Dave Houlston

 

UEFA “A” Licence Coach

 

 

Having not made the grade as a schoolboy player at Aston Villa, Dave trained as a PE Teacher at Carnegie College, Leeds, during which time he gained his first experience of FA coaching via the old Preliminary Coaching Badge in 1974. 

During post-graduate study in Canada, Dave made two guest appearances for the national team and was the soccer coach at Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia before returning to the UK to develop a career in higher education while playing senior –non-league football in the North of England.

From 1978-1985 he played for Guiseley FC near Leeds making over 350 appearances before relocating to the NE where he spent several seasons at Chester-le-St Town, Ryhope CA and Gateshead. He attained the FA ‘A’ Licence in 1986 and was player-coach at Ryhope CA, coached British Student teams, was the Centre of Excellence coach for Sheffield Wednesday (at Gateshead), and became involved in coach education in Newcastle alongside Barney Jones.

In 1992, Dave moved to the National Coaching Foundation (now sportcoachUK) to become Head of Education & Training, and also became Director of the Leeds United Centre of Excellence (1995-1998). More recently, he has been working with the FA on the development of the coach education programmes in Football & Psychology, and he also wrote the Level 2 Coaches’ Handbook and provided substantial input to the Level 3 Handbook.

Dave is Director of Sport at the University of Cumbria