Walsh will lift the McDonalds FA Learning Grass Roots South East Coach of the Year, having been the JFA’s selection following his proposal earlier in the year by Jon Welsh, who has recently relinquished the post of Island U18 manager.
Walsh has dedicated his life to football and has passed his knowledge on to many hundreds of youngsters in the Island, many of whom have now progressed to Island representative level and some to even professional level – he is certainly a worthy recipient.
Walsh (48) said: ‘The award has come as a great surprise, there are people in Jersey who do a lot more work that me.
‘When I received the call from McDonalds from the UK I really thought someone was trying to wind me up.
‘This is a great honour for me and a great achievement for an Island with a population of around 90,000.
I’ve been involved in coaching for around 15 years now and all of them have involved coaching on the JFA Fun Weeks which is grass roots level.
‘I love coaching; I get a lot of satisfaction see players improve and playing the game.
It’s also all about helping to raise the standard of the game.’ Walsh is an FA Level 2 coach and he has completed his initial assessment for Level 3.
Last season he was head coach for the JFA U18s, Year-7 coach at the JFA Centre of Excellence, assistant to Jon Trigg at St Peter FC, coach at the JFA Fun Weeks and a committee member on the Lloyds TSB Junior Committee.
He recently completed his in-service training with coaches of Southampton FC while also helping out with ladies and minis football.
Walsh will travel with his proposer on 6 July to the FA headquarters at Soho Square in London to receive the award.
From the six regional winners a committee, including Sir Geoff Hurst, Trevor Brooking, Hope Powell, Eric Harrison and Les Howie will announce the overall winner, who will receive a day’s training with the full England squad and be chief guest at the Community Shield final.
Walsh has already won two invitations to the Community Shield at the Millenium Stadium.
