From making her National League playing debut aged just 14 to making her senior coaching bow this year, Katie Barrott has been a fixture in the National League for over a decade.

She reflects on transitioning from playing to coaching, guiding her young players and the impact of a huge year for the female game in Aotearoa New Zealand.

It’s Wellington Phoenix Reserves’ first season in the Women’s National League Championship. From your point of view as a coach, how has it gone for your team as a whole and you personally?

It’s my first time being a head coach in the National League, so that’s been a new challenge for me. I’m learning a lot and having a lot of fun being able to coach a team in the age group that I really enjoy, and feel like I’m beginning to specialize in.

In terms of the playing group it’s been great to complete the whole cycle of our year. This is our first year with three teams under the professional team (U-15, U-17 and the Reserves), so for our players being able to go from playing against boys all winter to stepping up to the National League against other female teams has been great.

We talked about this being an under 20 team competing in the National League but realistically we’re mostly an under 18 team. So it’s definitely a big stretch for the girls. But it’s been cool to see that whole year in place and the playing group to kind of see, see the programme they’re part of and see the pathway and how it works.

What does success look like for your side this year? Is it gunning for a particular place finish on the table? Or does success lie more in the opportunities that those players will kick on to?

Success definitely comes down to the opportunities for the playing group. Naturally with our first year, we’re going to learn a lot. And if we look back on when the men’s reserves first started competing in the Central League and the National League, I think very similar themes would’ve played out. We’re a few years back from the boys and where they started.

I think if we focus on the table, we’ll go against everything we’re about. I think it’s a balance of teaching high performance lessons and what it takes to win games while still trying to develop individuals. But I think the real success would be girls just putting their hands up for further opportunities, ideally with the first team here at the club. Paul [Temple] and Callum [Holmes] have already called in a couple of girls that have performed well on the weekends and brought them into senior training, which has been really good and inspires the rest of the group.

It’s taken some time, but each week I’ve noticed different individuals starting to get used to the league. As we’ve said, we want to improve every game and get better at what we do.

Hopefully by the last game of the league we play our best game ever, and the three points as well would be fantastic. But I think so far we’ve seen a better side each weekend regardless of the involvement of first team players. That’s something we take a lot of pride in, and hopefully [Temple and Holmes] can see our young players starting to grow and learn what it takes to compete at this level.

You mentioned the pathway from reserves to potentially first team, are the first team keeping an eye on your side or are they just giving you a bit of space?

It’s crunch time for them with the A-League season just starting, but we’re lucky [former academy head coach] Paul’s got a pretty good understanding of the academy and the playing group already. As I mentioned before, each round there are girls putting their hands up in games who maybe we didn’t see that side of them in the boys’ league. We call them ‘the whisperers’: those that were really quiet through the year and now all of a sudden are playing outstandingly. So they definitely keep an eye out, and the coverage has been great for that.

Now with the scholarship girls often featuring in our side, there’s an even bigger reason for them to have an eye on the National League – not just for our team, but there’s A-League quality players across the whole competition.

We’re seeing more evidence of that with players like Deven Jackson going over to Canberra and Rebecca Burrows at the Newcastle Jets, right?

Definitely, and I think that’s been a special touch for the playing group. The kind of bottleneck effect you can have at a pro club can bit hard, so for them knowing that if they work hard there’s multiple opportunities has been good. But there’s been rewards so far for good performances, which has been great.

You’re no stranger to the National League yourself, playing over 50 games for Capital Football. You started playing in the league at about 14 – do you look back now and realise how young you were?

I do! We had Eliza Vincent who was born in 2009 recently debut, and I was thinking in that moment about how young she is and that she’s far more talented than I was at that age!

I do think I was really young, but I know that that was because of the coaches who gave me opportunities. Being able to do that now with other girls is really, really special, especially with one of the differences of now compared with when I came through is we don’t have a lot of 25 plus year-old leaders to help them through those experiences. They’re all kids, so how do we make it the safest, most enjoyable environment for those young players without putting too much pressure on them?

For example, I think our midfield trio the other day were 15, 16 and 16. We ask quite a lot from our midfield in how we play, so then I’m asking myself, ‘is that fair?’ I think the answer’s ultimately yes, because I understand where they’re at in their journey, but I think it’s sometimes you do just have to take a step back and think far out. Like, I could barely kick the ball out when in doubt [laughs] as a fallback in National League when I was 13 [laughs], let alone try to dictate a game with a bunch of other 14-year-olds!

Katie celebrated her 50th appearance for Capital Football in 2020. Credit Photosport.

You’ve touched on this a little bit already, but you're young in coaching terms and age-wise you could still be a player. Does that help you guide your players and relate to them?

I like to think that helps my coaching style in terms of connecting with the playing group. It probably helps me seem a little bit more approachable at times. I’ve found it useful being able to be open and talk about my own experiences rather than try to guess where players are at or how they’re feeling. I’ve been in situations where I’ve been dropped to the bench or not made the squad at all, so I understand those feelings, and I know how the travel works and how that can impact different players, so it’s useful.

I try to remind myself that I am a young coach, I’m going to learn a lot in this first year and it’s going to be really tough at times, but I think I’m probably in one of the best places to be in the country in terms of getting support and education within the club.

Chris Greenacre and Steve Coleman have been so helpful to me, teaching me a lot over the last few weeks and months and getting in sessions themselves with the playing group, which has just been not only great for me, but great for the group and great for the club,

There are similarities between you and fellow Wellingtonian Emma Evans, who was a young head coach with Capital Football before moving on to OFC and Sport NZ. Have people like her been a role model for you?

I think I grew up in just the right generation to have a little bit of confidence going in as a female coach. I know others have kind of broken those glass ceilings for me to jump into these spaces.

My first couple of coaches were Nat Lawrence and Wendi Henderson, who are top coaches, regardless of gender. They’re exceptional. Emma was the one that really got me into coaching and made me think that this is something I can do. I’m lucky that it’s felt a more normal for me to be a female in the sport.

All three of them have been massively influential for me, and just made it quite an organic pathway. And now being at a club maybe a little bit less females, but there’s some exceptional male allies that helped me grow and just treated me as another football coach, which I really appreciate. Being in a more performance-oriented competition you’ve got to make tough choices on the fly, you’ve got to make tough choices during the week, you might lose three players to the first team training. All these things Chris and Steve have been part of for a very long time, so they’ve helped me a lot.

This year’s been a massive one for the girls and women’s game with the Women’s World Cup. From your involvement in the game what sort of impact have you noticed the World Cup having on the game?

What I’ve really appreciated as a coach is the playing group being more interested in women’s football. They talk about which teams they support and it would always be Manchester City men or Tottenham Hotspur men. And that’s all great and I want them to watch football, but now when we’re doing certain tactics, we can talk about how Japan played against Spain and everyone knows what I’m talking about. And everyone’s like, ‘yeah, I was part of that game’, or ‘I know who Yui Hasegawa is and what club she plays for’. They’re prouder to be part of women’s football and learn more about it, which is really helpful because that’s applicable to their game. You can watch how Tottenham men play and say, ‘we’re going to play like that’, but I think there’s got to always be a female lens, otherwise we’re missing something.

Out of possession the games are quite similar, but in possession there’s lots of differences. We’ve got an analyst, Johnny Thompson, working with the reserves and he’s been great at getting world class examples that are female teams doing the things we’re asking our female athletes to do.

I think this is the correct approach because not only are we showing them what they can be physically, it’s also more inspiring because those are probably teams that these girls aspire to be part of soon.

Article added: Friday 20 October 2023