The mission of the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) is to help its members excel in their coaching careers as well as advance the coaching of soccer, thereby improving players, through a commitment to providing the best coaching education, convention, and member services and benefits to the soccer community.

This includes soccer at all levels, including recreational players.

NSCAA Coaching Academy Staff Coach Theresa Echtermeyer embodies this mission. Her dedication has led her to be a featured clinician at this year‘s NCAAA Convention in Kansas City.

“For me one of the greatest qualities of the NSCAA is its dedication to inclusion and diversity,” said Echtermeyer, who has made herself a household name in Colorado as a leader in youth soccer as well as the head coach of some of the most dominant boys and girls high school programs in the state. 
“When you talk about inclusion and diversity, the NSCAA has always made that bigger than gender, ethnicity or religion,” she added. “It is its mission to serve all people who are willing to work to make soccer better in this country.  

“This means whether you are a volunteer recreational coach or a national team coach, the NSCAA has you covered through its diverse education and member services programs.  And it doesn’t just stop with the coaches: The NSCAA spreads that inclusion and diversity to administrators, volunteers, referees, business leaders…whoever wants to make the game better.“

Echtermeyer always has wanted to make the game better. Perhaps more accurately, she set the trend.  When the World Cup came to the United States in 1994, she was just getting geared up as one of the very first coaches in the nation focusing on educating recreational coaches and player development for players under the age of 10. .  She knew then what so many top-level soccer officials are saying today.

“We have got to start helping our coaches coach our young players,” said Echtermeyer, who helped Real Colorado emerge as a national youth soccer club power before moving to Colorado United SC. “This is something that I have been and continue to be passionate about. When I see an eager father or mother who is an accountant by day and a youth soccer coach on Thursday evening and Saturday morning, I further believe in the NSCAA‘s mission to embrace that coach and provide the education and knowledge that will allow them to make the game better.”

Echtermeyer also believes that high-level youth soccer and high school soccer can coexist. In fact, Echtermeyer’s impressive resume demonstrates that she has had success doing both at the same time.

During the 2010-11 highschool season she led the Mountain Vista High School boys and girls’ teams to the Colorado state 5A championship game, winning the state title with the girls and losing the boys final in overtime.  Echtermeyer also led Mountain Vista High girls to the 2005 state championship.  She did most all of this, while serving as the director of the popular Littleton Lollipops recreational soccer program, fulfilling her duties as an NSCAA staff coach, working for Colorado United SC and serving as president of the of the Colorado High School Soccer Coaches Association.

It doesn’t stop there for Echtermeyer.  She also is the Director of Coaching for the Highlands Ranch Soccer Association, a community recreational soccer program for U-5s to U-11s. She also is chairwoman for Colorado TOPSoccer (The Outreach Program for Soccer serving children with special needs), where she has been coaching and working with for 17 years.

Not surprisingly, she also will be busy in Kansas City at this year’s NSCAA Convention.

Echtermeyer will share her thoughts on how club soccer and high school can work together as part of a panel discussion titled “Hot Topics in High School Soccer” on Saturday, Jan. 14, at 11 a.m. She will also be a featured presenter on Thursday, Jan. 12, when she shares with attendees her “Favorite Training Sessions” at 11:45 am.

“Serving as an NSCAA Academy staff coach has enabled me to grow as a coach,” said Echtermeyer, who also led Colorado’s Green Mountain High School to girls’ state titles in 1997 and 1999.  “To be a part of the NSCAA coaching education family is an amazing gift. I can assure you that one of the many great parts of the job is that we all learn – the instructors learn as much from the candidates as they learn from us.“
Echtermeyer also has an interesting perspective on what “success” really is.

“To me, when kids come back to the high school or the youth club with a goal of giving back, whether its running some skills training sessions, coaching a recreational team … anything … that’s success.”

Echtermeyer has witnessed the growth that comes with that success.

“It’s amazing how much has changed,” she said from her Denver home.  “Back when I played (with April Heinrichs at Heritage High School) there were very few players who had goals of playing college soccer.  Now, they have that goal, as well as a goal to play professionally and on the national team.  Or to make coaching their career! That’s growth and that‘s our mission.”

Expect Echtermeyer and the NSCAA to stay focused on that mission.

Learn more about other coaches conducting sessions in Kansas City including: Tom Byer, Jim Cassell, Mike Curry, Jill Ellis, April Heinrichs, Mark Verstegen, Schellas Hyndman, Vanessa Martinez Lagunas, Kevin McGreskin, Tom Sermanni, Sam Snow, Taylor Twellman, Peter Vermes, Frank Wormuth and Eric Wynalda.

You still have time to sign up and join us at the 2012 NSCAA Convention in Kansas City. Head over to the registration page and register today!

NSCAA members log in to comment. Not a member? Learn more today.