|
|
| :
New Head Coach Tim Lewis |
|
|
 |
New Head Coach Tim Lewis
Event Date:
Wednesday, 12/06/06
|
|
|
|
 Short Article on Coach Lewis, First Training Set for January 23, 2007
Tim Lewis has agreed to relocate and become our Head Coach. Coach Joe Kelly will be helping here and there, but has had to cut back because of family and work. Tim played for Belmont Shore and was a roommate of Rafael Zahralddin and his wife Shelley for a time. A training program will be forwarded to the active players soon and more details will be available.
Coaching Rugby in New Zealand can be a
Challenge for American Lewis
By Alex Goff Reprint and Copyright Info
July 11, 2006, Nelson, NZ – Hang around the training sessions for the new Air New Zealand Cup provincial team, the Tasman Makos, and you might hear a funny accent. Not North Island exactly, not South, not Australian. No .. more like ... Arkansas.
Longtime rugby player and wanderer Tim Lewis has found himself coaching in New Zealand, and like his life as a player, he has thrown himself into it with complete abandon.
The Arkansas native started playing rugby some 16 years ago, and almost from the outset he began to travel to accommodate his addiction. He played in Missouri and Canada, Utah, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Wales ... you get the idea. From 1991 to 2005 he played 20 season of rugby.
Last year he ended up in Southern California and although by his own admission he was unfit and old (36) he attended a tryout for the Southern California Griffins and did well enough that Lewis felt he still had more to give. Some research led him to Thames Valley in the Air New Zealand Cup 3rd Division. Their top scrumhalf had left and the position, said the coach, was wide open.
He made the team and was their regular halfback until a broken leg ended his season.
'I was sitting at home feeling sorry for myself because I thought that was it, but I had been coaching quite a bit as well, usually as a player coach, and I decided to look into that.'
He called Murray Mexted's International Rugby Academy, and was told the courses were only for higher level coaches. He persisted, saying he was serious and wanted to take what he learned back to America. He got in.
From there Lewis threw himself into learning coaching. He took courses from experts throughout New Zealand, and from there landed a job coaching Nelson Bay. While the club struggled, Lewis felt what he tried to instill in the players was working. He had met with skepticism from players that an American might know what he was talking about, but when Tim Taylor and Ben May returned from duty with the Canterbury Crusaders, things changed.
'I knew they would bring with them things we could use from the Crusaders setup,' said Lewis. 'So I took them aside and asked them to run part of the training session. What ended up happening was they ran drills that we'd already been doing.'
Being an American coaching rugby in New Zealand can be a surreal experience. Despite his obvious Arkansas accent, Lewis is often mistaken for a Canadian, and often assumed to know little about the game despite his long history.
Still, it has also helped. He attended a very secretive Wellington provincial training session where anyone else would have been asked in no uncertain terms to leave. But as an American, 'I was pretty obviously not a spy, so they let me stay. They even let me bring my video camera so I could record what went on and learn from it.'
All this has led Lewis to consider returning home to the USA and securing a coaching position with a major club. His nomadic existence as a player and coach may come to an end for a time as he considers putting his playing days behind him and settling down.
'I have led a blessed life doing what I love to do,' he said. 'Coaching is my future.'
|
|
|
|
contact: Rafael Zahralddin, Managing Shareholder, Elliott Greenleaf
RXZA@elliottgreenleaf.com
phone: 302 545 2888 |
top |
|
|
|
|
|
