Qatar National Coach PJ Nolan has recently announced that he will be stepping down in his coaching post in Doha to return home to take up the Irish National Coach role as well as set up his own Academy which will be based in Carlow. The Wexford native has been working full time in Qatar for the past six years and has traveled the World with their International players adding to his wealth of knowledge on the sport and coaching material.

He leaves behind one of the best snooker facilities in the World, the superb Doha Training facility but believes that the knowledge that he has gained in coaching the Qatar players will be able to turn many a Irish youngster into a potential champion. He believes that Ireland has a wealth of untapped potential and can’t wait to get at the helm of his new academy which will be based out of the Ivy Rooms but maintains that he will be scoring the country for the next David Morris, David Hogan and Vincent Muldoon. Indeed PJ believes that existing players such as Andrew Gray, Jason Devaney, Daniel O’Regan and David Cassidy have huge potential and along with the next crop of players such as Tom Hogan, Daniel Dempsey, Josh Boileau, Ross Doyle & co we have strength in depth here in Ireland..

PJ will be bringing with him years of coaching materials which he is working hard to compile into the definitive coaching manual and training book along with having all his information available online for all the academy members to access. Indeed it is the online resource that he aims to make one of the best on the internet, with a brand new web site to host all his manuals, practice routines, articles and all new video coaching clips.

PJ will be back in Ireland mid January and hopes to be down at the All Ireland’s with the Ivy Rooms should they qualify but news of his return has already begun to spread with several people contacting the club looking for coaching from him once he returns. Indeed the Ivy Rooms has just printed off new coaching vouchers for people who want to give coaching lessons as Christmas presents this year after a number of inquiry’s about the possibility. So should you be interested please feel free to contact the Ivy Rooms for more details.

So look forward to more news about PJ’s new plans and academy for which he has already got assurances of attendance from several leading gulf players including Mohammed Sehab (Asian Indoor Games Champion and 3rd place in IBSF World Championships). Mohammed should receive the Asian Wild Card this season and return to the main tour for 2008/09 and puts a lot of it down to the help he received from PJ over the last year and is keen to keep up with PJ’s coaching method’s by visiting Ireland along with several other Gulf and Asian based players.

Although the Qatar Ferderation tried everything to keep PJ in his current post PJ's family commitments and young son were the main reason for his return and PJ will be sure to retain close links with the Qatar players with a summer coaching camp already in the plans as well as extra coaching for the three Obaidly brothers, Khamis, Mohanna and Ali. Mohanna and Ali had been progressing steadily under PJ's guidance but it is 19 year old Khamis who has made the biggest leap to date winning the Qatar National Championships today, the youngest player to win the event. Indeed the other two brothers also did very well reaching the quarter finals.

All in all Qatar's loss is our gain and hopefully we will now see many more players follow the likes of David Morris and Rodney Goggins onto the main tour in the near future.