strategy

The human aspect of coaching

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Coaching soccer is one of my favorite things to do after school. You go out and work with the students outside the classroom. I love it so much, I have been coaching for about 20 years on and off. Although I have also coached tennis and even a season of fencing! Soccer, with its team dynamics, is the most difficult but also the most rewarding to coach.

The technical aspects are fairly easy; players have a “natural position” that they subconsciously tend to. Seeing players find this position is very fulfilling. Game plans and strategies are all easy enough. As usual, the human aspect is the most difficult, dealing with upset players who are not on the starting lineup, players who you pull off the field in a substitution, etc.

On game day, the players wear their jerseys to build up their confidence and feel proud of being on the team. Then we have lunch together to talk soccer, joke, and enjoy a meal together. I also make sure they are on the field to warm up at least 45 minutes before the game, so we are not rushing through the pre-game rituals, warm-ups, photos, chats, etc.

At the beginning of the season, we spend a lot of time building the team, making sure everybody knows everybody, making sure they are bonding through games, scrimmaging, and activities. I am convinced that the time spent doing these bonding activities pays off handsomely later in the season.

The most challenging bit is motivating a team after a loss. I find that talking individually to each of the players, encouraging them, supporting them, and talking through the game is an effective way of being there for them, of letting them vent and process the loss. Yes, it is time-consuming, but the players really appreciate your involvement and commitment. Remember, it is up to us to model behavior, to be fair and honest, to be frank, to explain things honestly but diplomatically. This was the case recently when we lost 0-1 to our archrival in Miami.

A (brief) return to coaching

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St. Vincent de Paul is a graduate School with only 120 odd resident students, so we do not have a formal athletic program. The guys do sports, but on their own. Except for a once a semester soccer game against the St. John Vianney College Seminary in Miami.

Last year, due to Covid we did not play. This year seeing a need, I volunteered to coach the SVdP Shepherds.

I have been coaching (on and off) for 17 years. At this point what I enjoy the most about coaching is building the team, working first on communication and trust, then on skills, technique, and strategies and all the other bits necessary to succeed as a team.

What a pleasure to return to the field, to work with the guys at skills that we do not teach in the classroom.

Unfortunately, we did not have a lot of time to practice, but we did the best we could.

We lost the game 3 – 4, but I am really proud of the men, we played a far superior game, we played as a team! But halfway through the first half while we were winning 2 – 0, we lost steam, we lost our shape, and the Miami guys took advantage of that. In the second half we came back and scored the third goal, but it was too late.

I was blessed to have a student volunteer as an assistant coach! Misho led the warmups, worked with our goalie, and helped to organize practices, helped me with strategy on game day, what a blessing!

All in all, it was a great experience, and I can’t wait to start preparing next year’s game!!

PS: The initiated will notice our colors are red and white stripes. This is our traditional kit, and in NO WAY my decision. I would have been fine just wearing plain all white 😉

Photo Creds: Carmela Grande, Chris Holsom.

Wrapping up another semester, #5

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Part of the problem with being an eternal optimist is that one always thinks things are going to be easier than they are. This last semester is a good example. The semester started off uphill, with me losing my washer and dryer (see previous post), getting a speeding ticket, and more importantly having to finesse my doctoral committee and getting my prospectus approved.

The exam was on November 7. You can read my previous post about it, but is was at the same time a grueling yet highly enriching experience. That afternoon I celebrated by playing soccer with my colleagues (more on that later) and then by going to see Benjamin Britten’s opera, Curlew River, inspired by the Japanese Noh theater (more on that also later). And of course, after all that by having a drink (or two) at my favorite bar, Zog’s.

After passing my exam I slumped into a bit of a post prospectus depression. My next goal is defending my dissertation, but that is not planned until the Spring of 2016. So all of a sudden I was without an immediate goal. This required some getting used to. I could finally, after three years, watch movies (more on that later), or enjoy dead time. That first Saturday I celebrated with a glorious breakfast at my favorite breakfast place Ye Olde Waffle Shop, and waltzing around Chapel Hill as if I owned it. Stopping at this store and that, hanging out at the old bookstore, and the museum.

As always teaching is my passion and this semester did not disappoint. I taught two sections of Intermediate Spanish 203, one of them in the Philosophy building. This allowed me to enjoy their philosophical bathroom graffiti.

Nature abhors a vacuum, so I soon changed my rhythm and got busy. I talked strategy with my professors to attack the dissertation, Prof. González Espitia named me to be a grad student editor of the department´s literary journal Hispanófila, and I started to prepare my dissertation by re-visiting the first four works of my beloved Padre Isla.

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