So I took three or four kids who had never played forward. Most of them were defenders, and I think two of them had barely played organized soccer in their life. I told them I was going to train them to be my forwards. They looked at me a little baffled, as did the other players on the team, and I just said, “Let’s work at it. I don’t expect you to play sixty minutes a game or even score goals, but I know you can give me five, ten, or twenty productive minutes a game that can help the team.” They had some athletic ability, and best of all they were willing to do whatever I asked of them, even if they didn’t quite understand.
I explained to them what I needed them to do. Being the top line attackers, there was no expectation on them to score goals, which is different than what you might tell most strikers, but I knew that wasn’t their strength. Asking them to do it might have been too much pressure and hurt their performance. Their job was to run. Run and pressure the other team’s defenders relentlessly. Since I was playing with only two forwards and I had four or five of these guys, I told them, “Just give me your all and run and pressure until you can’t run 100 percent anymore, and I’ll sub in the next guy.” And they did. In that first game against American Heritage, a converted defender, a midfielder, and two guys who had barely played soccer were my forwards. Every 10 minutes or so I’d sub them, and they’d run. In doing so they never allowed the other team to have a good staging area to build an attack. Our opponents were positioned into hitting balls at us from 40 yards out, which played to our strengths because we had a goalkeeper who went on to be a United Soccer Coaches All-American that season. We scored on a corner kick midway through the second half and held on for the win.
Afterwards, the coach Jonathan Frias, whom I’ve come to know and respect and who was also coaching his first season with American Heritage, came over to congratulate me and say that his boys were shocked by our performance. They said we looked different. It was pretty much the same team, but we were now getting more out of every single player, and it took that to win.
American Heritage went on to beat us in the district final, and the next season they went on to win the state championship with that same team. Our ability to have a victory against such a strong team was predicated on the ability of our role players to contribute in ways they didn’t even know they could. We established that we were willing to give players the opportunity to contribute even in the big games and were willing to invest in them to get more. This was the start of our journey of eventually winning the district championship in our third try against American Heritage.
We live in a world that is now constantly competing for the attention of our youth. Coaches are going through the motions and have become unengaged and lack passion. Are you willing to be inspirational? Your players need visionary leadership and a compelling mission. Can you give that to them, Coach? Are you willing to?
GET MOR3EE: REMEMBER YOUR MOTIVES. OWN THE STRUGGLES. KEEP YOUR EYE ON THE PRIZE. ALLOW ACCOUNTABILITY TO FUEL YOU, NOT LIMIT YOU. LET IT ALL EMPOWER YOU.
SCOUTING REPORT LESSONS
u You have to recognize where you are but not lose the vision of where you want to go.
u To inspire means to breathe life into another person.
u Get to know your players. Develop the relationship.
u Understand how powerful have-tos and want-tos can motivate an individual. Help your players discover their have-to and want-to motivations.
u Help them see how their have-tos and want-tos can align with the organizational goals.
u Motivating the elite and very good players can be easy. How do you include and motivate your role players?
COACHES’ BOX: GET MORE WITH A QUESTIONNAIRE
I give my players a questionnaire at the beginning of each season. I have them fill out their contact information, and then I ask questions about their favorite soccer player and team. Have they played soccer anywhere else, and do they still play now? How long have they been playing? Do they play any other sports? Where were they born? This helps me know if they are local or possibly even an international student or moved from another country. Why do they want to play for our team? What are their goals for themselves and the team? This gives me a basis of information on which to strike up a conversation or to relate a lesson that I’m trying to convey to something that is relevant to them. It helps me know their possible depth of understanding. If they are from a different country, then I may need to keep cultural differences in mind when interacting with them.
For example, the German exchange students we’ve had were in such a deep-rooted soccer culture in Germany that it can be very different for them when they come to play in the United States. I notice that each time there is a period of adjustment to the style, language, and the intensity of our season. It can take a while for them to buy in to what we are doing, and it can be frustrating for the other players who have been in the program. It’s a delicate balance between understanding that time is needed to adapt and getting everyone on the same page as soon as you can.
One of my German exchange students sent me this text after our season this past year: “Coach, I just want to say thank you for this great season and that you gave me so much playing time. I saw how much time you spend for this team to set everything up like practice and especially film. I had many coaches already, but I never had a coach who is so passionate about his job, and I really appreciate that. It was a great season, and I hope I see you next year when I come back for a practice at homecoming.”
CHAPTER 4
OWNERSHIP
When we think of ownership, we tend to visualize ownership of material things. I own this house. I own this car. That’s my pen. I have title to it, and it has some value to me. You can own a business. A sport’s team. A patent. Art. You traded time for money or money for time to earn this item, so it has value to you. You care about the object and how it’s maintained or represented to others. There is worth. The greater the value we perceive it to have, the greater thought, care, and concern we generally give to it. So why say “ownership”? What does that have to do with the philosophy of the GET MOR3EE formula?
Well, in general, throughout society, people take better care of things that they own—things that they have a physical title to. They put in more effort. They invest more time and money if they have ownership and ownership of all or some of the return on investment. They put in more mind power. They think about it more, and they tend to look to add value to others in the community around them and the object they own. They hope that in doing so others will become just as or more invested, and the value of what they own will increase, or there will be other returns or benefits resulting from their ownership and investment.
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