Adelaide Comets is full of hardworking volunteers, dedicated to the Club and all it is about. The perfect example of this, is none other than Dimitri Panagis.
At 23-years-young, Dimi has been involved with Adelaide Comets for the majority of his life, 17 years to be exact.
Starting with the Clubs introduction of Juniors in 2001 at 7 years old, Dimi played all the way through until 2014 as well as taking on coaching from 2013.
In 2015, Dimi became a Life Member of Adelaide Comets and joined the Club Committee in 2016.
“I have met some great people and have made life-long friends from this club,” he said.
“This is my third year involved in the U18’s setup, the past two years I was the assistant coach with Tony Galanopoulos as the Coach.
“Now with Tony moving up into the first team as Theo’s Assistant I am now the Head Coach of the U18’s.
“I am looking forward to the season ahead with my Assistant Coach John Katsabis who is also a Life Member at this Club and has a lot of playing experience behind him.
“Also having John Falidis and Elias Demourtzidis taking the reserves is great, as they always have some advice to give and have great banter around the training ground.”
Last week, Dimi furthered his coaching accreditation by undertaking the AFC C-Licence, lead by Football Federation South Australia.
“With the C Licence, I believe that you never stop learning as an educator, so I couldn’t wait to hear what Ayrton (Andrioli), Richie (Alagich) and Cristiano (Dos Santos) had in store for us.
“I’m still quite young so I want to learn as much as I can over this period. I believe I will have a head start due to the fact that every coach involved in our Senior set up has already got their C Licence and they have passed on most information to me.”
With all of this knowledge and experience, Dimi is looking forward to the season ahead with his Under 18s side.
“The U18’s have been working very hard on the training ground which is something I am very proud of.
“Our 18’s and Reserves squad spent most of the pre-season together, which has helped everyone with their fitness, style of play and team morale.
“We have a very new squad due to the majority of last year’s U18’s squad having moved up to the Reserves.
“The best thing is that the majority of this year’s squad have come through our Junior set up, which is vital as we look at promoting from our own backyard.
“In conclusion the boys are young, fearless, have loads of potential and we are looking forward to having a successful year together playing for each other (The Comets Way).”
The young coach, who has just graduated with a Bachelor of Education (Primary R-7) degree from Flinders University (and is looking for temporary relief teacher work for the year – contact us if you know any schools looking!), struggles to play favourites this pre-season when asked who supporters should look out for.
“It’s so hard to pinpoint one boy, as everyone is pulling their weight in pre-season.
“Personally young Goalkeeper George Savvoudis had an outstanding debut season for the U18’s last year and at just the age of 16, he has loads of potential and a great mental application to the game. Definitely someone to watch for this year and beyond.”
As for personally with his coaching, Dimi is just taking it as it comes.
“I feel I gained a lot of experience by coaching in our Junior setup over the past four years.
“I’m just looking forward to what this year has in store for the U18’s and take it on a year to year basis.”