In our second edition of the ‘In the Spotlight’ series we sat down with Punchbowl FC President, Natasha Hill, to uncover her love affair with football and the countless hours she dedicates towards the world game.
From early on, Natasha was a dedicated sportswoman whose passion lied in tennis before a nightmare ankle injury saw her allegiance switch to football after finishing high school.
She began playing for Strathfield Strikers before falling into a coaching gig after responding to an ad on social media.
“In 2012, I was playing an indoor competition and one of the coordinators put a post out on Facebook to join some sort of an organisation so that was my transition,” Hill said.
“I was at university at the time and my friend, and I thought we’d go help this organisation out. All we knew is that it was at a specific location at a specific time.
They wanted female coaches and they were offering coaching development, so we went down.
Just under ten years later and I’m still working for them.”
The noticeable difference from being a player to becoming a coach turned out to be quite an eye-opener for her.
“When I was just a player with Strathfield, Chullora Wolves and North Bankstown, it was fine like I just rocked up and then went home but then once I joined as a player/coach it was a whole lot of responsibility.”
Image: Natasha Hill coaching her Punchbowl side.
Her path to becoming president of Punchbowl demonstrates that she has by no means been fazed by the added accountability and is in fact thriving as she combines her responsibilities as president with her full-time role as community events and partnerships coordinator at Creating Chances.
She like many other children that she coaches today have been forced to overcome obstacles before they were able to get their chance to shine on the football pitch.
“There are many people I come across who ask: How do I get involved in sport? It’s how can I find a club? It just comes down to a lack of knowledge of the sporting systems in Australia,”
“Then you’ve got the issues of affordability and transport. Let’s say they’ve got a whole family of kids. Ethnic families generally have more than one kid, so traveling from park to park isn’t feasible for a lot of them so if they can’t have everyone in the one team then they [families] don’t commit to it.”
“It’s helped a fair bit with the Active Kids voucher in the past couple of years but prior to that, that one off registration placed a huge financial strain on families.”
Hill has been one of the driving forces for female participation in the Canterbury District and has some suggestions which she believes could be successful.
“If I had the capacity to do it, would be to have more introductory programs for girls where it is not too much of a commitment every week.
More drop in programs, that’s where I see my job and Punchbowl go hand in hand because we have those drop in programs that are free of charge.
Of course, you can’t run football clubs without charging but more drop in programs where girls can feel comfortable playing the sport with people they trust.”
The Punchbowl President had to lessen her workload this season which means that she will be coaching two teams this season opposed to three like past years.
Image: Hill and one of her Punchbowl teams.
Her experience with the clipboard continues to grow however she is stumped when CDSFA ask her if there is any coach around the world which she tries to emulate.
“Definitely not Jose Mourinho,” she interjects quickly.
“It’s only become a recent thing where I’ve started to watch coaches behaviour. I’ve tried to develop myself into someone who focuses more on the player rather than the game.
“Understanding the needs of the player and trying to build them up for the game. It’s developing all those skills I learn in work and incorporating them into my coaching style.”
Image: Hill in discussion with her players.
Hill’s continued commitment to supporting her players is a quality that is often overlooked in today’s sporting world, so it makes quite the listening to hear some of her success stories.
“I’ve got one of the players at Punchbowl United, she’s playing all age with me now, she’s 19 years old. I’ve been coaching her since she was 14, so she’s been with me for the last five years.
“She’s also working with me at Football United. I’ve had her from a young age, so I’ve been able to see her develop which has been great.”
She concluded: “Seeing young people develop from participants to more progressive roles and seeing personal growth is one of the most rewarding aspects with what I do.”
By CDSFA Communications Officer – Samuel Greco Schwartz
