Upper Austria has the youngest third division coaches

LINZ. Do Upper Austria’s best amateur clubs in the regional football league have special courage or is the training of the coaches just that good? One thing is certain: Upper Austria has the youngest coaches of all third leagues. Head coaches in this country are on average 38.3 years old. A number that makes colleagues in the other eight federal states look really old: In the Salzburg regional league teams, the supervisors are around 49.4 years old on average – and therefore more than eleven years older than those from Upper Austria. In general, the average age in the other federal states is well over 40 years – see factbox.

What could that be? “In the past, you just played football as long as your feet carried you and then became a coach. Today that has shifted a bit, many people start training as coaches at a very early age,” says Peter Madritsch. At the age of 48, the Gurten coach is already the “oldie” among the Upper Austrian third division coaches – and played until he was 39 years old. What he still benefits from now: “I have dealt with it myself when I convey things. I may have an advantage over my younger colleagues.”

At the age of 29, Patrick Enengl was the youngest coach in the third league – he even made the jump to the second league in Amstetten (see interview next door). Thomas Bachmair, his interim replacement on Friday in Deutschlandsberg, was also below the Upper Austria average (34 years). Vöcklamarkt is also relying on a young coach with Thomas Laganda (37). Why this is the case is easily explained for Vöcklamarkt sports director Omer Tarabic: “The times of medicine balls are over. Many regional league kickers come from the academies and they simply want modern training.” Younger coaches in particular should be more open to this.

Good education

Another point according to Tarabic: “The training is good, Upper Austria has many good trainers.” A compliment that Thomas Weissenböck will be happy to hear: The Wallern sports director is also in charge of coaching training at the Upper Austrian Football Association. “It would be nice if that was the only reason. But it is of course true that we in Upper Austria certainly have serious trainer training with top speakers like Gerald Scheiblehner or Gerhard Schweitzer.”

In his own club, he also trusts Horst Haidacher (34) to train the coaches in a similar way to the players themselves: “Horst is a Wallern veteran. I am generally someone who gives young coaches a chance.” Like many other Upper Austria third division teams…