Members Only |
| |
The
NSCAA |
| |
Educating
Coaches |
| |
Coaching Courses |
| |
Awards, Rankings and Results |
| |
Communities |
| |
Membership |
| |
Contact |
|
 |
|
| Teenage Angst (March 2005) |
By Jim Sheldon
The search for maturity is often difficult, sometimes painful.
If you have been the parent of a teenager, you’ve been through that process. If not, think back to your own teenage experiences. Every misstep, every bad decision is magnified. It’s often hard to keep the greater good and ultimate goal in perspective.
It’s not hard to picture American soccer as a teenager.
Start with our national teams. The recent labor dispute between U.S. Soccer and the men’s national team was seen by many as a black eye for the sport. The fact that the dispute really hasn’t been settled – only postponed until the end of the year – doesn’t bode well. Negotiations with the women’s national team still are up in the air, and it’s not a stretch to speculate those could turn ugly as well.
Meanwhile, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that our women’s team is coming off a gold-medal performance in the 2004 Olympic Games, that our men made it to the World Cup quarterfinals in 2002 and has started its run towards qualifying for a fifth straight World Cup.
On the professional level, detractors are quick to point out that two Major League Soccer franchises (San Jose and Kansas City) have uncertain futures and that the status of a professional women’s league remains in limbo.
On the flip side, MLS is entering its tenth year, has added two new franchises and is building soccer-specific stadiums left and right. A new 10-year, $150 million sponsorship with adidas is a real coup for the league. There’s also every reason to believe that a pro women’s league will return in 2006 or shortly thereafter.
Men’s college soccer has been negatively impacted by the pros, still struggles to shed its image as a “minor” sport and continues to lose programs to budget or Title IX pressures. College administrators seem to view women’s soccer as a stepchild to women’s basketball and volleyball.
Yet, we forget that the Men’s College Cup showed renewed signs of life in 2004 and that the “poaching” of undergraduates by the pros isn’t a death knell (see college basketball). Continued growth on the women’s side gives every reason to think that soccer can be a marquee college sport.
Even at the high school and youth level, it’s easy to focus on the negative. Incidents of parents and coaches involved in abuse, harassment or worse are quick to receive publicity. The fact that participation in soccer continues to rank high compared to other sports and that millions of young Americans enjoy the benefits of that participation are easy to overlook.
There are other negatives that transcend all levels of the game – verbal and sometimes physical abuse of referees, gamesmanship (shirt pulling, time wasting, diving) and a perceived and sometimes real problem with on-field discipline and sportsmanship.
Several clichés come to mind. Two sides to every coin. Seeing the forest for the trees. The glass is half empty. Well-worn clichés to be sure, but probably applicable.
Apply those to raising a teenager. Your son is caught drinking underage – a major crisis at the time. But he’s also an honor student and captain of the team. You ask yourself, does he realize he made a mistake? Is it likely to be repeated? Will he learn from the mistake and make better decisions in the future? Doesn’t the good still outweigh the bad? In short, you deal with the immediate crisis and hope you both come to the conclusion that the glass is really half full and the future still promising.
However, to really guide that teenager, you have to do more than just deal with the crisis when it arises. You have to have laid a solid foundation, one that can minimizes crises and provides a set of values that will serve that teenager as he matures.
We are facing the same kind of growing pains in American soccer. We’ve seen contentious labor disputes. We’ll probably see more. Drugs aren’t a major problem in our sport, but they’re out there and there’s no reason to think there won’t be problems in the future. At what point does Las Vegas start laying odds on MLS games and will that create the kind of scandals we’ve seen in European soccer?
American soccer is very much in its teenage years. Just advancing the maturation process this far has seemed to take forever. Many thought the sport would never get beyond childhood in this country, but it has and adulthood is on the horizon.
It’s up to the leadership of the sport to ensure the proper foundation has been laid for that coming adulthood. Coaches are a key – perhaps the key – component of that leadership. We all should constantly check on that foundation, review the values we’re teaching and strategize about the kind of future we want for our players and sport. |
|
| The Technical Area, NSCAA eNewsletter |
|
|
|
 |
| Soccer Journal - Published seven times a year in print and once annually online, Soccer Journal is the Official Publication of NSCAA and is one of the few publications in the world produced exclusively for soccer coaches. learn more |
| Insurance - Members in the United States automatically receive $1 million in professional liability insurance, providing coverage for most soccer-related activities. learn more |
| Academy Programs - The benchmark of soccer coaching education is the NSCAA Coaching Academy program. learn more |
| Convention - The NSCAA Convention is "The World's Largest Annual Gathering of Soccer Coaches." Held each January learn more |
| Awards and Recognition - The NSCAA administers an outstanding awards and recognition program which includes Coach of the Year, All-America, long-term service and special recognition awards, designed to recognize excellence in soccer, academics and service to the game. learn more |
| Licensed Apparel - A full line of distinctive coaching gear sets you apart as a member of the NSCAA through our licensed apparel program with adidas. learn more |
| For more details, please proceed to the Benefits of NSCAA Membership Page |
|
|
|
|
