Canada’s Olympic Gold Medal winning coach Bev Priestman was a highlight of the recent Women Onside national online Women in Football Leadership conference.
One of three keynote speakers, Bev spoke about her personal journey, her football coaching philosophies – bravery, humility, passion, respect, people – and how she coached the Canadian women to gold medal success.
Top coaches at the conference were impressed. Junior Matildas Head Coach and Football Australia Women’s Technical Advisor Rae Dower said that the presentation from Bev was outstanding and insightful. "Bev was very gracious in sharing her reflections on guiding the Canadians to an Olympic Gold Medal. She was candid, humble and highlighted the importance of being authentic and staying true to yourself. Again, Bev is another great example of a female coach who has served a lengthy apprenticeship, sacrificed plenty to chase her dream and stretched herself outside her comfort zone in an attempt to continually improve her craft "
"It was a thoroughly enjoyable and inspirational presentation."
Rae Dower, Junior Matildas Head Coach
Eilidh Mackay, Head of Female Football at Northern Suburbs Football Association (NSW) and Northern Tigers Girls SAP Technical Director who works with girls on the football pathway in NSW was also impressed.
"It was fantastic to learn more about Bev's journey in
football spanning across three continents."
Eilidh Mackay, Northern Tigers
Eilidh added that "Bev shared fantastic insights in how she developed the culture within Canadian national team. Using the mantra 'change the colour of the medal' to instil belief in the playing group."
Women Onside Chair Maria Berry said that having Bev Priestman as a keynote speaker was a real coup for the event. “When we targeted Bev to speak we knew that she was not yet well-known in Australia. But we also knew that her story and philosophy would resonate here. And of course we love to see it when yet again a women carries off a such a momentous coaching win. We are looking forward to how we are going to top that at our conference next year.”
Women Onside members and conference registrants will soon be sent a link to access the recording of Bev’s presentation.