“I miss the smiles,” says Leap, one of ISF’s most passionate young football coaches. “As a coach, when I go out to train one of our teams, I always get greeted with lots of smiles and happiness from the players. It’s sad not to see them any more.” His colleague Srey Mom adds, “I worry about the kids on my team. I know they don’t have anything to do now that the schools are closed, and I worry they’ll get into trouble.”

COVID-19 poses huge challenges across the world, and the ISF Football Programme has had its share. Given that football is a contact sport, all our partner schools have also closed down, and long distance travel is discouraged, one might think it impossible to continue any of our work.

Fortunately, our coaches have the passion to make it possible. “We don’t stay at home and do nothing! We work together to improve ourselves,” laughs Leap’s colleague Srey Mom. “We’ve been training in how to work with disabled players and we are designing a new curriculum. We want to be more capable and prepared when the programme starts again.”

Panha, Project Leader for the Football Programme, agrees. He says the training programme is particularly valuable, as are the computer lessons all coaches are now taking. “I really like learning more about how to work with computers, it’s helped me a lot. It’s a useful course and it will enhance all our work. You might think football coaches are out on fields and don’t need computers, but this will help us to do attendance lists, lesson plans, presentations and other important things.”

All coaches agree on what they have most enjoyed working on during the closure: “Inventing Social Distance Football. Trying to work out how to make the sport safe was so much fun, ” says Leap, “and I loved the fact that we got to share it with the world and so many people and organisations were interested.” Panha agrees: “I’d like to see more people playing football safely in this way.”

The coaches’ positive influence doesn’t begin and end inside ISF’s walls, of course. Most of our coaches come from the same disadvantaged communities as our students and players, so they are able to act as champions within their local communities.

Leap describes his community as “a poor neighbourhood. Most of the kids don’t go to school, a lot work by going around and sifting through trash to find something to sell to recycling companies. Their parents do the same or work in factories.” He has noticed the very damaging impact of COVID-19 on his community. “The factories have closed so a lot of people have no money and can’t pay rent. Some have run away to the countryside.” Leap does his best to help the kids around him, whether they are ISF students or not. “I always encourage them to learn online. I had to drop out of school to look after my family. That was hard, so I don’t want these kids to do that.”

Srey Mom has also seen the tragic impact of COVID-19. “I think it’s damaged half of the families in my area. Street vendors have closed their shops because there’s a lot of fear of the virus. Some parents try and stop kids from going out. I try and tell them how they can be safe from the virus and help them learn about proper hygiene.” She has also witnessed many children not keeping up with their education. “I ask the kids around my house if they are keeping themselves clean and help them with their homework. I like to explain things!”

Players stay in contact with coaches by sharing their own training videos

Just because the Football Programme is closed doesn’t mean it has stopped entirely. While the pitch may be empty, ISF coaches Panha, Sambath, and Sovath are keeping the team spirit alive online. Using a private Facebook Group, these enterprising trainers are sharing exercise plans and coaching lessons with players in Phnom Penh and in farther flung Cambodian provinces. The response has been encouraging, with players regularly sharing back videos of themselves training.

Leap says he regularly gets messages on Facebook from some of the players he coaches, including those living with HIV. Sometimes they are very concerned about their health and the risk of COVID-19 infection. So Leap shares his knowledge on how they can protect themselves along with at-home exercises. He also reassures them that the Football Programme will start again and it will be better than ever.

Panha agrees. “Once the programme re-opens it will be like a miracle because the coaches and players will appreciate the chance to play together again so much. Everybody will be full of excitement and energy, and all of us coaches will be better trained and better skilled than we’ve ever been.”