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NSS-Exposed: Interview One
Peter Leebrook

Peter Leebrook is one of the most highly qualified coaches in Nova Scotia.  He has his United States Soccer Federation (USSF) ‘A’ Coaching License and has been involved with some of the top ranked clubs in the United States.  Also, he has coached school and university soccer teams in England, America, and Canada.  On top of his coaching experience, Peter played five years for the English professional club Burnley FC.  Clearly, Peter Leebrook has great potential to impact the development of soccer in Nova Scotia in his current position of technical director for the Halifax City Soccer Club; moreover, NSS-Exposed decided that an interview might shed some light on this new coach in our province.

Q. Where did you grow up?
A.   I grew up in a little village near a town called Market Harbour in Leicestershire.  I moved there when I was ten.   Most of my young life was spent in a place called Welford.

Q. Where and when did you start playing football?
A.  Well, I started kicking a ball when I could walk really.  I was born in the Northeast near Middlesbrough; I can’t say specifically when the first kick was, but in any photo of a holiday or in the back garden, there was always a ball at my feet.  I was probably three maybe four.

Q. What club did you support when you were growing up?
A.  All my family was born in Yorkshire, which is again in the north, so I was a Leeds United fan.  We moved out to the Midlands; then, I used to go see Leicester City because they were the local team.  So Leeds and Leicester are the teams I always look for first on the tele printer.

Q. When you were young, who was your favourite professional?
A.  A couple of players come to mind.  One was Eddie Gray, who played for Leeds.  Used to play on the side – right back, right midfield.  Another was called Steve Lynex who played for Leicester City.  Also, Gary Lineker you may have heard of, who played for Leicester in England.  They’re the people I used to watch on the weekends.

Q. How did you come to play for the professional club Burnley?  Where were you playing before and what led to your selection to the team?
A.  In England, it’s a bit different; a lot of it is through schools.  You have your club outside the school, and your school goes from area, to district, to region, to national, so it’s relatively similar to other places, and I managed to get into the regional team, which attracts a lot of scouts from professional clubs.  I played on the regional team quite a lot and got asked for many trials: Aston Villa, Southampton, Coventry City, and Leicester City.  So I went for those, and then there was a scout I knew, a friend of a friend, who says, “I scout for Burnley.  Do you want to come up on Sunday.”  So I went up with him, met the Burnley staff, then the players, and they offered me basically a contract at the age of fourteen.

Q. What position did you play?
A.  Well, in the schools, district, and club I actually played midfield, but when you go for these trials, there’s a good piece of advice which my uncle gave me.  He said, “Just go play as a fullback if they ask you where you play” because everyone in England wants to play midfield or forward.  Looking back, if it wasn’t for that advice I might not have been as successful as I was.  So I ended up playing fullback all the way through.
Q. What quality that you had contributed most to you becoming a professional?
A.  Probably dedication.  Desire and dedication.  I wasn’t technically the best in my school teams; there were better players than me; in district there were, region there were, but I was extremely hard working; I was very fit as well, which helped.  I didn’t shy out of any tackles, quite physical, and then technically okay, nothing brilliant.  I could get a ball and pass a ball basically.

Q. Do your children play football?
A.  I let them do their own thing really; I’m fairly hands-off with that.  I have a daughter of ten who plays and plays relatively well; the seven-year-old is really not interested, does gymnastics, and then my little boy, we’ll see what happens.  I’ll encourage, but I’ll never push.  

Q. Where did you start your coaching career?
A.  Well I got released from Burnley after five years professional; then I went back to education.  To get my basic education because I left school without it, and then to get my degree.  And it was at the university that I started coaching, player-coach.  Then in the summers I started coming to the States coaching in New Jersey.  So that’s really where it all started.  

Q. Why did you decide to coach in the U.S.?
A.  It was money, it was opportunity, and it was probably better than a vacation.  Plus, I loved coaching, there are opportunities in the UK, but the opportunity to travel abroad was great.

Q. Where did you coach in the United States before you came to Nova Scotia?
A.  I did many summers in New Jersey, in a company called UK elite, which is now one of the biggest camps in the country and in the world actually.  But then I was going back in the normal season and playing semi-professional as well as studying, and I broke my leg, quite badly, which kind of made my mind up to start coaching full-time.  I had a good friend in Arizona, and really the sun was part of it because your bones need the sun, so I decided to go there to give it a last chance.  It didn’t work out, the bones never healed properly; I was told I could never play competitive again.  So I ended up staying in Arizona, and that’s where I probably spent the majority of the 15 years I was in America.

Q.  Were you coaching at a club level there?
A.  Yeah, I started off, me and a friend, with a company called English Soccer Experience, which we started ourselves, and we had camps and did our own teams, and I joined a club called Sereno Soccer Club, which was at one point the number one ranked club in the country.  I then moved on to a club called SC del Sol, which was the last club I was at, and that’s it in a nut-shell really.

Q. What was the coaching experience like in the U.S.?
A.  It was good.  It was extremely professional, you were held accountable for your actions, and it was very serious; no messin’ around.  Facilities were good, obviously it’s a great way of life; it’s a good experience.

Q. From your point of view as technical director of the Halifax City Soccer Club, what do you think Nova Scotia soccer has to do to reach the highest level in this country?
A.  Well if you want to make a successful team, it depends on what your definition of success is as a club.  If it wants to compete with the best clubs in the country and North America, it has to get its structure right from the very top.  The CSA [Canadian Soccer Association] needs to get a structure and go with it, and obviously every province has to follow that.  The biggest thing I see is the tier-ing, and the seriousness of the Tier One teams and the structure and professionalism of that is, in my opinion, now slightly inadequate, and it needs to be professionalized.  To get the best coaches in, to create the best environment to teach the kids, the best you possibly can; every kid needs the best opportunity to fulfill their potential, and really, I don’t see that happening all the way through.  It’s a lack of funds, lack of facilities, and a lack of forward-thinking.  I think that’s what needs to be done.

Q. For young footballers coming up, what is the most important quality that they should have?
A.  If everything is in place for them, they’ve got the right club, the right coaches, and the right training, if there’s one thing I’d say any kid needs, it’s probably desire.  It’s probably love of the game because without that, nothing else will fall into place.  And I think that’s one of the things to work on here in Canada, trying to get kids of five and six to desire to become a professional footballer rather than a professional hockey player, baseball player, or basketball player.  And I think that’s probably the biggest thing that I would look for in a young kid.  

Q. Who do you think is currently the best player in the world and why?
A.  Wow, that’s a good one . . . It’d have to be Ronaldo; Messi is right there, but the reason I say Ronaldo is because I’ve seen him a lot more than Messi because I watch a lot more of the Premiership (I know he’s not there now) than the Spanish League, but the reason why is that they can change the game in a second.  They have incredible pace, incredible skill, just very exciting to watch.  It would be a tossup between those two, but since I’ve seen Ronaldo on a more consistent basis, I’d probably go for him.

Q. Who do you think will win the World Cup in South Africa and why?
A.  I’ve got a theory on that, and obviously my heart would say England, but I haven’t really got a reason why apart from having a very good manager.  But my real instinct would probably be . . . Argentina.  The reason is, number one, they’ve probably got on a whole the most dangerous and dynamic players.  The second thing is that they only scraped into the World Cup, and are having a very hard time with things; Maradona’s getting a lot of stick, so there’s a bit of disturbance in the camp, and usually when that happens, it goes the other way.   And I would say that the reason England aren’t going to do it is that they’re actually one of the favourites at the moment.  I’m not sure they have that real mentality.  I think it would be the last four: Argentina, Italy, Brazil, I think England has a chance, Spain’s obviously looking great this year; the ones who always, always do well are the Germans.  It’s their mentality.  Their mentality is so strong, and so stubborn, that they very rarely do poorly in the World Cup.  

Q. Do you think Canada can make any progress on the world stage?
A.  I’d like to think so.  I think it’s the highest ranked country without having a professional league.  I think it’s 53rd at the minute, ranking-wise.  So that says a lot about the people who play within the country; there must be a lot of people playing, and there must be a decent standard.  If the structure at the top could get a professional league going from within, I think that would really improve.  With what they’ve got now, they can get better, but without things really in grassroots, getting the structure right, setting up a professional league, and getting the system correct, there’s only so far they can go.  

Q. Do you have any plans for the future?
A.  Well, I’ve worked on the regional staff and the national staff, I’ve been a university coach, and so my aspirations to go that route are not really burning inside.  I love working with kids, I love trying to develop players and teams, and to develop clubs.  I’m very happy doing that, and obviously I’m a father as well, so my goals and aspirations are to be a good father and to be developing teams, players, and kids.  Really that’s it; I know I’m not going to become a millionaire by what I do, but I think the key in life is to enjoy what you’re doing, and don’t worry about the other stuff.  As far as goals and ambitions, that really would be it; I mean, I’ve done quite a lot.  If one day the opportunity came to coach a national team, maybe that’d be something I’d look at, but at the minute, a ten-year-old, seven-year-old, and a two-year-old; that’s my priority at the minute.

Written by Roman Burgess