An interview with Mike Penner - Ireland coach
Posted by Foyer Federation - 02/08/2007
Mick Penner is the coach for the Irish Homeless World Cup team. I heard so much about him so I had to check him out. Here is what he had to say:
NJT-Natalie-Jane Teese
MP-Mick Penner
NJT- How did you become involved in The Homeless World Cup?
MP- Well 5 years ago when the program started. THE BIG ISSUE in Dublin, were looking for a coach, and they asked me to take over and i've been doing this job ever since.
NJT-Now I've heard that you have one of the best team set ups, how does it work?
MP- A lot of hard work and dedication has to be put in. But originally we didn't, we had possibly the worst, because we were chasing our lads around that didn't want to play ball they just wanted to drink, so maybe it was a good thing for us because we saw the downside of it. So we opened up a drop-in centre and from that we started having football training every saturday 10-2.
NJT-How do you think the Homeless World Cup is going for Ireland?
MP- I'ts going well, you come here with expectations as a coach to win it but within the first few days you know you're not going to. But I say to my lads "It's a tremendous acheivement for just getting here . After it's over I keep in touch with all of them to check their progress."
NJT- If you had one thing to say about homelessness what would it be?
MP-It's very hard for me to talk about homelessness because i treat my lads as footballers and iI think it gives them a bit of relief and a bit of hope that there's something out there for them.
NJT-And finally can I just ask what your connection with Kenya is?
MP-Well there's a charity in Dublin called Tracy Pickets Sport For Life, and we twinned with Kenya and took them out kit and when the tournament was over last year, we went to Kenya to coach them. We built a great bond, so much so, that at the start of the week we found out that they were struggling with finance so our guys get an allowance everyday and they have decided to share it with the Kenyan team. The Dublin BIG ISSUE made a gesture towards them as well. But the money hasn't come from charity as such, it has come from the lads themselves.
By Natalie Jane Teese
