Lizzie Hall and Lee Smith, two coaches who will be familiar to our football community. Lizzie and Lee have been involved with football both from a young age, Lizzie starting here in Gisborne and Lee over in the UK.

They are passionate about football, you will either see them playing, officiating and coaching most weekends, potentially doing all three over a weekend. They are strong advocates for the improvement of female football here in Te Tairawhiti, and have both previously worked for Central Football in the development space.

We talk to them about their early years, what got them into coaching, and who their influences were. We also take a look at women’s football here and discuss what we can do to better support it, including touching on the rep programme and the challenges our district faces. Plus, we answer the big question, "Why is it called football and soccer?" and explore the origin of why football is known as "The Beautiful Game."

We are almost at the end of our first series of The Sideline Yak, and we would love to get your feedback. We want to know what you liked and what you didn’t. If you know someone from Te Tairāwhiti who would make a great guest, let us know. Feel free to share your thoughts with us by emailing the theyak@whitiora.org.

For now, let’s get back to the show. Please enjoy this episode with Lizzy and Lee. Kia ora!