(Press release from West Ottawa Soccer Club.)
The West Ottawa Soccer Club (WOSC) announced today that it has added two top caliber coaches to its technical leadership team. Mr. Traian Mateas and Mr. Kwame Telemaque will strengthen the WOSC technical staff team starting this Winter season.
In light of continued Club growth from its grassroots and recreational programming all the way to its Ontario Player Development League (OPDL) stream, adding additional technical capacity had been an important priority to the organization.
With Traian Mateas, who will assume the role of Club Head Coach for the Mini age groups from U8-U12 and Kwame Telemaque, who will take on the role as Club Technical Coach including the head coaching role for both the WOSC U13 and U14 Girls’ OPDL teams in 2015, the Club has been able to add two highly acclaimed experts to its coaching ranks led by former Canadian International Kristina Kiss as Technical Director.
Traian Mateas, who for 15 years had been a driving force behind the ascent of Capital United as one of Ottawa’s most successful Clubs at the OYSL level, will apply his coaching excellence to reinforce the creation of a complete player development pathway covering the critical golden years of learning from U8-U12 before players transition into the U13+ OPDL age groups.
Mr. Mateas played at the professional club level in Timisoara in Romania in the 70s, before embarking on his Canadian football journey in 1982. During the last 30 years, he has been coaching successfully at the Club, District, Provincial, and collegiate level, as well as running the “Soccer by Mateas School of Excellence”, while also assisting the Ontario Soccer Association as an instructor.
“It is a joy to work with innovative football minds like Kristina Kiss and her team to give the talented players under our care vastly enhanced development opportunities,” stated Mateas. “The football landscape is changing rapidly and creating development platforms that are putting the player first, this will be the recipe for our sustainable long-term success,” he added.
Kwame Telemaque, who holds a National B License, as well as a Youth Development Coaching License from the Scottish FA, most recently coached the Ottawa Fury FC’s OPDL Girls’ U13 team and acted as Ottawa Fury FC Girls’ Prospects Academy Director. He also earned coaching accolades as both past OSU Club Head Technical Coach and as the St. Anthony’s Men’s Premier Head Coach, leading that team to Provincial and National Championships.
Mr. Telemaque played at the professional level in the Belgian, Portuguese, and Irish first divisions, as well as in Canada and was a NCAA All America whilst at Felician College in 2000. Like his new colleague Traian, he also continues to be active as an OSA learning facilitator educating Coaches across the Province on Long Term Player Development.
“I am elated to join the team at WOSC to assist in the development of our promising talents and am very much looking forward to help all our athletes to take their game to the next level,” stated Telemaque. “I have built my soccer brand around focus on excellence and innovative development practices and feel that WOSC embraces the same values in the name of football development,” he added.
Just as importantly as their work with the vast player base at WOSC, Mr. Mateas and Mr. Telemaque will also pass on their extensive football knowledge in a mentoring capacity to coaches. In that way, they will support WOSC Technical Director Kristina Kiss, herself an OSA Learning Facilitator, in pooling and passing on their expertise for the benefit of all involved.
“The excellence and leadership quality of our coaches are an absolutely critical success factor for challenging our players to be the best that they can be,” added WOSC President Brian Mason. “In Traian and Kwame, WOSC has found two top caliber experts that will help us to once again raise the bar for the benefit of all our WOSC Warriors,” he added.
Both Mr. Mateas and Mr. Telemaque have begun their work within the WOSC Winter Training Program.