Beth Freeman
“I'm very player led when it comes to my coaching. I like the players to know that I care about them and I care about their development, but also them as people, because ultimately you're a person before you're a player.”
⸺Who is Beth Freeman?
Beth Freeman started coaching in 2021, and has been at Bloomsbury Football since April 2022. She coaches a girls team at Bloomsbury Football, and does this alongside her undergraduate studies at UCFB in coaching.
⸺When did you first discover football?
I first discovered football around the age of 6, playing with my older brother outside in the street, with the local lads and watching it at home with my family. My dad's a big Man United, my brother and my grandpa was also a Man U fan. So it always available on TV.
I grew up wanting to be a professional footballer. I had lots of love for the game of passion. And I played it. At one point, I was playing it five days a week and I will try my club and then drive up to London to play and then come back.
⸺What inspired you to become a football coach?
So two years ago I broke my collarbone which made me turn to coaching a bit more, it meant that I couldn't play football, and I'm sidelined for three months at a time. It made me decide that I wanted to have a different way of being part of the game and to inspire and be part of it.
So I'd said I turned to coaching.
It really gave me that different kind of passion to be involved within the game in a different capacity. Because it was that new thing for me to be able to do it was exciting to go out and play football and has this different thing than just like running around the street or on a bike or opportunity.
⸺Are there any individuals that inspired you to take up this pathway in football?
I think it was the sudden exposure I got a few years back of being able to see it on the TV and being able to watch the likes of Casey Stoney and Emma Hayes and being able to see what they could do. There was a different route to being involved within football and to know that I could do something other than play.
⸺How has coaching impacted your life? What has been your favourite moment when coaching at Bloomsbury FC so far?
My favourite moments coaching so far was last September when I went on tour with Bloomsbury to St. George's Park. Being able to take the girls around St. George's Park and showing them the Euros trophy and showing what the lionesses did, seeing the excitement and an alignment on their faces when they were seeing kind of what they could do and what was possible in the game.
I've been coaching at Bloomsbury say nearly two years, yes, I've been coaching just girls football at Bloomsbury. I did a small section where I coached some of the boys teams as well. Because like there's they're mixed camps but mostly I've been with the girls seeing the impact that coaches had on my life I would say is it's made me feel proud of the journey that I've been on.
