Jobs4Football meets Louis Barrow
From coaching U10s football in his hometown of Newcastle at aged 16 to becoming the youngest head coach in America at 24, Jobs4Football spoke to Louis Barrow about his sudden rise in the sport and how he is finding coaching in The United States.
Barrow originally went over to The US from the North East on a football scholarship after impressing whilst playing for Monkseaton High School in Whitley Bay. The defender first went to Regis University in Colorado for two years before moving onto Saginaw Valley University in Michigan, where after a few years as a player and assistant became the men’s head coach, and he has been in the role for three years now.
“When discussing his time as head coach, Barrow said: “I’m loving it, I get to affect all aspects of the programme, so I get to sort out the training sessions, budgeting, analysis and especially at the moment we’re in a big recruiting phase, so we are starting to get players signed up for the summer.
“It’s like I’m playing Football Manager in real life.”
“I have been a head coach for three seasons now and every season has been a winning one, we have come first or second in every league, we have done really well so far but you can never learn enough in this sport, so I will keep doing everything possible to make sure I’m improving as a coach both on and off the field.”
It has been just over a decade since the now 27-year-old was coaching Newcastle City Juniors U10s in 2011, and despite always having a passion for the role Barrow admits it was when he started coaching in Michigan that he believed there was a potential career in the role for him.
“I never thought it would be my career path until I transferred to Michigan and my head coach there, Andy Wagstaff, got me excited about coaching. He made it desirable so I listened to him a lot and after I finished playing he took me on as an assistant and showed me if I put a lot of work into coaching I could get a lot of reward out of it. So I was still helping out with training sessions on the pitch but then away from it I would be looking at different aspects like scouting, analysis and tactics.”
“I was the assistant for a few years and then I got the head coach role when I was 24 and at that point I was the youngest head coach in the country, but I felt I was ready for the job because I had such good role models and I knew the blueprints to run the programme and be successful doing so.”
In recent times The US has become a hotspot for players all over the world, in the hopes of enhancing their footballing experience, but what made Barrow decide to travel across the world to pursue a career in football?
“Some people from my area had been to America for football and they all came back with really positive experiences and so that sort of give me the push I needed to go for it. Since I’ve been here, I can tell there is way more opportunity out here to pursue a career in football, back in the UK there just isn’t that same size market.”
“There is a possibility in America to come over and get a degree whilst you are playing football and then go onto pursue a career in football once you’ve matured, so I think it’s great for the number of different pathways open to young people, but one bit of advice I would give is make sure you do your own research and pick the school which best suits you.”
Barrow, who himself has a bachelor’s in kinesiology, has made an excellent start to his life as head coach at Saginaw Valley University, and he has his aims set on staying in college football for the future.
“I absolutely love my job right now; I’m currently head coach of a division two school and I think in the next couple of years I’d like to be at a division one school as an assistant or head coach. Ideally in the future I’d like to be at the top end of college football because I think it fits me so well, I connect with the lads at that age really well and I believe I can get lads at that age to buy into my ideas without any of the egocentricity you may find in professional football.”