Olympic FC are pleased to confirm the appointment of Sekou Jomanday as the club’s new U23 Men’s Head Coach ahead of the 2022 NPL Queensland season.
Jomanday, who will be assisted by Emanuel Makridakis arrives at Olympic with a wealth of experience both as a player and youth coach.
The 33-year-old, who hung up the boots at the end of the 2021 season developed a reputation as one of Queensland’s most deadly strikers over the past decade.
After playing professionally in his native Liberia and at a semi professional level in the United States, Jomanday starred locally for the likes of Peninsula Power, Lions, Eastern Suburbs, Moreton Bay, Grange Thistle and Wynnum Wolves.
As a coach Jomanday, who is currently working towards his B Licence has coached Lions at junior level, Peninsula Power’s U18s and most recently Eastern Suburbs U23 side.
Jomanday said he was looking forward to working with exciting crop of young players who last season made the NPL Queensland U23 Semi Finals.
“I played against Olympic when I was at Easts and I could see there are a bunch of talented players here,” Jomanday said.
“Hopefully I can be that little bit of experience that guides them and helps them achieve their goals, I’m really excited to be working with them.
“My ambition this year is to help as many players as I can to get to the first team, I want to help them grow both as individuals and as a group.
“The winning side of things, I’ll leave that to the boys because winning is a habit. I will instil what’s required to make sure they perform and I know for a fact when they perform the results will come.”
Knowing exactly what’s required to make the cut at senior level, Jomanday said he’s looking to use his experience to help the U23’s make the leap to first team football.
“There’s a lot of noise in the background and a lot of people don’t understand how hard the journey is to make the jump to senior football and everyone’s focus is wanting to make the senior team,” Jomanday said.
“When you get that opportunity, do you want to be the best player when you get that opportunity?. For me it’s about helping them to be patient and to go through the process.
“When I played I didn’t just make first team like that, I had to work harder, even knowing I was better than some first team players when I was younger, but I was a little bit immature in terms of football and they had more experience.
“A lot of youth players tend to think once they’ve got their opportunity, that’s it, the goal should always be once I make it how do I work even harder to stay there?
“That’s the challenge, so whatever training we do, I’m trying to help them work as hard as the first team players.”
Olympic’s U23 Men’s side kick off their season against Eastern Suburbs at Goodwin Park on Sunday, February 27 (3:30pm KO).