tribute to darren lynch, much loved coach of the bellamonaro 2021 under 14s
Darren Lynch coached at Monaro Panthers from 2001 before moving over to the Brindabella Blues in 2020, leading their U12 Girls during the truncated COVID season but the improvements he made in that short time were palpable. Darren was a foundation coach of the newly formed BellaMonaro Griffins, coaching the U14s Division 1 girls, the Great Griffins. He was heavily involved in taking junior Monaro boys teams to Korea. The Lynch family were very generous in billeting Korean boys when Singok toured Australia.
Our football community remember a highly committed person who loved coaching young players. He was particularly interested in working closely with players to develop their fundamental skills. He often participated in the drills showing the girls how to play the game in the right way. He was a quiet achiever, diligently taking his wards through technical drills, showing them how to play 'football' and during the games urging them to follow through on that promise. On the sidelines, his words of encouragement could be heard: "Can you get that ball up the line Ella?", "Can you get in and fill that gap there Lucia?", "Mia, that ball's yours - can you transition us into attack?"
At half and full time, Darren would gather his girls in a semi-circle and start the analysis of what had just passed. "How are we going girls?", "Can we do better?", "Where can we bring that extra little bit of improvement?" and to every single question, to every single request, every single invitation to progress, his girls tried to rise in response. The Great Griffins play a beautiful passing game that is all down to Darren. His quiet dedication and the confidence he instilled in his players was an example to all of the coaches at BellaMonaro and the Canberra football community.
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While playing with the two Divisions of U14 Griffin girls, in a post training scratch match as he so often did, Darren was tragically taken from us, in spite of the best efforts of initially coaches and parents, and then paramedics, on the Calwell Playing Fields on Wednesday evening just gone (4 August 2021). Darren was fifty-five years of age and he will be sadly missed. Our deepest sympathy is with his wife Wendy, daughter Meghan and son Anthony.
additional SUPPORT
A number of organisations have support material which can be found below.
Beyond Blue - Grief and Loss
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Capital Football - Dealing with Difficult Events - Help Sheet for Young Players
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Capital Football - Heling Children Cope with Loss and Trauma - Help Sheet for Parents
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Better Health - Trauma and Teenagers - Common reactions
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Relationships Australia - Supporting your grief at this time
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DOCS - Helping young children cope with traumatic events
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Dept. of Health and Ageing - Better Access to Mental Health Care - Fact Sheet for patients
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National Workforce Centre for Child Mental Health - Talking to children about natural disasters, traumatic events or worries about the future - video includes practical tips to guide parents and carers to start conversations pitched at younger children but tips are relevant to teens