August-September, 2012 By: Steve Franklin, Director of Coaching Education
Table of Contents 1. From DOCE Office 2. One-legged soccer player scores amazing goal 3. Lauren Cheney: Always Indy [Back Home] 4. The Archetypes: Loners, Little Guys, Mathematicians, etc. 5. How a Video Game is Changing the Face of Soccer 6. Future Coaches Program 7. Photo of the Month
Editorial from the Director of Coaching Education – Steve Franklin An open letter to those on the sidelines: I recently had the opportunity to take in a few of the younger ISL Academy games this past weekend in Plainfield. Sporting my new Canon Rebel digital camera, I set out to take a number of photos in which to update my current photo files of Indiana youth soccer players in action. While I came away with some awesome pictures, I also left with a question: Why do all the supporters on the sidelines always yell out loud, telling these young kids everything they should do? Isn’t the game for the kids? I mean imagine if everyone in the sideline were to walk in and set up their folding chairs in your place of work. Every move you initiated was critiqued by those watching. Most everyone screamed in your direction telling you what to do next. You couldn’t take pride in figuring things out on your own. You couldn’t hear your friends/teammates – or in your case co-workers – because the noise was so loud. You had trouble taking time out to laugh with an opponent because they were the enemy. Taking chances or attempting to be creative, heaven forbid! You might make a mistake or not conform. As you can tell by the photos captured on the previous page, I found a ton of positives around the fields. There were Laughs; creative moves; a few spills; parents and older siblings enjoying snacks (and unfortunately, even some constant texting by a few). By and large though – what a great decision to head out to the park and watch the kids play!! Now my challenge to you: take a lesson from the somewhat recent Nike ad campaign for LeBron – Witness”. There is nothing wrong with clapping good play or sportsmanship. But can you imagine how much more enjoyable the game would be if the kids could hear themselves and each other. How much you, as a supporter, could take delight in the joy the players show by their displays of creativity; decisions and trying! Witness what they can accomplish on their own. Let them grow as players. Witness the inspiration they are allowed to provide when you can hear them, rather than you. While we’re all not guilty of broadcasting our thoughts and opinions to those on the field, just imagine how pleasurable game day would be without all the yelling. Let them play!!
Parents displaying Indiana Soccer’s green “Sportsmanship Cards”, honoring displays of good sporting behavior of youth soccer players.
One-legged soccer player scores amazing goal His name is Nico Calabria. He recently scored off a corner kick for ConcordCarlisle Regional High School. Oh, and Calabria has one leg. If you watch the video (and you better watch the video), you will see Calabria balance on his crutches while hitting a textbook side-volley out of the air on a corner. I played coached collegiate soccer for years, 18 of which were at the Division 1 level, and never saw a single person hit a ball so clean off the volley from a corner. Then to watch a guy with one leg pull it off -- incredible. Of course, Calabria is also a member of the U.S. amputee national team, so goals like this are to be expected, right? http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=k2FzJVAHtSI
AND……I learned this from Don Rawson who was working here in what was at the time Indiana Youth soccer...did you also know that this young man played at Dynamo F.C. and then decided he wanted to play travel soccer. CIYSL said no, the referee community said no…but the club was very supportive. The parents and club approached Indiana Soccer and Indiana Soccer convinced the insurance provider to support his playing…and the dominoes all fell into place from there. Nicolai’s father made special crutches (with added padding) and it all worked out well. The family moved to Massachusetts soon after and Nicolai faced the same issues there. The young man’s mother called here for support…got it…and Massachusetts Youth Soccer allowed Nicolai to play travel soccer in Massachusetts. What Nicolai has accomplished is amazing…and I think the current and former members of Dynamo F.C will be smiling when they see this video.
AND AND……. US Youth Soccer did an interview with Nicolai and his family in 2008 (after he moved to MA)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7JxNyow81c&feature=youtu.be
LAUREN CHENEY "BACK HOME AGAIN IN INDIANA" - FEATURED CLINICIAN FOR ExactTarget Indiana’s own Olympic gold Medalist, Lauren Cheney, was back home again assisting in a youth soccer clinic for Exact Target employees’ at Kuntz Stadium. Indiana Soccer Director of Education Steve Franklin, along with Cheney, provided area youths with the opportunity to interact and be trained by one of U.S. Soccer’s Women’s National Team members. Indiana Soccer partnered with Exact Target to offer a special night to its employees’ children where they had the opportunity to interact with the most recognized female soccer players in Indiana history. Cheney recently returned from London where she earned her second Olympic gold medal as a starter for the US Women’s National Team. More than 50 enthusiastic children participated in activities, games as well as a Q&A session with the participants where they asked her several questions about her personal and professional life. Cheney then provided each guest the opportunity to pose for pictures with her along with her Gold medal (with kids actually getting to try it on), as well as receive autographs. At the conclusion of the event, Lauren Cheney wanted to leave a short message to all members of the Indiana Soccer Association - hoping it inspired them to continue working on their soccer careers.
The Archetypes: Loners, Little Guys, Mathematicians, etc. I coached my first youth soccer team in 1975. For the first decade or so, I handled a couple of teams each spring. Then I came to my senses -- I mean, I tapered off -- to one. In the first falls there were junior high squads; then came high school freshmen, junior varsity and, now, varsity teams. That’s probably 1,000 different players. But I feel like I’ve worked with only a few. That’s because the same boys show up again and again. Well, not the same ones -- they’d be too old, and even worse they would know all my tricks -- but the same types. Not every team has every one of the same kinds of players, of course, but enough do that I can make some generalizations. For example, nearly every team contains: The Boy With Total Recall. He is the one who, when I mention a particular opponent -- Redding, say -- will erupt in a torrent of information. “Blue-and-gold uniforms. The first time we played them was up there, the field with the Porta-Potty all the way in the woods. We won 3-1. Grant, Greer and Hulliman scored. Hulliman’s was a PK. Way left -- it hit the post and caromed in. Could have gone either way. Dan, you were so pissed he went left, because he usually goes right. You told him if he couldn’t be consistent with his penalties, you’d find someone else who was. Great burger joint on the way home. The second time we played them …” The scariest thing about The Boy With Total Recall is that he grows up to become The Man With Total Recall. The Mathematician. The instant a match ends, The Mathematician can tell you what the result means. This talent is particularly valuable at tournaments, when he turns from his spot on the bench (The Mathematician is seldom The Starter), and says, “Dan, we don’t need to score any more, but we have to keep our goals-against to finish first in our group. But, if we let up another goal, then we should probably let up three, because that would place us third overall, not second, and that would mean we would get to play Hamilton in the next round, and they’re easier than Hicksville.” Hearing a roar from the field behind us, he learns that Hamilton is at that very moment pulling off an upset. The Mathematician recalculates instantly, like an Excel spreadsheet in hyperdrive. The Little Guy. Everyone has always told him he’s too small to play; having had dozens of these players, I’m amazed at everyone’s stupidity. The Little Guy is tougher than boys three times his size. He has blazing speed, boundless energy, great touch and no fear whatsoever. He has studied the game -- often from the bench, because previous coaches favored bigger players over him -- and his passion for soccer is boundless. His teammates look down at him physically, but up to him emotionally. No matter what his name is, he is always called Little Guy. The Boy Who Does Things Differently. There are many variations of this archetype: the kid who rides a unicycle to practice when everyone else is chauffeured by mommy; the one who listens to classical music while the rest are into hip-hop; the soccer player who hangs out only with football players. But all Boys Who Do Things Differently are integral parts of their squads. Their teammates may not understand them, and they may be the center of curiosity, comments and jokes, but when the whistle blows they are as much a member of the team as anyone. And for some reason, they are the ones who grow up to have the strongest, most positive feelings for the time they spent playing soccer. The Loner. A sadder version of The Boy Who Does Things Differently, The Loner is a soccer player who off the field hangs out with no one. He has no group of friends, either in the team or outside. As an adult who remembers how
cruel teenagers can be, I try to make sure The Loner is included in group activities. But as an adult too, I know my ability to help him fit in is limited. Some loners, as they grew older, gain confidence and become comfortable in their own skin; others never do. The saddest loner I recall was the boy whose mother drove him to every game, because (I found out later) he was certain no one else would want him in their car. I never knew. The Foreigner. I don’t think I’ve ever had a team without one boy from another country. Their homelands vary -Holland, Germany, Brazil, Norway, Israel and India leap to mind -- but the acceptance process seldom does. Initially wary at first, the youngsters open their arms the moment they see the newcomer can help. Their joking stereotypes - “Where are your wooden shoes?” “Does your mom drive a ‘Fjord’?” “Have you ever headed a ball wearing a turban?” -- help bring the new boy into the fold. Eager to fit in, the foreigner quickly becomes more American than the Americans. He wears a Duke baseball cap backward, picks up the slang of the day, and forgets his soccer shoes at home. Is this a great country or what? The Captain Who Really Isn’t. Every team has a captain-wannabe. This is the boy who always must say something after the captain finishes his speech; who asks the coach what we’re gonna work on today, and -- unless I restrain him -- would actually walk onto the field for the coin toss. The reason his teammates do not elect him captain is, of course, because he does all the things listed above. The Musician. I have no idea why, but every team I’ve ever coached has had at least one excellent musician. Drummers, guitarists, piano players, cellists, clarinetists -- I’ve had them all. Sometimes The Musician is happy to perform at a team social event; sometimes he doesn’t want anyone to know he plays. I try to go to as many of The Musicians’ concerts as I can, regardless of style. It gives me more insight into how well they perform under pressure. Mr. Clueless. When God passed out brains, one player on each team was apparently wandering around on another field. Every year there is one boy with so little common sense, I fear for his safety in the real world. He is stupendously unable to arrive on time, hand in the proper forms and/or money, follow simple directions, or at times breathe unaided. Once he is on the soccer field, however, he often plays magnificently. This causes coaches to 1) tear their hair out and then 2) put him on the field in a very important position. Mr. Clueless often comes from an entire family of Cluelesses. It’s a good bet that the reason he remains at the field long after dark is because his mother forgot he had practice -- or does not know he is on a soccer team. In the most extreme case, his mother cannot even remember that she has a son. The Soccer Expert. This player knows more about soccer at every level -- club, high school, college, international, intergalactic -- than Stephen Hawking knows about the universe. “Did you see the Djerdjukolozovic-Brmdskji game on the Serbian sports channel?” he will burble. “What do you think North Dakota State-Minot’s chances are in the NAIA women’s tournament? Do you want to go with me on Saturday to see this awesome U-9 game?” Most of his teammates -- who themselves are quite soccer-savvy -- regard him with a mixture of awe and pity. The Uniform Maven. A close cousin of The Soccer Expert, The Uniform Maven knows everything there is to know about jerseys, shorts, socks, shoes and balls. He is up on all the latest trends, both fashion (“Look at those stripes -there’s five of them, not four, and check out the cool shade of black!”) and function (“See, the new inner soles have compressed nitrous oxide, and there’s a tiny layer of einsteinium that gives you more power.”) I could care less what my team looks like, but the players do, so I find The Uniform Maven invaluable whenever I have to order anything. And he gets off on helping me no end. The Perfectionist. Some boys take the coach’s admonition “Do your best” to an unhealthy extreme. Nearly every year, I have one player who is never satisfied. We could win the most important championship, and he could score the only goal, but after the match he will focus on his one shot the keeper saved brilliantly. If we do not win, of course -- or if we do, but he plays poorly -- he transports himself beyond inconsolable, to another emotion so frightening words cannot describe it. Coaching The Perfectionist is very difficult, because by definition he lacks the most important quality any athlete needs: the ability to laugh at himself.
The Bad Boy. The Bad Boy can be bad for a number of reasons. He may test the coach’s limits, by going beyond them. He may be every teacher’s worst nightmare, spending more time out of class than in. He may be seeing three girls at once. He may be involved in drugs or alcohol. He may be doing all those things simultaneously. But for some reason, I seldom find The Bad Boy to be evil. Troubled, perhaps, and often caught up in a horrible home situation. A challenge, definitely. So -- though it tests my sometimes limited amount of patience -- I try not to let The Bad Boy make me mad. Instead, I do what I can to help. Sometimes I succeed. And when I do, I am strangely glad that I have this particular archetype on my team.
How a Video Game is Changing the Face of Soccer Posted by Roger Bennett It is the game, as the FIFA franchise has helped drive the popularity of the sport in the U.S. A one-bedroom apartment in the Yorkville section of Manhattan is an unlikely venue to glimpse the shifting mechanics of American sports fandom. The living room is sparsely furnished; a 42-inch television rises proudly above a video game console. Empty pizza boxes ornament the floor. A sagging couch sits in front of an empty Dirt Devil box doubling as a coffee table. Russell Lovelady, a bespectacled 23-year-old host, fires up his Xbox and returns to the couch. Clad only in a pink Tshirt and a pair of boxers, he packs a dip of chewing tobacco and prepares to do battle with his friend Joey Scarborough. The men met as fraternity brothers at the University of Alabama, but the image of innate Southerness they convey is shattered the instant the immense television glows with the home screen of EA Sports FIFA 2012 video game. With a flurry of dexterous controller-clicking, the two men assemble their teams with the cold, calculated eyes of professional soccer scouts. Scarborough's pedigree makes him an unlikely soccer aficionado. Coming of age as a self-described "blue-blooded baseball-loving American male" in Pensacola, Fla., he viewed soccer as a peripheral pursuit. The game kicks off, and we are transported from the Upper East Side to the Calderon Stadium in Madrid as Scarborough's Atletico host Lovelady's Tottenham Hotspur. As they play, the combatants reminisce about their conversion to soccer, which occurred unexpectedly in a frat house across the street from the Crimson Tide's legendary Bryant-Denny Stadium. "Our housemates were rural Alabamians," remembered Lovelady. "Two of them played the game on the house television and one day, I picked up the controller and experienced the kind of thrill I imagine people must have had in the 1950s when they heard rock-n-roll for first time. My life has not been the same since." Both men were soon playing an average of three hours a day. "When we first came to school, most of us used to think soccer was a communist sport," admitted Scarborough with a smile. "Before we knew it, we were getting over tough breakups by going on nine-hour FIFA binges online."
The video game became a gateway to the real thing. Scarborough opted to become a Chelsea fan. "I quickly found myself scouring the internet to follow soccer ... in the time I used to dedicate to NBA basketball," he said. His voyage of discovery was not a solo mission. "Our entire campus quickly became littered with guys pairing the traditional Southern garb of camouflage hunting pants with a red-and-black-striped AC Milan Jersey."
A quiet national revolution The Alabama experience is illustrative of a quiet national revolution. Social scientist Rich Luker, the creator of the ESPN Sports Poll, recently pronounced soccer to be America's second most popular sport for those aged 18-24. Luker attributes the change to the quantity of world-class soccer available to Americans on cable television, the Internet, and via teams from England and Spain traveling across the continent to brand-build during preseason. The confluence has created what he terms a "context of greatness" through which Americans can, for the first time, consistently connect to the ongoing storylines of the global game. Of all his findings, one caught Luker by surprise: the role soccer video games have played in stimulating a passion for the real thing. "For the longest time, I believed video games and fandom of sport were not connected," he said. "But games like FIFA have done more to advance the popularity of soccer than I have seen with any other sport." If Luker's findings are correct, American soccer's ground zero is EA Sports Digital Laboratory, a 450,000-square-foot facility spread over two city blocks in Burnaby, British Columbia, a suburb of Vancouver. The lab is akin to a veritable United Nations of football populated by representatives of 18 nations from Argentina to South Korea whose love for the game they create is all-consuming. Clusters of employees unwind after a torrid workday by holing themselves up in a conference room to noisily compete on their product. A programmer mistakenly interrupts the scene, entering the room with his visiting son, a 7-year-old who is visibly astonished by the chaotic scene. While grown men battle over a computer game as if their lives depended on it, the programmer awkwardly informs his wide-eyed son, "This is where Daddy works ... and this is what Daddy does all day," while quickly ushering him back into the hallway. "Soccer has a massive future in America," proclaimed Matt Bilbey, the amiable Englishman who, as general manager of EA Sports football franchises, is responsible for the alchemy of turning America into a soccer-loving nation. "The 2014 World Cup will be broadcast from Brazil in prime time, cable television stations are investing massively in the sport, and the USA national team is getting strong enough to make me believe they will be competitive at the World Cup over the next 10 years."
"When we first came to school, most of us used to think soccer was a communist sport. Before we knew it, we were getting over tough breakups by going on nine-hour FIFA binges online." -- FIFA gamer Joey Scarborough.
Bilbey's opinion is grounded in statistics. Few men understand the nation's budding love affair better than the man who has spent 18 years overseeing the development of the FIFA franchise, transforming it from a crudely rejigged version of the developer's NHL game into a $5 billion franchise so deeply authentic it has been used to correctly predict the winners of the 2010 World Cup and this past MLS season. "We have more research on what motivates people to watch football than anyone in the world," said Bilbey. The narrative he has uncovered validates the story that played out in Scarborough's Alabama fraternity house. "We analyzed passive interactions with soccer and compared them to interactive experiences with the sport," he said, "and while there can be no substitute to seeing Barcelona at the Nou Camp, the American audience enjoys
interacting with our game more than watching soccer passively on television."
Bilbey points to the franchise's explosive growth in America as proof. The country has become EA's second-biggest territory, eclipsing Germany and trailing only England. His executives had recently returned from explaining the power of their brand to Manchester United. "We told them they connect to their fans for just 90 minutes a week on game day. We retain that connection for several hours every day," he said. The widespread popularity of the 2010 World Cup forced the sport past a tipping point. Bilbey believes the tournament's blanket coverage helped make the sport accessible and aspirational. "For the first time, it gained social currency and became something our broadest potential audience was proud to talk about," he said. All EA Sports needed to do was to get them playing their game. "Wayne who ...?" "Our challenge was to learn how to market a sport which has for decades been this country's sport of the future," said Jamie McKinlay, a smoothly effusive Australian who is EA Sports senior director of global marketing. "We had already engaged a passionate core audience who loved the game, and a large Hispanic following, but to connect to the massive general sports audience who had a fleeting interest in soccer after the World Cup demanded we try something new." Their efforts initially stalled as they latched onto a global marketing campaign featuring an all-star ensemble of footballing talent including Manchester United's Wayne Rooney, Barcelona's Andres Iniesta and Juventus' Giorgio Chiellini. McKinlay learned the hard way that as much as his target audience had savored the World Cup experience, they knew next to nothing about the actual players. "To market the product globally, all we had to do was tap into the world's natural passion for football and link it back to the game under the motto ‘Love Football, Love FIFA,'" he said. "In America, that connection did not exist." A solution lay close at hand in the form of a vocal celebrity following that had attached itself to the franchise. An eclectic cast including Seth Meyers, Steve Nash, MLB All-Star Tim Lincecum and Detroit Lions receiver Calvin Johnson had randomly proclaimed their love for the digital franchise. Johnson even informed reporters upon becoming the cover star of the NFL game "Madden 2013," "I'm not the best at Madden; I play rarely. I play the real thing. I'm more of a FIFA guy ... more of a soccer guy." EA Sports set out to exploit this cult following in their 2012 campaign "United States of FIFA," crafting a commercial that toned down the actual soccer and played up Nash, Meyers and others, enjoying the act of playing their game. The ads were positioned against NFL and NBA broadcasts, as well as "Saturday Night Live" and "Family Guy." "We promoted the social value of the product," McKinlay said. "The message we were trying to deliver was if you want to play the greatest sports game on the face of the planet, you had to buy FIFA." It worked and has been repeated for 2013 in a campaign which features Snoop Dogg, Lionel Messi and Andrew Luck. As McKinlay revealed, "We cast a big net and finally cracked the general sports market which has become 60 percent of our audience." Back on the Upper East Side, Scarborough and Lovelady are living proof of its impact. "This game destroys everything an average American has been taught to feel about soccer," says Scarborough. "It made me realize the power of netting a single goal, which feels like scoring 12 touchdowns simultaneously." As he speaks, he rifles home a long-range shot, causing his opponent to grimace. "That goal hurt," Lovelady admits, "but I have experienced worse. There is nothing more debilitating than being destroyed by a stranger online than
hearing their mom in the background calling them for dinner." As they set up their next game, Lovelady says, "The sad part of playing FIFA is I realize this is the closest I am ever going to come to being a world-class soccer star." Joey quickly agrees. "It makes me wish I had never quit the sport when I was 9." Before they prepare to re-engage in battle, Lovelady puts down his controller and experiences a moment of clarity. "If all of us hadn't, maybe the U.S. might have won the World Cup by now."
Cartoon on the Month:
Future Coaches Program 2012-13 The Future Coaches Program is designed for young adults (1522 years of age) to gain insight into the world of youth soccer coaching. The six month program runs from December-May and allows FCP candidates to work "hands on" with the Director of Coaching Education, as well as a mentor, to experience what youth coaching is all about. The goal of the program, in its second year, is to assist those who wish to eventually enter the youth soccer coaching arena. By preparing them with education; teaming them with mentors; and eventually having them placed as an assistant on a team, the FCP should allow the candidate an unprecedented opportunity to find out “what it’s all abaout”. You can find out more about the FCP by clicking on the following link: Future Coaches Program.
Photo of the Month