My dad coached soccer when I was a kid. He was really good at it and spent a lot of time working at it. I think he started assisting on my sister’s team, then started coaching my team. Eventually he went back to coaching girls soccer, because it was a lot more fun than coaching boys.
When he started, girls sports were pretty much a step up from daycare. It was where you sent your daughters to get them out of the house for a few hours. I remember one girl was only allowed to join the team if Dad picked her up and dropped her off so that her parents didn’t have to waste time driving her anywhere.
The truth is that the girls were happy to have anyone take them seriously, and to be encouraged to take something seriously. There weren’t any expectations and nobody had any idea if they were any good at soccer. Nobody had ever tried to coach them, it was all about getting them to run around for 90. First time I remember hearing “tabula rasa” was dad talking about a team of 12-year-olds who’d been playing soccer for 6 or 7 years already. They were generally pretty insecure. Part of the advantage of coaching girls was that if he could get a few of them to buy in, they would support each other and come together as a team – unlike boys, who were always one-upping each other and picking on the boys who weren’t as talented.
Dad excelled at sorting out what everyone was good at and putting them in positions where they would push themselves. He helped a lot of young girls discover that they were really talented, and I think it was one of the things that meant the most to him in his life.
It’s nice to see the US Women’s team win the World Cup today. I like to think that there were a few hundred other coaches like my dad around the country, all a part of the foundation for today’s win. Things that were important to my dad in his lifetime have come to fruition.
And I still like womens soccer better than mens.