Tom Sermanni is the NSCAA Women’s Committee’s Featured Clinician at the 2012 NSCAA Convention in Kansas City, Mo.

A former player in Scotland, England and Australia, Tom coached the New York Power and San Jose CyberRays in the WUSA. He’s been the coach of the Australian Women’s National Team since 2005; in 2007 he was named Asian Coach of the Year. Tom recently took some time to chat with Women’s Committee co-chair Lisa Cole about recent happenings with soccer in Australia.

Lisa Cole (LC): How has the Australian development program progressed in the past 5-10 years? Can you share strategic insights that you believe are most important to the betterment of women’s soccer in Australia and/or throughout the international community?

Tom Sermanni (TS):  There are a few elements to our development program. We have eight full-time coaches based in the major cities. Their responsibility is to look after our national team players in that city, primary the senior players but also players in our U-20 and U-17 groups. We are currently in the process of revamping these programs to focus on our younger players, as well.

Our state associations, in conjunction with the national body, organize national championships at the U-13, U-14 and U-15 age groups. Each state has a team at that age group and they come together for a week to play against each other. This is where we start our talent identification. We are also currently trying to introduce skill acquisition programs into our states for players between 9-13 years old.

Things changed significantly for us when we joined Asia in 2005. Since then we’ve had to consistently reassess our programs in order to keep pace with the top Asian countries. Part of that process has been introducing the W-League, changing some of our development plans, and putting a greater emphasis on the technical qualities of the players we identify.

LC: What role does Australia’s W-League (and perhaps other international leagues) play in the development of women's soccer in Australia? Does collegiate soccer in the U.S. play a role? If so, how?

TS: I think our W-League has been hugely successful from several perspectives. It has extended the playing year and given opportunities for players to become established or get re-established in the national team structure. It’s also given the game a better national profile: “The Matildas” name is well-known in Australia, but our club football has been virtually unknown until the W-League. Our competition contains many young players, so it has also assisted in the development of those players. The continual rise in interest from overseas players to come here and play, and the quality of those players, has helped to improve the standard of the competition.

I think national leagues become more critical as the game becomes more professional and the profile of women’s football increases. It’s an important way to maintain a national identity. Of course, we also encourage our players to experience playing in overseas leagues as it benefits their growth and development both on and off the field.

The U.S. college system is very appealing to our young female Australian players and the number of individuals contemplating that pathway continues to increase. From the national team standpoint, we encourage and assist some of those players to get access to collegiate opportunities. However, we prefer our younger players, who are already on our senior national team squad, to stay at home in our system.

LC: Can you share some insight into last summer's Women’s World Cup preparation? What did the cycle look like? How would you assess the team's performance in the event relative to expectations? What have you learned, and how will this contribute to future development and success?

TS: We always try to balance out our preparation between holding national team camps and playing international matches. In the lead-up to the World Cup we put more emphasis on camps over games. Camps allow us to work with a larger group of players than we can take on tour to play international matches. Additionally, in camps we can practice more intensely and improve teamwork and team cohesion.

We also had a strong competitive squad this cycle, so camps gave everyone a fairer and better opportunity to make the final World Cup squad. Thus in 2011 we only played four international matches before the World Cup, and two of them were in Germany just before the tournament.

We left the World Cup with mixed emotions: We were generally pleased with how we performed, especially given the age and inexperience of our team. However, we felt we missed an opportunity to progress further in the tournament and were frustrated by the way we conceded goals.

The biggest lesson I learned from the tournament is that we should have played more matches against western teams. Over the past few years we have concentrated on playing Asian opponents, so most of our preparation and tactics have been geared toward those teams. There is a difference with how western teams play and I don’t know if we prepared well enough for that.

LC: What’s next for women's soccer in Australia?

TS: The next step for us in Australia is to build on the foundations we’re set down over the past five years. This includes:

• Extending the number of matches in the W-League and increasing the number of teams from seven to eight;

• Put a greater emphasis and more resources into youth development;

• Improve our talent identification systems.

Sermanni will present, "Transition Play," on Thursday, Jan. 14 at 3:45 p.m. in CC Exhibit Hall E.  He'll also present, "Women's Soccer in Australia; Changing Philosophy and Perception," on Saturday, Jan. 14 at 3:45 p.m. in CC 2103 AB. 

View the full Convention schedule and learn more about the 2012 Featured Clinicians.

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