A team's success may shine on the pitch, but behind every great team stands a coach—the backbone and conductor of the action. Jamie Windeler guides a squad of talented players, orchestrating their efforts from the sidelines so that every play, every goal, becomes part of a seamless performance.
Every-single-one. Seven out of seven. They did this under the guidance of a parent-turned-coach, Jamie Windeler, with the support of his coaching assistant, Sam Rhodes, who joined the team a season earlier. Sam's addition helped strengthen the coaching squad, creating a foundation of leadership and strategy that drove the team's success both on and off the pitch.
90 per cent of the time within English grassroots teams, no matter how big or small, the coach always seems to be a parent of a son or daughter that plays there. Of course, within some grassroots teams, the club finds elite coaching staff to coach the team, however, it is very rare to see this within grassroots.
Jamie Windeler, for those outside Manchester or unfamiliar with grassroots football, his name might not ring a bell. But within the local scene, especially for those who know the U15 age group, Jamie's journey and his influence are well known.
However, if you are from Manchester and a grassroots coach in the U15 age group, especially in the East Manchester league, you've heard the name. Or at least the team he coaches - Fletcher Moss Rangers.
Joining Fletcher Moss for the 24/25 season, Jamie has already allowed some of his experience and tactical mind to seep into my playing style, already improving my own skill exponentially as I am also around better players and better coaches.
You would think a better coach screams a lot on the sidelines and I thought that way too until I met Jamie. Unless we are getting battered or players aren't putting in the expected work, you wouldn't hear him scream at all. He is relatively quiet and unassuming as a coach, yet very fair, giving players game time not just by their technical ability, but by their sportsmanship, attitude and behaviour as well.
Jamie started his career in grassroots coaching by only being a parent on the sidelines. He had entered his son into soccer schools at Fletcher Moss. Impressing there, he was one of seven to be selected for a team under a coach called “Mo”.
At that time under Mo, he was entered into tournaments and friendlies, Jamie all that while only being a spectator. Mo was known for his success at getting 8-year-olds signed to professional clubs, and at that time he was a direct scout for Everton.
They were a great team competing at the highest level, 4 out of the 7 being signed to high-level academies, Edson to Manchester United, Rayaz, who was a year younger, being signed to Manchester City, Theo to Man City and Geordie to Liverpool, City and United, rotating between the three.
However, Jamie's son and his friend were some of the players who didn't manage to get into academies by 8.
Because of this, Jamie took his son out of the team because of lack of game time and took it upon himself to become a grassroots coach, forming another team under Fletcher Moss with many of the players that were not signed and not with Mo.
He managed to achieve a level 1 coaching status while being out of the game himself after suffering a broken leg.
In the early stages, Jamie got heaps of criticism from parents over his coaching style, getting backlash from parents, already in the first season losing some of his players to coaches, promising the kids trials at Everton, and showing poaching starting at an early age.
After finding a loss of players, he set up another team and entered them into the Summer League. After finding success there, Jamie found his team in the Championship, the second highest level of grassroots in Manchester in the u8 season, then quickly found themselves getting promoted to the premiership, finding themselves against Mo’s team and many other high-ability teams as well.
Approaching the U15 age group, 7 years on and Fletcher Moss still finding themselves at the top of the premiership, Jamie's problems don't stop there, even after finding massive success in what he has already done.
With his success with Fletcher Moss, Jamie, even as a grassroots coach, finds himself hours on end in phone calls, phoning the league, opposition and parents, talking about fixtures or chasing parents about paperwork or breaking the news that the player may have to be dropped because of disciplinary issues and finding a replacement of players because of red cards or injuries.
And on match days he's always the first to arrive, setting everything up, and the last to leave, putting everything away. At night he submits scores and files paperwork.
He also has to balance players' and parents' expectations, when they come to training and when they come to a match. He needs to create a friendly atmosphere and satisfy parent's demands, all while keeping other parents happy. And this balance is no easy feat.
And 90 per cent of what he and other grassroots coaches do is highly underappreciated and almost always unknown, and also keep in mind, this is all volunteer work and unpaid.
All of it. For 7 years he has done this, week after week.
However, if everyone is fit, healthy, and card-free, he could find himself with an overload of players, depending on what league he's in, with the East Manchester league allowing more players than the Bury league.
Now however Jamie seems to stand out among grassroots coaches, being one of the most successful with his team and diving head first with no prior experience of coaching or grassroots at all. Watching many talented players that may go professional, with whom his son has played or coached, is possibly one of the best experiences from my point of view that a higher ability team coach can experience.
In the next article, we'll explore the journey he's taken over the years, along with the ambitions he still holds for his team—and the one elusive trophy that has yet to complete his grassroots legacy.
Thanks for taking the time to read this! I hope you enjoyed the insights and felt a bit closer to the highs and lows of grassroots football. Stay tuned for more, as there's plenty more to come. Your support and interest mean everything, and I can't wait to share the next chapter with you. See you soon!
