Nocita honoured as outstanding coach

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This article was published 10/03/2014 (4527 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

FC Winnipeg Lions coach Tony Nocita will be honoured by the Manitoba Soccer Association for outstanding coaching.

Nocita said he is honoured to receive the award.

“I really attribute it to all the players on the team and my entire management team,” Nocita said. “and the whole group in general behind the Winnipeg Lions. It is a really a team effort.

“Any individual award that anyone gets is a result of a team pulling together and having a clear vision of where they want to be.”

The Osborne Village resident is not just the coach of the Lions, he’s also a principal at Manshield Construction LP on Corydon Avenue. But before that, Nocita had a career in soccer as a defender and midfielder, captaining every team he played on. In 1984 Nocita went to his first Olympic team camp and represented Canada from 1986-93. This included the 1987 Olympic qualifications, the 1989 World Cup qualification, and was Team Canada captain in 1990 for the world indoor championship in Holland. His professional career started in 1987 with the Winnipeg Fury, and he was captain for all six years he was on the team. Nocita also captained the Hamilton Steelers and the Toronto Rockets during his career.

More recently, Nocita led the Lions to a third-place finish in the Canadian National Cup Challenge in 2013, and the 2012 Manitoba Cup.

Nocita said he loves the challenge of coaching and passing his player knowledge on to his players.

“It’s a very demanding and challenging group in the category that we play in,” Nocita said. “The league is very challenging and our expectations are very high, so there’s a real challenge for us, and I enjoy that aspect of it.”

The most important thing to remember as a coach is to stick with the game plan, Nocita said.

“You’re going to have ups and downs as a team,” Nocita said. “Stay with the plan. A lot of coaches make too many changes, too often, too quickly. If you just stay with the plan and stay in the same frame of mind, problems will work themselves out.”

Nocita’s advice for new coaches is to really understand your players.

‘Any individual award that anyone gets is a result of a team pulling together and having a clear vision of where they want to be.’
–Tony Nocita, coach of the FC Winnipeg Lions

“Get to know your players it’s not about drills in a book,” Nocita said. “Get to know what makes them tick, get to know what their personality is all about. Because at the end of the day, when they are on the field, it’s 11 personalities playing against 11 other personalities.”

The Annual MSA Awards Banquet will be held March 15 at Canad Inns Polo Park starting at 6 p.m., with dinner at 7 p.m. Tickets are $75 each or $675 per table of 10. Contact the MSA Office for tickets.  For more information visit manitobasoccer.ca

 

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