Coach Omar Gallo recognized

Indiana Soccer Honored soccer coach Omar Gallo in 2020

Omar Gallo, Holy Cross College Director of Soccer Operations and head coach for the men’s and women’s soccer teams, is the Indiana Soccer TOPSoccer (The Outreach Program for Soccer) Coach of the Year and was recently honored at the 2020 Indiana Soccer Awards Gala. Annually, Indiana Soccer honors individuals involved in youth and adult soccer programs throughout Indiana with an award in a variety of categories.

TOPSoccer is a community-based training and team placement program for young athletes with disabilities, organized by youth soccer association volunteers. The program brings the opportunity to learn and play soccer to any boy or girl who has a mental or physical disability.

“Being recognized as the TOPSoccer Coach of the Year is a tremendous honor, an honor I share with both my college soccer players and my youth club players,” said Gallo who noted that having his college players

volunteering means a lot to him and the children with special needs. “Being recognized as the TOPSoccer Coach of the Year is a very humbling feeling. It’s nice to achieve this award but seeing the smiles on the kids’ and parents’ faces on Fridays is my award. It’s defi nitely a special feeling for myself, as giving back to the community is something I value and being recognized for that is a nice gesture.”

Gallo got involved with TOPSoccer about fi ve years ago through his role at Michiana Echo.

“We started with roughly 12 kids. which has now grown to over 50 kids ages 4 to 18. Each Friday for six weeks in the fall and six weeks in the spring, our Michiana Echo kids along with both our Holy Cross men’s and women’s soccer teams give back to the community by keeping kids with mental and physical disabilities active, introducing fun soccer activities,” said Gallo.

Being a coach is a rewarding job for Gallo, but not something that was part of his game plan in his early years.

“My plan was to either play professional soccer or become a police offi cer, which is what my degree is in. Unfortunately, I developed a serious injury to my arm in 2009 which eliminated both options for me. After a lot of soul-searching and support from my family, I felt my calling was to give back to the game which gave me a lot. Soccer provided me with a lot of values and allowed me to develop into the person I am today. I felt one way I could give back was using soccer as an opportunity to help develop these young players to become better people. I was coaching youth soccer up to the age of 27 but it wasn’t until my injury where I started taking coaching very serious and eventually got into the college game,” noted Gallo. The most fulfi lling part of the job is seeing who his student-athletes become after graduating.

“As a coach, you always want to win, but we need to ask ourselves what is winning? Winning is not always about championships. In my opinion, winning is who your players become after graduation. Coaches are teachers, and in our role, we have to teach these young kids about life,” said Gallo. “Having the opportunity to be their role model and shape them for four years is something I enjoy doing. Seeing these players become college coaches, teachers, managers, or owners of their own businesses is rewarding for me as a coach.”

One way of being a role model and helping his players grow is through their work with TOPSoccer.

This is the fi rst time anyone is our area has won the TOPSoccer coach of the year award. The Indiana TOPSoccer Coach of the Year award will also place Gallo in the nomination group for Regional Coach of the Year.

“Yes, we are giving back to the community and helping these kids and families out, but this is also helping our players build character. By being their coach, I hope that I can help them develop character traits that will allow them to become better sons and daughters and eventually become the husband/father, wife/mother they can become. One thing I always stress to my players is to always stay humble and to always remember where you come from. It’s important to me that these young kids recognize the hard work they’ve put in to become who they are today and never take that for granted. If I can create that mentality for them then I am confi dent they will be able to serve the community in a positive way.” – Omar Gallo