I do not claim to be God's gift to soccer coaching.  As I mentioned in the welcome page, I'm recording thoughts on this site mainly for myself so that I can someday look back and relive an extremely enjoyable part of my life.  If some readers stumble on this site or if word gets out and some people have an interest in reading my posts, that is fine by me.  I do feel that I've had more experience (both coaching and playing) than many other coaches currently coaching at the younger age levels and feel that I have something to share to anyone interested in listening. For these readers, I will offer up some cursory background information.

I began youth coaching in 1992, and for the last 15 years I have been focused on the development of players at the 9 to 13 year old age groups - specifically on the girls side of the game.  I went through the United States Soccer Federation (USSF) licensing and currently hold the USSF "A" License. I also played the game at the professional level for 8 years, both in the US with the Tampa Bay Rowdies (APSL), Milwaukee Wave (NPSL), and the Minnesota Thunder (USL), and abroad with FC Grenoble - now called Grenoble Foot 38 in Grenoble, France.

While I was playing for the Minnesota Thunder (St Paul, MN) in the late 1990s, I also served as the team's Director of Youth Development from 1996 - 2000.  I played a fairly instrumental role in leading the fledgling program from 300 participants in 1996 to nearly 2,000 participants by 2000. 

After retiring from the professional playing scene in 2000, I served as the Director of Coaching for the Woodbury Soccer Club (Woodbury, MN) for four years before joining the Bangu Tsunami Futbol Club (BTFC) in November of 2004 as their Director of Player Development.  For the past two years I've been leading the Bangu Tsunami Soccer Academy, focusing on identifying and developing talented young players at the 9 to 13 year old age groups.

So what, you might say? Just because someone has been coaching for a long time, holds coaching licenses, played professionally, and has fancy-shmancy titles on their resume, doesn't mean that they can coach and develop players well. I agree completely.  I have one more thing to add that may be helpful to anyone looking for more substance and credibility.

In 2001, I began my second year as head coach of a U10 girls team in the Woodbury Soccer Club, the WSC Inferno.  The following year (02/03), the team played up to the U12G Classic 1 age group as a U11 team and, in the summer of 2003, qualified for one of the six U13 Premier spots for the 2004/2005 season as a U12 team.  This team was not an "elite" team that drew talented athletes in from many different communities.  Rather, the team was made up of 17 girls all from the city of Woodbury. To the best of my knowledge, this marks only the second time in Minnesota soccer history that a team made up entirely of players from the same community has ever qualified for Premier status at an older age group. 

Though I attribute much of the team's success on the field to our year-round training program and the simple fact that our girls had more opportunities than other girls their age to touch the ball throughout the year, I would like to think that my training system and ideas, along with my team management skills, also played a role in their individual and group development and success. 

Based on this experience with the Inferno I have came to my current group as U11s in the fall of 2004 more knowledgeable, experienced, and better prepared than I was in 2001, with...

• more streamlined training sessions using exercises and activities that have been tested and proven to be effective development tools at this age group
• a better benchmark through years of regional exposure for where girls at these younger age groups could/should be at technically, as well as a good idea of what these girls can accomplish tactically
• a keener sense of what motivates girls at this age group, about their work threshold, and about their attention spans
• a greater ability to manage parent expectations and deal with team problems that hinder overall individual and team development; cliques, the "I"ers over "Team"ers, disruptive players/parents, etc.

I'm not boasting here about past accomplishments.  On the contrary, I am simply stating the facts above in order to qualify why I feel comfortable posting thoughts regarding the soccer development of the younger female player.  I feel that I have as much to learn about this game as the next guy.  However, I have experienced a lot at this age group over the past decade and feel that I have many workable ideas that other youth coaches may benefit from.

I hope interested coaches and parents find these postings worthwhile and helpful.