Founder and head coach

Coach Jimmy

Jimmy Muongsene is the head coach and founder of Motivate Football Academy Australia based in Canberra A.C.T and founded in 2013. Jimmy has been involved with football all his life as a player and coach. The academy aims to develop the player characteristics of hard work, passion, respect and persistence. Jimmy aims to not only develop and improve a player’s technical abilities on the pitch but also promote these values in everyday life. Jimmy’s devotion to helping the community not only comes naturally to him but is also inspired by his Aunt who passed away. “I promised her at the cemetery that I would do something good in my life to help others and I would live a life that she would be proud of”. This eternal promise has fuelled him to give his time and skills to help improve the lives of others.
 
One of the core values that Jimmy praises is confidence, not only in sport but in day to day life. Motivate Football Academy is different to most others as Jimmy prides himself in providing his service to people from any socio-economic background. Jimmy started the academy with only five players and knew those players couldn’t pay the fees so he provided the sessions for free. This was tough for Jimmy as he was selling personal items just to hire the sporting fields, clear proof of his love and passion for the community and football.
 
Even now he still provides lifts for players who can’t get to the sessions themselves and provides them for free if he knows the player or player’s family can’t afford it. This spirit of giving back to the community is embedded in Jimmy’s identity as he always discusses how he thinks football should be available to everyone no matter their financial situation.
 
Despite his personal philosophy of always giving back to others this has often put Jimmy in a challenging situation himself. The first three years of the academy were all paid for from his own money and that left him in a significant amount of debt and feeling exhausted. In the fourth year Jimmy nearly closed the academy due to the amount of debt he was in and the lack of time
he was spending with his family. Through applying the same values that the academy promotes he persevered and now the academy is widely praised, supported and trusted by hundreds of players and families.
 
Jimmy didn’t have this type of support as a child and in adolescence and thinks that if he did it would’ve changed some of his poor decisions in life such as drinking. Binge drinking became an increasing problem for Jimmy from adolescence up until he was thirty-six when he overcame his problem and cut alcohol out of his life for good. He has even written an eye-opening book, Life of a Binge Drinker, in the hopes of helping young adults to make the right decisions.
 
As well as being the backbone of the academy Jimmy is also solely responsible for the business side. He says “I do what I can to keep the academy running and make sure the main things are looked after like insurance…make sure all fields are booked...the administration work for the academy, the website, the emails and the Facebook Page which does take a lot of time”.
 
Although it may be difficult to be the only person that looks after the academy and to always be worrying if there will be enough money to keep it going for another term, Jimmy continues to put all his strength and knowledge into the academy. He says “I wish I could wake up and do this every morning... I love helping kids and being part of something which helps them grow as footballers and as people.”
 
Jimmy looks up to many people such as motivational speakers and coaches. One he particularly admires is Inky Johnson as he is someone who trained and worked very hard to get to a high sporting level in the NFL. Although a dangerous tackle stopped him from ever being able to play again, Inky is now a sensational motivational speaker and preaches the ethics of hard work and how success appears in different forms. Jimmy also looks up to coaches such as Zinedine Zidane because of the “way he acts on and off the pitch” which Jimmy describes is “how all coaches at that level should act”.
 
Jimmy doesn’t know what the future holds for the academy, only that there is an enormous amount of support for the academy and support is what keeps it going. Jimmy hopes that one day he will be able to turn the academy into a full time job and hopefully change the way football is played in Australia for the better.
 
Stunning courage and bravery has been shown in this inspirational and uplifting story. Jimmy has devoted countless hours into creating an incredible academy which provides kids with the tools to make the right decisions not only on the pitch but in the real world.

An inspiration to us all, Jimmy your Auntie would be proud.