King Edward’s announces new Head of Football

Former professional player, Garry Haylock, has decided to expand on his managerial experience by joining King Edward’s as Head of Football

Tracy Shand

King Edward’s Witley is cementing its outstanding reputation for football with the appointment of a former professional footballer, Garry Haylock, as Head of Football.

A football fanatic from the age of six, Garry Haylock spent 22 years playing for various UK, Irish and international clubs, and has played in the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup quarter-final and the European Champions League. He retired from professional football in 2006 and made the natural progression to managing teams as well as working as a coach/analyst.

Garry kicked off his career working with school children by running a football camp during the holidays whilst he was based in Ireland which has escalated to setting up his own business, delivering specialist football coaching to a number of schools.

As a former professional football manager, Garry holds the coveted UEFA Pro Licence (he was the 300th person in the UK to achieve this), very few football teams – let alone schools – employ a coach with the Pro Licence, which emphasises again the quality of King Edward’s provision for its budding boy and girl footballers.

Garry’s role at King Edward’s will be to oversee the coaching strategy and implement a culture of coaching and sportsmanship to rival that experienced by players of the beautiful game at the highest level.

But as any professional sports person will testify, further enhancing the football prowess of the school is not the only benefit to be derived from a stronger focus on the sports curriculum at King Edward’s.

“I’ve been teaching in schools for 10 years and I always advise children that sport is a microcosm of life,” Garry says. “Through sport you learn how to deal with tension and stress, you experience the highs and lows of winning and losing, you develop the resilience to continue trying, you become familiar with working as part of a team and, of course, you learn that only if you prepare well will you play to the best of your ability.

“These are all vital life lessons and it’s no coincidence that elite sports men and women are actively sought out in business because of their proven capacity to show 100% commitment and dedication in order to achieve success in their chosen sport. I strongly believe that participating in sports at school is integral to shaping the physical, emotional and psychological development of a child and is vital to ensuring young people leave as balanced, well rounded individuals.”

In 2016, in its first year of entering the competition, King Edward’s Witley was crowned champions in the English Schools’ Football Association’s Premier League Under 16s Small Schools’ Cup for state and independent schools. With the professional input of the new Head of Football, who knows what the future holds?