Playing to Lead: Emma Coates

Defender Emma Coates joined Leeds United at eight, took her first coaching badge at sixteen and by twenty-two was managing Leeds reserves and holding one of the country’s youngest UEFA B licences. She is candid about the course: assumptions were made about her age and gender, and only three of about twenty-five candidates passed, two of them women. Her father Chris, who manages Leeds United’s Under-16 boys, first drew her in by having her put out cones and deliver small pieces of coaching at twelve or thirteen. A bad knee injury at sixteen tipped the balance from playing to coaching, and she now plays for Guiseley Vixens while working full time as an FA Skills coach and observing at Doncaster Belles under Gordon Staniforth, with Julie Chipchase as a mentor.