My name is Sebastian Serrano, I am the new head coach of the AFBN Academy in the Netherlands. AFBN stands for the American Football Bond Nederland (American Football Federation of the Netherlands) and is the governing body for American football in Holland.
We are all about THE YOUTH, in my opinion this should be one of the most important focus of the game in Europe this days, the focus of us all, Federations, Clubs, Coaches and Sponsors.
The lack of junior programs and the unbalanced growth of senior teams comparing to junior teams is putting the future of football in danger in the old continent. The culture of “win today” is establishing in many clubs taking away the attention from what really matters, our YOUTH. We Coaches and organisations must react and think that we are responsible for our own future, that we are investing on the future of our sport, getting involved with a youth program near us or helping others to create or develop youth programs should be one of our dues as Coaches… Theres no other way to ensure the future of American Football in the Netherlands… or anywhere else
Every junior player should be gold to us.This is what the AFBN Academy is, we are a non profit organisation, we are all volunteers, including board members, coaches and staff, we give players a good base for the future, try to be an example for other organisations, provide local Coaches and teams with knowledge and tools to improve their own clubs by organising 8 camps all over the Netherlands during the year for kid U-16 and U-19. We also invite a High level Guest Coach to every event of the Academy to impart clinics to our Coaches and work with the players in the field, this is always enriching for all of us, opens the kids minds to visualise a future as football players and develops our coaching staff and shadow coaches knowledge of the game, we never stop learning.
Our goal is to provide our campers (U-19 and U-16) with the best and safest practices, teach them fundamentals of all positions in the field, teach them hawk tackling, heads up tackling and other techniques that will ensure a more safe and healthy football career in their future as athletes, we teach sportsmanship and team spirit, in less words, Football Culture … this is WHAT WE ARE ALL ABOUT.
Please do not hesitate to contact us if you think you can be of any help, we need all Coaches, clubs, sponsors and volunteers to work together with a common goal, the future of American Football. OUR YOUTH.
You can take a look at our work here:
https://www.afbn.nl/home/doe- m
https://www.facebook.com/ deac
https://www.instagram.com/ afb
THANK YOU!
Sebastian Serrano.
AFBN Academy Head Coach.