Niagara College helps build coaching fraternity
Mentoring and developing coaches is the goal of the Niagara College men’s soccer program.
“Our group has always done that. You have to share. As a coach, mentoring and sharing is a huge part of your own continued development. It also keeps you honest and fresh as a coach. I am still a mentee in some capacity and I still embrace having trusted voices around me, starting with Rino Berardi, who got me into coaching in 1989 and (we’ve been) working together ever since, and Gerry D’Angelo who has taught me so much about how the goalkeeper fits into the big picture,” Niagara head coach Frank DeChellis said. “The other thing is that we are not going to be around forever.”
It is also a way for Niagara College to return the favour for what others have done.
“The sports community develops our student-athletes before they come to us, so NC has to contribute however we can to build that pool of prospects,” he said. “Michele (Niagara College athletics director O’Keefe) encourages and expects us to be involved in developing community coaches.”
Since 2012, DeChellis has served as a coach developer for Ontario Soccer, delivering coaching education in Ontario.
DeChellis’ mentoring includes his own staff which recently saw Andrew Currie and Stephane Emard earn C-License Diplomas from Canada Soccer.
“I have learned a lot from Andrew and Stef during their journey, and everybody we work with,” DeChellis said.
Currie played five seasons at Niagara College. The former captain was a two-time Ontario Colleges Athletic Association all-star and defensive player of the year. He started coaching in 2021 and in addition to his duties at Niagara, Currie helped DeChellis coach the Club Roma League 2 men’s squad in 2024. He was part of the Coach Mentorship Program with the Coach Association of Ontario. It was Niagara’s second time in the program. The first time was with Jessica Danku, who now coaches OPDL in Niagara Falls.
“Andrew has an emotional attachment to Niagara College soccer and is very enthusiastic and passionate, but our favourite characteristic that he brings is that he is not a yes man. We have a mutual respect among the group where honesty is expected and appreciated,” DeChellis said. “Watching Andrew coach with other groups has been a nice thing. He knows how to establish a rapport quickly.”
Currie, a 30-year-old London native, spent his last two playing seasons at Niagara spending a lot of time talking to DeChellis about coaching. When his playing career ended, the salesman at Nickerson Appliances in St. Catharines joined Niagara’s staff. As an assistant coach at Niagara, he takes on specific patterns. This past season, he shored up the team’s play along the flanks.
“I feel that I have always been in more of a leadership role growing up and I have always been a student of the game and enjoyed that aspect of it,” Currie said. “Going through to get the C licence, I’ve noticed that the coaches who were properly mentored before going to it, it gives you a much more sound foundation. In the four years I spent with Frank, I had a progression each year of what I was doing and how many drills I ran. We are now a well-oiled machine.”
DeChellis’ mentoring was crucial for his development as a coach.
“I cannot speak highly enough of my relationship with Frank. He is not just my mentor, he is my friend.”
Currie plans to pay it forward and has already started with the under-17 high performance squad he coaches.
“I brought along one of the old goalies from Niagara College and a guy that played at Brock for five years. It’s taking guys who are energized coming out of college or university. They have a lot of knowledge but they might need a bit of reinforcement. It’s great. I get to make myself a better coach by seeing and helping them out. Hopefully it is giving them a platform that they can push to wherever they want to go.”
Currie is aiming high with his coaching career.
“The next goal is to get my national B and then A. In a couple years if Canada has a pro licence I would like to do it here. If not, I will have to look somewhere else.”
Coaching allows his to have an impact.
“When you are coaching in college or at League1, you have a bigger impact on people and it is bigger than the team you are involved with and I am addicted to it. It is a fun game, it is a people’s game and every day there is something new.”
Emard, who moved to Niagara in 2023, was a three-time OCAA all-star at Algonquin College and was the OCAA and Canadian Colleges Athletic Association player of the year in 2008. He also played professionally in Sweden, China and Lebanon.
The technical director of the Welland Soccer Club has been Niagara’s strength and conditioning coach since 2023. He has also completed a Technical Director Diploma with Canada Soccer .
“He has a healthy intensity about him and having a different voice with excellent player credentials is a very welcome addition for the strength and conditioning aspect of the program,” DeChellis said. “He epitomizes the philosophy of being yourself as a coach because when I watch him with some younger groups he still brings his demanding nature, but at the right level. He has done a great job establishing roots in Niagara via his soccer involvement.”
The 35-year-old native of St. Lucia, who moved to Ottawa when he was nine, is grateful for what DeChellis has done for him.
“Frank opened a lot of doors for me. I am the technical director for the Welland Wizards because Frank put me in touch with them. I started volunteering and now I run the whole club,” he said. “Without him, I probably wouldn’t have coached. Frank has given me a good platform to pursue my coaching but also he made me comfortable to feel like I can ask for help from him and get guidance. Now I am a facilitator for coaches at the club. I have more than 75 coaches that I coach and I am jumping in to help them with everything.”
He is following DeChellis’s efforts by also mentoring.
“For me, legacy is very important and I want to give back because I have had coaches who have done so much for me. Coming to an environment where soccer is pretty big, they just need a little more direction. I think this is the perfect place for me to keep elevating my coaching.”
The owner of SE Fitness does all of Niagara College’s preparation, testing and strength and conditioning for the men’s and women’s teams.
“I manage their workloads so they can perform at their best.”
It is not where he expected to find himself at this point in his life.
“I never saw myself as a coach but you learn a lot from certain people. Once you play the game, you can’t just stop and the best way to get back into it is to help other people,” he said. “I try to teach them to skip the steps I had to go through with all the highs and the lows and give direction.”
He has the unique skillset to do just that.
“Using my experiences from other countries because I have seen the game in so many different ways, I can take a little bit of everything,” he said. “Doing that I became more interested in coaching and decided to pursue it.”
With the Wizards, he coaches the under-13 girls I-Model team.
