ALWAYS the consummate professional, the unflustered, immaculate Tim Pryor has become quite adept at spinning plates. From his day job in the press office, to helping out the BBC now and again in the commentary box, Rozel Rovers Women’s coach, emcee for hire, media relations for the Commonwealth Games Association of Jersey, hobby blogger on local sport, husband, father – his commitments are exhaustive and would be exhausting to many. Now he has agreed to add Jersey Women’s U18s head coach to his bulging resumé. He should be teaching his time-management skills to the rest of us too.
But his appointment will not surprise those who know the work he has already done in women’s football. It’s not just the amount of success and trophies he has won since he took on the role at Rozel in 2018, which includes two league titles, two JFA Women’s Cups and five Zenith Cups.
It’s the structure that he helped put in place that sees talented junior players at the club graduate into seniors playing a progressive style of football. From the likes of Leah Morris, Danni da Silva and Macey Wyse, who have taken what they have learned to further their development in the UK while at university, to the current crop that includes Poppy Benest and Emily Le Page. In other words, he is the perfect candidate.
For Pryor, taking on the Jersey job is just a natural extension of what he has done for Rozel for players Island-wide – to help harness the potential of the younger players on the fringes of the women’s team and provide both opportunity and a bridge in the pathway from the JFA’s player development centre to the senior side.
“It’s an age group that I’ve always enjoyed working with at Rozel over the last five and a half years. We’ve always brought young players straight in as soon as they’re eligible to play in adult football and help them to flourish. It was a role that excited me when I saw it come up, so chucked my hat into the ring and was fortunate enough to be chosen to do it,” said Pryor.
The new squad will train together weekly over the next two months, with the JFA looking to secure one or two fixtures before the end of this season.
“It’s really about providing them with some more competitive fixtures, some game time in a Jersey shirt,” he added.
“We’ve only got three women’s teams in the Island. There’s only so many matches out there, so this gives more opportunities for them, even just to get more training under their belt, and then potentially to play some more matches with the Jersey badge on their shirt.”
“Dave Kennedy [the chief executive officer] at the JFA has asked me to get going quickly on this so that we can get some sessions in at the end of this season and work towards a couple of matches. Obviously, with my Rozel hat on I already know a large number of the players but it will be good to get acquainted with some of the younger ones that I’ve not met before and get that first session going.”
Pryor confirmed that his assistant at Rozel, Harry Walker, will be on hand to help him out, as will Holly Muirhead and the women’s senior head coach Chad Morris, among others.
He added: “We’ll look to have good fun, enjoyable sessions and hopefully help a few players make that step into the senior side eventually.”
Of the appointment, Kennedy said: “We had a lot of interest and applications for what we see as an extremely important role. However, Tim’s passion for the female game and his excellent track record as a manager made him the perfect appointment.”
