'I want to be the next trailblazer. I want to be the next Hope Powell'

My name is Renee Hector and I am head of youth development at Watford FC Women, with the primary role probably being head coach of the under-23s.

Part of my role is also linking the pathway from the ETC, so the under-14s and under-16s, to support the coaches that lead those groups and be the pathway for them to work their way into the development team.

I also work at the Tottenham Hotspur Foundation, more in a project design role where we work in the community, putting on sessions and things like that, which is more within the charity-based sector.

And this season I will also be working as a coach for England women’s under-17s as part of the England Elite Coach Programme for England women’s development teams for the 2023-24 season.

I first started playing football when I was nine years old before joining Watford’s Centre of Excellence at the age of ten. I ended up staying at the club until I was about 20, by which point I had worked my way into the first team.

I had always been a massive lover of football and all of my full-time jobs had been in football so when I joined Spurs, I got a job at the Tottenham Hotspur Foundation as a head coach, doing school sessions and community sessions.

I did my level one and level two coaching badges while I was at Tottenham and after moving back to Watford, I ruptured my ACL in 2020 during COVID so didn’t really cover from that, which then kick-started my coaching career.

I was fortunate that when I was playing at Spurs Women, the manager Juan Carlos Amoros and the assistant manager were also my bosses at work so I was with them, coaching on college programmes, and constantly around really knowledgeable coaches, even during my day job.

I always knew while I was a player that I would want to be a coach or a manager at a high level – to be honest it was my only plan B after playing.

Watford were kind enough to let me do my UEFA B licence while with the development squad last year and I was then promoted to head coach this year.

I want to coach at the highest level that I can and I want to work full-time in an elite environment, so hope to work my way up through the Championship and then the WSL.

Being able to work within the England environment, the opportunities are endless and hopefully, it can open doors for me to be the next trailblazer.

Being from an ethnically diverse community, it is really important to have that representation within the game. Things are better than they once were when it comes to the players but off the pitch, when it comes to the coaches and other roles, it still needs to be better.

I always had Hope Powell to look up to and my goal is to be the next one. My goal is to coach at the highest level I possibly can.

So things like the England Elite Coach Programme are massively important because it gives you a platform and an opportunity to express yourself.

You need to be in those positions on merit and because you deserve to be there but sometimes those opportunities aren’t there so what the programme does is provide us with an opportunity to show what we have got and to show that we can coach at an elite level, make a difference and have an impact in those kind of environments.

I firmly believe people should not be put in positions for the sake of it – you have got to earn it on merit and because you are the right person for the job – but people from diverse backgrounds don’t always get the same opportunities so this is a brilliant opportunity to show what I can do.