Base FC Academy founder Stephanie Mills wins Whitsunday’s Best Sports Coach competition

In just a few short months, Whitsunday’s Best Sports Coach has crowds going wild for her unique training techniques that bring out the best in budding soccer stars.

She only started her kids’ soccer coaching clinics six months ago, but Whitsunday’s Best Sports Coach has already established herself as many parents’ go-to for value-packed out-of-school activities.

Stephanie Mills’ Base FC Academy coaching sessions for children aged two to 11 offer a winning mix of fun, fitness and skill-building that is unlike any other sporting program available in the region.

A former primary school teacher, lifelong soccer player and Australian and UK-qualified coach, Ms Mills came up with a unique concept to deliver her students much more than the standard club sports experience.

Whitsunday’s Best Sports Coach Stephanie Mills says the most satisfying thing about the role is being part of kids’ developmental journeys and watching them grow. Picture: Supplied

Her sessions, held at Cannonvale State School, take a holistic approach to coaching, incorporating elements of the Australian curriculum, as well as cognitive development, speech therapy and motor skills.

Each session has a theme to make it more engaging and participants earn stamps and patches as they progress.

One of the most popular classes is an all girls class – which has enough players to fill three soccer teams.

As Ms Mills sums it up, Base FC Academy is all about “bringing education to the soccer field”, with the goal to make the sessions so much fun, kids are “learning without really knowing they're learning”.

Ms Mills said she founded the company to provide more grassroots sporting opportunities for kids in a regional area after relocating to Australia from the UK and finding very little on offer for preschool-aged kids.

Ms Mills has been a coach in various sports since the age of 16. Picture: Supplied

“It’s been a passion of mine to develop a love for the sport from a very young age and get those fine and gross motor skills embedded right from there,” she explained.

What was supposed to be “a little side thing” will soon become Ms Mills’ full-time job, with plans to expand the wildly popular program and develop similar programs focused on AFL and NRL, to enable more kids to join in.

Base FC Academy has grown rapidly since starting in April 2021. Picture: Supplied

She said the joy her sessions bring the young participants is the number one thing that has motivated her over recent months, and convinced her to take the business to the next level.

“The whole aim in everything we do is just to make it engaging and contextual for the children, and it really has just taken off, big time”, Ms Mills said.

“We’re up to nearly 140 children now – we actually can’t take anymore until we find some more coaches.”