Ex-Olympian’s injury inspires kids’ football programme

It’s been two surgeries and four and a half years since Adam Thomas played a game of football. 

Before a devastating knee injury, the 24-year-old was one of New Zealand’s most promising football talents.

He represented New Zealand at the 2012 London Olympics, and was captain of Waikato football club in the New Zealand premiership. 

When Thomas first injured his knee in 2012, he wasn’t too worried. It was a lateral meniscus tear, which affects cartilage on the knee joint and in his case required surgery. 

But he was young and sure that he’d recover within a few months.

Trying to come back from that injury, Thomas suffered a hip impingement that again needed to be operated on, alongside months of rehabilitation. 

“As the years started to pass and I was still struggling, mentally that was really, really tough,” Thomas said.

He turned to coaching as a way of staying involved in the sport, and is passing on his knowledge to the next generation of budding footballers.

Thomas established Adam Thomas Olympic Football Coaching in 2016, a coaching programme designed for all primary school children.

“I originally started this coaching programme to provide the children from the ages of 6-12 with similar opportunities that I was lucky enough to have when I was young,” Thomas said.

So far the programme has 330 children from different schools all around Waikato participating each week.  Thomas, who started with five schools participating said he should have over 10 Waikato schools involved by the next school term and hopes to have 600 sign-ups in the next few months. 

The business has now become his main source of income. 

“I’m at an age where I need to have a good job and have income and this was a great opportunity to make money to live… but also to do something that I really love and do something that I’d want to do even if I wasn’t making money,” Thomas said.  

The coaching takes place at the schools and doubles as after-school care as it runs from about three to five in the afternoon. Thomas and other coaches go to different schools on different days of the week. 

Thomas said that working on his coaching business and “trying to grow the talent pool” has given him something exciting to focus on while he is in rehabilitation for his injury.

He doesn’t know if coaching is even the right word for the programme.

 “It’s not actually a lot of coaching.

“It’s more just encouraging and trying to spark the love…but I’ve definitely seen a lot of raw talent,” Thomas said.

“I see quite a lot really in the kids from Waikato.”

Amber Tout and Kajal Goundar are both mothers of 6-year-old daughters at Rotokauri school where the programme is run every Tuesday and has been going for three weeks.

“She [Bianca] really enjoys it,” Tout said. “She is exhausted after this.”

Both mums are happy that the programme encourages girls as much as boys to participate in the game.  

“It’s trying something new,” Tout said. “Especially for a girl. You can’t isolate a girl.”

“Exposing them now means options for them later,” Goundar said.

But the dream to become a professional player is still a priority for Thomas.

After four and a half years of rehab, he estimates that he is about two to three weeks away from taking part in a team training. The club that he will train with is so far undecided. 

It’s been two years since he could even put boots on and train.

“My main thing is to still get fit and healthy enough to still chase the dream of becoming a professional player,” Thomas said.

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