After years of coaching throughout the region, and leading the Dunedin City Royals academy, linking up with the RH3 Football Academy adds another layer to his pedigree.
Scoullar has joined former All White coach Ricki Herbert’s academy, helping lead talent identification and player development and recruitment in the South Island. He will also lend a hand with RH3 national camps and international tours.
Scoullar and Herbert have a long-standing association from when Scoullar played under the coach’s leadership in the All Whites.
They connected again last year when the Royals academy — where Scoullar is contracted as the director and head coach — aligned with RH3 to give Dunedin players a chance to experience a wider landscape in the sport.
"Obviously it made sense given that we want to try and provide lots more opportunity in the South," Scoullar said.
"I’m very passionate about opportunity for these kids."
Working alongside someone of Herbert’s stature, whose academy predominantly works with footballers from under-12 to under-17 grades, could only add to the region’s young footballers.
"For us, that’s a really good opportunity to ... work with him, understand how he does it and how we can translate that back to our club in the future.
"You know, everything helps these days."
Young Dunedin footballers have already seen more opportunities, with about 20 academy players heading off to international tours with RH3, including to Melbourne, Portugal and Chile.
Oliver Thompson-Henderson was also part of the New Zealand under-16 team at the Fifa Youth Series, and Charlotte Summers represented New Zealand at the OFC under-16 women’s championship in Samoa this month.
There were plenty of others coming through the ranks as well, including 16-year-old Sam Drake, who has been starting at centre back in the Southern League, and 15-year-old Oliver Schonthal, who made his Southern League debut recently.
"We’ve got a whole bunch of exciting kids coming through," Scoullar said.
"I’ve got a real big focus on youth and opportunity."
The Royals academy — which is open to players from all clubs, not just Royals — had about 150 players from 5 to 17 involved and Scoullar was pleased to see its progression.
He is also coaching the Royals Southern League side this season. They sit seventh with a record of five wins, four draws and six losses for 19 points.
Scoullar felt their season was defined by 20 minutes of football, where they had been leading teams comfortably, only to let them back in and costing them the game.
"We needed to win a couple of times and it looked like we were, but we just couldn’t get over the line."
But they are hunting for full points from the final rounds and aiming for a top-five finish.
"We need to go in and give it heaps and then we should be ... where we probably deserve to be. I don’t think we deserve to be any higher based on the results that we’ve given away.
"If we can finish around that fourth or fifth mark, which is still attainable ... we’ll be happy with that for this year, and that gives us something to really think about going into the off season.
"We’ve got an exciting group of young players that will be here for a few more years."
