Seán Herlihy – Director of Football
Since being elected as the IDSA football director on 21 November 2009, Seán has worked tirelessly to ensue that the football team needs are met and improved. His thankless efforts working with IDSA, the FAI and Giglione/Coyle has produced a notably improved standard of facilities for the football team.
In his heydays as a player, Seán was part of a successful St Vincent's DFC team. He earned himself his two caps for Ireland against Great Britain and European qualifying round against Yugoslavia in Belgrade but was unable to collect more caps after he broke his leg in September 2002 when he was 21. He is still playing his football with St Vincent's DFC, reforming himself as right back.
Seán is always looking for new talent if you think you could play football for the Ireland Deaf team, don't hesitate to contact him!
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Rino Giglione – Joint Manager
In March 2005, Rino Giglione was appointed as the manager of the Irish Deaf Football team, fulfilling the vacancy that had previously been occupied by Geoff Foy.
Having spent the majority of his playing years as the goalkeeper at St. Vincent's Deaf Football Club, which also stabled several of his fellow Irish team-mates, Giglione picked up numerous domestic trophies and titles to go along with the 40 caps he had collected throughout his 12 year spell as an indispensable player for the national Deaf football team. During the twilight of his playing years, Giglione took up the managerial reins of the Leinster Deaf Football team and guided them to an impressive 2nd place finish in his managerial debut.
After the 2005 Deaflympics in Melbourne, Giglione hung up his gloves and made the natural progression from player to manager when he was asked by Dillon Smith, the then football director of Irish Deaf Sports Association to take up the vacant manger's role created by Geoff Foy's departure after the tournament.
Immediately tasked with the job of qualification, Giglione masterminded his team to a 3-1 victory over Croatia and to a dramatic 2-2 draw with Holland to see Ireland qualify for the 2007 European Deaf Football Championship in Lisbon on goal difference. From thereon, he led the boys in green to a impressive 3rd place finish, beating Germany 4-2 in a tense penalty shoot-out.
His next managerial appearance in a tournament followed a year later in the 2008 World Deaf Football Championships in Athens, in which he saw his boys notch impressive victories over Italy and Venezuela before making a rather disappointing exit at the hands of France who needed an extra time goal to overcome his determined side.
As the once reliable pool of players from St. Joseph's Deaf school of boys continues to diminish at a rapid pace throughout the past few years , Giglione's managerial stock has continued to rise as he tackles an increasingly difficult task to source new players. Against the face of adversity, Giglione has managed to discover several talents as such as Damon Kearney, Michael Walsh, Andrew Wynne, Stephen Millar, Mark Sinclair and Dan Johnson to date as he exhausts every possible outlet to ensure his team have the best preparation possible in launching their assault in their bid to capture the much coveted gold medal in the 2011 European Championship to be held at Denmark..
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Thomas Coyle – Joint Manager
Thomas has a proven track record of managerial success both inside and outside of football. He is a highly qualified professional statistician withrange of management qualifications.
He played international mainstream soccer atlevel and has an all-Ireland colleges GAA winners medal, although his career was cut short by a knee injury.
After experiencing success managing a mainstream Civil Service soccer team, Thomas began managing Belfast Deaf United FC in the 2006/07 season. Hea key role in takingteam from rock bottom of the 16 team Down Area Division 1 mainstream promotion within 2 seasons and subsequently to 2nd place in the16 team Premier Division. He also led Deaf a number of cup finals including the 2009 British Deaf cup final. Thomas managed the Ulster Deaf Men's team to win the 2008 and 2009 Interprovincial titles.
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Geoffrey Foy - Assistant Manager
Having made his last appearance against France in the 2003 European Deaf Football Championships, the St. Vincent's DFC stalwart bowed out with 18 goals in 51 games. Brother of Stuart, the 42 year old fitness fanatic enjoyed a brief tenure in the managerial hot seat when he was appointed Richard Dudley's replacement on a temporary basis for the 2005 Deaflympics in Melbourne.
Now the chairman of St. Vincent's DFC, Foy found Giglione's invitation to come on board as coach too great to resist last Summer during Deaflymics in Taipei. Now he is appointed as new Assistant. He brings with him a wealth of experience.
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Jamie Wilson – Head Coach
Having won 7 caps during his playing days, the former right back enjoyed a meteoric rise as a coach having worked with top Northern Irish Premier (Crusaders FC)and 1st Division (Dundela FC) league clubs.
Wilson now enjoys the liberty of being the first ever Deaf person in Ireland to hold an UEFA "A" coaching badge. Such is his pedigree, it is testimonial to his stock that upon his appointment as manager, Giglione quickly moved to invite Wilson on board as his coach. Always prominent in the dressing room, his multitudes of tactical plays are invaluable and could prove decisive in the grand mission to win gold in Denmark 2011.
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Johnny Stewart - Coach
Johnny is a young, enthusiastic, developing coach. Most of his coaching experience has been gained through ‘Ambassadors in Sport’ and he has coached young players in Africa and America.
Still only 25 Johnny still plays the game at a high Amateur level and both his brothers are full-time professional footballers. Johnny will set the fitness benchmarks and raise standards for the Ireland Deaf team.
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