Meet Coach James
James is a husband and father of 3, all of whom play and love football. James' eldest son played Warriors football from 9 years old followed by HS in New West with the Hyacks, and is now a scholarship football player at the University of Calgary Dinos, his daughter enjoys playing flag football and youngest son is a Running Back for Vancouver College, after also getting his start with the Westside Warriors.
Coach James played community football through midget and a short stint in the CJFL with the old Vancouver Island Sharks. The last 14 years coaching with community organizations including Director of Coaching & Player Development with the Warriors for 6 years. He won the VMFL Coach Of The Year award in 2014 and lead the charge throughout BC to remove tackle from the Atom age group.
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Now his focus is on improving the way football is taught and trained right from a young age. This will lead to renewed growth in the numbers of people playing the great game of football, in whatever form, tackle, flag, 7on7, back yard., park, alleyway..
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Meet Coach Jay
Jay has two passions: family and football. Jay coached his son in community football for six years (who is now the starting Quarter Back for Vancouver College's JV team) and is looking forward to coaching his daughter as she begins her flag football career.
Jay has been deeply involved in football in Canada for many years. He started playing at a young age and after eight years of playing community football he went on to play at the University of Western Ontario. At Western, Jay played in two Vanier Cup national championship games, winning one. In his post playing career, Jay has coached flag and tackle football in Canada and Australia and has run youth football camps for boys and girls across all age groups.
A big focus of Jay’s aspiration is to grow the game of football at the grassroots level. Through First Step Football, Jay is committed to:
With First Step Football, Jay aspires to maximize exposure of the game to our youth. To achieve this, Jay is dedicated to the following:
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Train young athletes on the new-age football fundamentals that are founded on player safety.
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Provide youth with the opportunity to try the game in a fun, accessible, and safe environment.
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Deliver programs designed to enhance the diversity (social and ethnic backgrounds, different genders, etc.) of the sport.