Miconi Roma’s new HP director
Nicola Miconi didn’t have to think twice when he was offered the position of High Performance director at Club Roma.
The 28-year-old native of Italy was given a call by Roma’s Technical Director Davide Massafra asking if he would be interested in a new adventure.
“Davide gave me a very good opportunity,” Miconi said “He calls me and he says, ‘You want to try to a new experience in Canada?’
“It took like five minutes (to say yes).”
Miconi was a physical education teacher at the high school level and also an assistant coach for a third division professional team in Italy but jumped at the chance to try something new.
“I love to test myself in a new, different culture and a different place,” he said. “So for me, it was a great opportunity. I said to myself I have to take this opportunity as soon as possible.”
Miconi will oversee the HP program of seven teams, up from five last season and two the year before.
“The goal for me is improving the program,” Miconi said. “I know the program is doing good, but I want to try to bring the program to another level, to the top of the country.
“I love the HP program that we have here. It’s a good program for developing players from U13 to U18 and we have very strong teams with very good coaches and at very good level. I love their attitude. I love the passion they put in their job because they are very, very passionate.”
This year’s HP teams and coaches are: U13 Boys (Howard Hyman); U14 Boys (Paul Bain); 14 Girls (Lee Burrows); U17 Boys (Andrew Currie); U17 Girls (Walter Camelino); U18 Boys (Erik Bourdeau, Lucas Baiocco); U18 Girls (Martin Beswick).
Miconi, who arrived in Canada about two months ago, has been hard at work putting his stamp on the HP program.
“We have a meeting every week with the coaches to work together because we want to work like a family,” Miconi said. “We are a program but we want to work like a family, like a club and work together to improve.
“I think if we improve the program, we can also improve players.”
Miconi feels it is imperative to have everyone on the same page from U13 all the way up through League1.
“The idea is give to all the coaches the same methodology of work, the same idea, the same concept for working on the field,” he said. “So for every group, it’s different, but the idea is we are working together and all the coaches on the same page. Help the kids move to the next group to the next steps until League1.
As well, Miconi has instituted the HP Juniors Program/Session where every Sunday afternoon two, 90-minute sessions are held at the Wolf Den and are open to any players who want to train and improve their skills.
Miconi will also run and organize two camps this summer (July 7-11 and Aug. 4-8) for players (age 6-13).
In addition, he is also working on the integration for IMODEL Teams and HP.
“Our goal is to include all the new IMODEL teams (the new U13s boys and girls teams every year) and focusing on player development,” Miconi said. “We have three IMODEL teams with our HP Program and I’m so pleased to see how quick we are improving. I’m very excited about the next two teams we are building for next year.”
Miconi feels it is vital for coaches to be prepared.
“I don’t like to scream a lot on the field. I like players to understand my ideas so I like to talk before the practice outside of the field probably because we have time but I don’t like to waste time when I’m on the field,” he said. “Prepare the session, communicate what are my expectations for the session, and then work.”
He is eager for some game action.
“I can’t wait to play because right now it’s just session, session, session training and I’m very excited for the season. We will have good expectations from the season, both for the League1 program and for the HP program because I think we have really done a good job during the winter.
“We’re ready to play, to win.”
Roma open the season with a pair of Cup games Saturday, April 12 when the women’s League1 team takes on Unionville at 3:30 p.m. followed by the League1 men’s game versus The Borough at 6:15 p.m. Both games will be played at Kiwanis Field.
Away from the pitch, Miconi says his experience so far in Canada has been overwhelmingly positive.
“This is my first time outside of Europe and it’s completely new, completely different,” he said. “For now I love being here because people make me feel like part of the family. I’m new but they are very good with me. They integrated me so good and I’m so grateful to everybody.
“I’m happy to be here because everything for me is like a movie. You know, we see Canada just on TV, on the movies, and my big surprise was, this is the reality. It’s a great movie.”
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