FORMER International Soccer Club member Bruno Vadori has changed his stripes this year to take on the senior coaching role at Apollo Soccer Club for the 2018 Limestone Coast Football Association season.
With the desire to take the next step in what has been a successful junior coaching career, Vadori made the difficult decision to move to Apollo to take on the role of A Grade coach this year.
Having coached Inter’s junior grades for eight years before taking a break from the role in 2017, Vadori is excited for the new challenges the senior game will hold.
“I’ve been coaching juniors for a long time,” he said.
“I had a bit of a break last year and Apollo Soccer Club approached me and asked me to coach their senior grade this year.
“I took it on as a new challenge and a new step in my coaching career after being very successful in juniors, winning multiple premierships in a few different grades.”
During this time, Vadori won the junior coaching award for the league, while he also coached the Wester Border select squad, where he found even more success, with wins in both state and country carnivals.
With deep roots at Inter, Vadori said the decision to leave the club was a difficult one, but the support from his former clubmates has made the transition easier.
“It was definitely really hard,” he said.
“I was basically born into that club.
“My family has been very involved with Inter for 50 plus years and my father is their first hall-of-famer.”
Despite this, Vadori’s family is not without its ties to Apollo.
“My brothers played a few seasons here (at Apollo) and back in the late 70’s my father actually coached for a season or two,” he said.
“So it is nothing new for my family, but it is breaking the mould a little bit.”
With the league looking to step up a notch this season, Vadori said Apollo will try its best to match the competition, but the loss of some key players could weigh heavily on this year’s results.
“The team is going to be a bit different to the last couple of years,” he said.
“We have lost about four players I think.
“Young Nash Linden has a knee injury and is out for the season.
“We also have a couple of Bytheway’s who are out, they’ve moved away and Luke McCallum is not here.
“And Matt Ferguson is just trying to play his football (Australian Rules) and build on that.”
Having only taken over the role officially in the last week, Vadori said he is behind the eight ball in terms of recruiting compared to other teams.
However, he sees this as an opportunity to further develop the talented youngsters in the club.
“We are going to be running a bit of a youth policy,” Vadori said.
“This year is going to be a real transition kind of year and the club is backing me 100pc.
“They know this year is going to be a bit of a struggle, with some major players out, but I will be trying to develop the Under 17’s into an A Grade side.
“It might not be this season, but I have about a three-year plan.”
Taking over the reins from outgoing coach Derek Ferguson, Vadori hopes to do the role justice and build on the solid foundations he left behind.
“They are definitely big shoes to fill,” he said.
“He is obviously a legend around these parts and he has been around coaching and playing for a long time and has been very successful.
“I am going to try and go my own style and hopefully it pays off in the end.
“We are just going to try and shape the squad and be one unit.
“That is one thing I’m really going to be pushing for with the youth, for some of the senior guys to take them under their wing and show them what A Grade is all about.”
The 2018 season will be kicked off with Round 1 of the Belgiorno Cup on April 8, which will see Vadori thrown straight into the ring against his old club.
“It’s going to be a cracker of a game,” he said.
“Any game between Inter and Apollo is always a nail-biter.
“What a way to open the season.
“I am quite excited actually.”
