Lisa Cole is set to become one of those privileged ones.
The former Boston Breakers head coach has worked her way through the ranks from youth coaching, through the college game at the professional women’s league in the United States of America.
But her biggest challenge to date now awaits her in Papua New Guinea, as she gets set to lead the national U-20 women’s team at the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup Papua New Guinea 2016.
“I knew absolutely nothing about Papua New Guinea to start with,” she admits.
“I didn’t know a lot about the country at all until the job came up. I took a stroll around the internet and realised it was an island, a fairly young country, and there would be some opportunities to have an impact in the community and the country.”
Cole has previously worked under Tony DiCicco, who led the US women’s national team to Olympic gold in 1996 and the 1999 FIFA Women’s World Cup title. DiCicco’s U-20 women’s side also won the 2008 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup.
The opportunity to learn from one of the best is priceless, and Cole has gone on to make a name for herself as assistant and head coach with several US College programmes, and the Women’s Professional Soccer League.
She also has experience as director of the SoccerPlus Education Centre, a non-profit organisation which works in mentoring both on and off the field.
It’s a varied background, but one that makes her a prime candidate to assist not just in developing a football team capable of competing at the world cup, but a team of players that Papua New Guinea can be proud of.
“This is my second visit here,” Cole says of her return to Papua New Guinea last week, “and my experience so far of PNG is that the people are fantastic.
“They’re polite and nice and I’m enjoying my time.”
So far, time with the players has been limited but Cole is excited about what she has seen.
“I’ve gotten to work with the players and that to me is always the most important thing,” she states.
“They’re willing to work hard, they’re eager to learn.
“I’m excited about the potential and how much I can bring and give to them as far as developing their soccer because they have some good natural instincts and athleticism to them.”
Someone who has been able to offer a bit of insight into women’s football in Papua New Guinea is former senior women’s coach Gary Philips who led the team to their fourth consecutive Pacific Games gold medal in July.
“I was emailing back-and-forth with Gary and he told me a bit about the squad.
“He probably had six girls in his wider squad and three that actually made the team for the Pacific Games and he felt like they would give us a strong base.
“Six players is a good start and obviously we then have to fill the gaps from there with some good, strong players.”
As host Papua New Guinea earns direct entry to what will become the first appearance for a PNG football team at a FIFA world cup event.
Pressure and expectation will feature as preparations get underway, but for now Cole is just relishing the experience.
“I haven’t felt that pressure yet. I feel like when I was talking to them (PNGFA) about expectations coming into the job, it was to do a good job representing the country,” she says.
“Playing a good style of soccer and representing Papua New Guinea well.
“I feel like those are all attainable things.”
Cole says gauging the team’s potential this early on is difficult.
“I think we need to see all the players and I need to see the draw.
“For me there’s still too many variables to make the call on how well we might do. I haven’t seen everybody yet so I don’t know what they’re all capable of.”
Resources will also come into play.
“I was just with Michelle French who is the U-20 women’s national team coach in the US and looking at the resources they have compared with the resources Papua New Guinea has,” Cole says.
“She’s had her team in Spain and now in qualifying this year, and I’m yet to even pick my team. So the expectations have to match the resources and the time you put in.
“I’m American and so of course I want to win – but it will come down to the type of soccer we play and the games we get throughout the year.
“I put on the plan that we need to get 25 games. That’s not a lot if you’re in the US, you would play that many games in a couple of months. But here, that’s a lot of games for them and we need to find those games.”
The side has gone straight into camp as Cole looks set to establish a core group that will vie for their place in the final squad.
“For the players it’s definitely going to feel like full-time,” she says.
“We’ll bring them into residency and be in camp from February until November.
“I have planned some breaks in there so they get some time with family and time away from the game because they’ll need that in order to be fresh.”
Cole and assistant coach Margaret Aka have 32 players in camp at the National Sports Institute in Goroka for the next 16 days, with the next camp scheduled for February.

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