Former Wagga City Wanderers star Ben Holt will trade in his boots for a clipboard next season after filling the head coach vacancy at South Wagga Warriors.
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The 34-year-old has been coaching intermittently since 2005 and spent two years with Wagga United after relocating from Sydney in 2016 but was yet to take on a senior Pascoe Cup coaching role.
In fact, Holt’s ascent to the Warriors’ top job was – in his own words – “very serendipitous”.
“It’s actually a bit of a nice story,” Holt said.
“I had just watched that film The Merger and then I ended up reading the story about South Wagga needing a new coach where (former coach) Luke Nichols described the club as a real-life The Merger movie. That kind of struck a chord with me and then I ended up applying for the role, so yeah, it was very serendipitous in the end.”
A teacher by day, Holt is also involved with the Wanderers’ skills acquisition program (SAP) and has been backed to thrive in the top job at South Wagga next season.
“We were encouraged by (Ben)’s visions based around team unity and a strong work ethic and he was attracted by both the depth of our squads and the unique levels of multiculturalism that exists within our club,” South Wagga president Stephen Burns said.
“(We) feel that Ben will be a very good fit for our club and look forward to working with him in the very near future.”
Holt has already adopted a open door policy for the Warriors as they look to improve upon their ninth placing in this year’s Pascoe Cup.
“I think it’s my job to really encourage as many people to come down to training and trials as possible, so I really want new players to try out and feel welcome at the club,” Holt said.
“Warriors are such a diverse club and having grown up in Sydney’s East in a very multicultural area, I’ve got heaps of friends who come from refugee backgrounds and I’ve been involved with soccer in that area for a while. I’m really looking forwards to coaching at a club like this one.”
Holt will also hope to retain the services of in-form first-graders such as Will Carey, Ameen Osman, Faisal Sulaiman and Salah Khodedah.
“I also want to focus on building skills in the coming season,” Holt added.
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