Jon Rudzinski - A Life of Sports, Player Development in the Grassroots and High School

In this inaugural episode of CoachCraft, host Alf Gracombe interviews Jon Rudzinski, a veteran soccer coach with over two decades of experience in youth sports. Jon shares his journey from a sports-loving childhood to becoming a dedicated coach at Boston Latin School and Jamaica Plain Youth Soccer. He discusses the evolution of coaching philosophies, the importance of player development, and the transformative impact of grassroots soccer programs. Jon emphasizes the significance of community, technical training, and the personal growth that comes with coaching, offering valuable insights for aspiring coaches and parents alike.

Takeaways

• Coaching is about developing both players and individuals.
• Youth sports should focus on fostering a love for the game.
• The transition from player to coach can be a natural progression.
• Creating a supportive community is essential in youth sports.
• Technical training is crucial for player development.
• Empowering players leads to better team dynamics.
• Coaching philosophies evolve with experience and education.
• High school soccer presents unique challenges and opportunities.
• Building relationships with players enhances the coaching experience.
• Self-reflection is key to becoming a better coach.

Chapters

00:00 Welcome to CoachCraft
01:45 Jon's Early Sports Journey
10:00 Transition to Soccer and Coaching
19:00 The Evolution of Youth Soccer Coaching
27:31 Building a Soccer Academy
31:45 Building a Diverse Team at Boston Latin School
32:01 Training Dynamics and Season Structure
35:42 Balancing Club and High School Soccer
36:06 Coaching at the High School Level
36:33 Implementing Coaching Vision
40:11 Empowering Players and Team Dynamics
43:18 Player Development Over the Years
45:51 Advice for Aspiring Coaches
47:41 Personal Growth Through Coaching
51:07 Resources for Coaches

For more information about CoachCraft, visit https://coachcraft.info.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome to CoachCraft
• 1:45 Jon's Early Sports Journey
• 10:00 Transition to Soccer and Coaching
• 19:00 The Evolution of Youth Soccer Coaching
• 27:31 Building a Soccer Academy
• 31:45 Building a Diverse Team at Boston Latin Schoo
• 32:01 Training Dynamics and Season Structure
• 35:42 Balancing Club and High School Soccer
• 36:06 Coaching at the High School Level
• 36:33 Implementing Coaching Vision
• 40:11 Empowering Players and Team Dynamics
• 43:18 Player Development Over the Years
• 45:51 Advice for Aspiring Coaches
• 47:41 Personal Growth Through Coaching
• 51:07 Resources for Coaches

Transcript

 (00:00)
Welcome to CoachCraft, where we explore the art and wisdom of coaching youth sports through conversations with exceptional coaches. In each episode, we'll dive deep into the philosophies, experiences, stories, and insights of coaches who are making a difference in their communities. I'm your host, Alf Gracombe, and whether you're a parent, a coach, or someone passionate about youth development, CoachCraft will inspire you to get involved and make your own impact through sports. Let's get started.

 (00:34)
This episode, the very first of the CoachCraft podcast, is an interview with Jon Rudzinski, a veteran soccer coach who has dedicated over two decades to developing young players in the Boston area. Known as Coach Rud to his players, Jon has been the head coach of the Boston Latin School Girls' Varsity Program since 2012, where he's helped transform the program into a consistent contender more often than not qualifying for the Division I State Tournament, a noteworthy achievement for a city school.

And during the modified fall 2022 COVID season, his team went undefeated and captured the Boston City League Championship. But Jon's impact extends well beyond high school soccer. He's been a cornerstone of Jamaica Plain Youth Soccer for nearly 20 years, its longest serving president at 13 years and serving as the girls travel director for 17 years. He's coached players at every age from U-8 through high school, helping to nurture both a love for the game

and developing soccer talent. I'm excited to welcome Jon to the show and to dive into his coaching philosophy and hear what he's learned from his years of shaping young lives through soccer.

 (01:45)
Jon Rudzinski, Welcome to the podcast. Thanks, Alf. Jon, let's get started. Kind of go back in time. And I'd love to hear a little bit about your own experience playing youth sports growing up, both your own experience as well as just what the

of environment or ecosystem was where you grew up? Sure. I think, I, had a, I think at least for my age and generation, a fairly typical experience. I came from a sports family and it was always assumed that we would play sports as kids. And I had two sisters. I think in particular, it was a baseball family and that was both sides, my mom and dad, both. So, from an early age, it was baseball all the time and

That was the first organized sport I played and I kept playing baseball all the way through high school. when did you first play organized ball? It would have been T ball. So I honestly don't remember the age, but I'm guessing it was first grade or second grade. It was pretty young and you know, and that was, that was the highlight of my summer. Every summer I was playing. I loved it so much as a lot of kids did. I, dabble only dabbled in the

other traditional big sports at the time in the U S you know, one half season of basketball, half season of flag football or whatever, but, but it was baseball, baseball, baseball. didn't, where we lived at the time I lived in, Ohio and there was no soccer, youth soccer until I was in fifth grade. So that was, I didn't get into the soccer culture till then. And then it later on took off. but it was for me, it was baseball at the time and I was obsessed with it. My family loved it.

And that was sort of the entree into organized sports. Okay. And this was what? Early 1970s? Yeah, this would have been early 70s. I probably started playing T-ball in 1972 or something. And so who was your coach? So that's interesting. My first coach was my dad and he remained a coach for several years. And then later on, when I got older, he wasn't the head coach, but...

He was always helping out as an assistant coach. think that was, I've thought about that a lot. He was, he was a great coach. He, he was as far as having a father for a coach, was, it was a good experience because he's a low key, is a, was an, a low key kind of guy. think, but one of the notable things to me is at that time, and I think this is maybe still true, but let's just say if you took a survey of all the

American males who are aged 70 to a hundred right now, a shocking percentage of them would be more than adequate youth baseball coaches because I think So many of them played baseball and baseball is a kind of sport that, you know, if you're playing it, playing it, playing it, you learned the right way to do things. And then you were probably able to convey that as a coach. had so many baseball coaches who were really good.

It was interesting. Yeah, so very similar with my father in that age demographic for sure. Grew up playing baseball and he was my first baseball coach as well. So you've had a career coaching soccer. So when was the first time you played on an organized soccer team? so the big change for me was going from a baseball family or going from a baseball guy who dabbled in other things to this fifth in fifth grade soccer came to our town.

Kettering, And I, it's interesting. I'll never forget I had just played a short season of flag football and it was utterly unsatisfying. Flag football itself, I think is a great sport, but it was utterly unsatisfying. was the kind of thing where the coaches were just obsessed with their own kids and.

The two coaches put me one made their kid the quarterback one made their kid the running back and the whole season everybody else has had to play the line or whatever, which in flag football is not that great. So, then in like the last game of the season, they gave everybody a chance to be running back one for one play. And I remember, I'm thinking, I remember thinking I could, I'm better than these kids. I can do this. And, and we, called a play and it was a pitch out or something. And I.

Got the ball and ran like 20 yards. It was like a great play. then the ref called a, there was some, foul. I don't know what it was. And so the play got called back and the coaches were so lazy. They didn't bother changing the play. They just said, run the same play. They probably shouted it. So I got the ball and like, you know, got dropped for a loss because they didn't even, they cared so little. Anyway, I probably made way too much of that as a 10 year old than it really was, but that was in my head probably. And.

the next season it was time to sign up and I remember my mother saying, know, soccer's around, do you want to do flag football again or do you want to do soccer? And I didn't decide until I went to bed at whatever, 9.30 or whatever that night and I told her before I went to bed, let's try soccer. But I remember being at almost random. Yeah. And so what did you know about soccer at the time? Nothing. I'd never seen it. I knew nothing. Maybe I saw it on Wide World of Sports.

And so you signed up for soccer. You played as a fifth grader. is your coach? I don't remember my first year. It's funny. We lived in Ohio. I don't remember who my coach was. It wasn't my dad. it was fun. had, it was a lot of fun. I mean, we were playing 11 v 11 with no coaching. You know, I still had so much fun. And by coincidence, the next year, my family,

Up up and moved all the way to Phoenix, And again, by dumb luck, we moved into a very nondescript working class neighborhood. And it was a neighborhood where soccer was absolutely the thing everybody did. And for some reason that neighborhood had just this unbelievably robust soccer program. In other words, at our elementary school, which was K through eight, you would go, you would show up.

We used to get windbreakers for the soccer club. It's called Westtown soccer club And we were orange and blue probably because someone was Dutch who started or something I don't know but we would if you show once it got cool enough that you had to wear a windbreaker Which is probably like December and Phoenix you would show up to school in the early morning before the school opening like every kid in the whole playground is wearing an orange windbreaker It was crazy. So I got by dumb luck got put into that ecosystem and and and then it was just non-stop soccer from

there all the way through, you know, until I was an adult. Now, from that point on, I remember every coach. I remember every team. I remember the whole thing. It was just soccer. My whole social life revolved around soccer. All my friends played soccer. We played soccer.

you know, nonstop. was, it was. it all in organized capacity? Were you also playing in school yard or in street? So yeah, we would play at recess or at lunchtime we would play at school. We would play in the tennis court and it would be like 20 versus 20. I it was that kind of thing, but yeah, but basically we didn't play pickup cause we were playing, we were playing so much. I mean, we were practicing two whatever, two or three times a week and yeah.

So what was the coaching like there? you know, it was interesting. I think it was by and large probably okay for the time. So the funny thing was that in at the time maybe now, but at the time in Phoenix, there were, there were a lot of Europeans, people who had, emigrated the U S and they just, you know, this is the seventies or whatever. And people are probably like, yeah, let's go to the, where the sun is. So you had, I had all these coaches who had played soccer and I think that's a huge advantage now.

Were any of them up to the standards of coaching that we would have today? No, probably not. But they knew enough about the game that they were able to convey that even if, even if they weren't trained coach, none of them was a trained coach. But I had, I'll just tick off the countries where my coaches were from. When I got out there, first one, Scotland, second one, Yugoslavia. third one was Italian American, not Italian American, but second generation Italian American. third one was an American who was.

played professional indoor soccer. then fourth and finally was for the last three years was a Dutch guy. you so you can do a lot worse than that. can do a lot worse than the Dutch guy. If I think back, he act, we actually did small sided activities during practice. may not have been the practice that you would see today from a professional coach, but, but you know, he was attuned enough to the Dutch way of things that we actually had effective practices.

Interesting so this then through high school you played soccer. Yep, and then I think you'd mentioned before you played a little bit in college as well on a JV team. played yeah, and by the way high school is interesting. in Arizona Soccer did not become a high school sport in Massachusetts. We have the MIAA that governs high school sports I don't know what the organization is in Arizona. I don't remember but in Arizona it did not become an official high school sport to my senior year so we

We unfortunately I never played high school soccer until my senior year, but we were playing the club soccer the whole year round anyway, but yeah, so. And so of those coaches that you had, you know, thinking of those kind of teen years or high school ages and thinking of yourself as a coach today, any kind of through lines between some of those coaches? think, so that's a great question. I want to, if you don't mind, I want to draw a...

maybe an overgeneralization in comparison to my baseball coaches and the soccer coaches. Because if anything, think that baseball coaches had more influence on me. It's kind of weird because I was younger maybe. I stopped playing baseball after ninth grade. the baseball coaches, when I look back on it, they all blend together, even though I can remember the specific guys, but they all kind of all blend together. And you know what I'm talking about if you're of a certain age playing back then. First of all, none of them were inappropriate in any way. They were all decent people.

But they were and they were they were all the same personality. However, kind of gruff, liked kids, but gruff. And there's one way to do things and that's the way you do it. I don't remember many, most of them wouldn't have, if they yelled, it was more out of frustration and it was kind of funny, but they would never yell at you, but they just told you this is how it had to be done. Most of them probably smoked and they probably smoked while coaching. That was just who they were. And, but the thing is they were all for by and large really good teachers.

Of the technical aspects of baseball and I guess we could call tactical, you know, I don't know what they use the term and you know tactical soccer, but I'll give you an example. you know, the technical aspects is how do you catch a ball? How do you throw it? How do you hit all that stuff? But you know how you do a cutoff play, I guess you could call that baseball tactical, right? How do you, how do you do a cutoff play? There isn't one way to do a cutoff play, but they're all pretty close, right? So if you talk to any

60 year old guy in this country they probably who was a decent baseball player They probably have pretty much the same way to run a cutoff play and they were able to teach that to us and convey it all these coaches It was I thought I think looking back on it was remarkable. So that was them. Yeah Yeah, I mean I I look at this as probably like this is like it's a cultural thing right because these are guys who all guys yeah, I assume yeah who grew up watching the game playing the game and

Have just taken in the information of the game in a way that obviously with soccer. Yeah, they had not they had not experienced this The equivalent in europe i'm sure is where people are living and breathing the game. Yeah, they see it. They watch it They play it and they know how to coach or at least convey some of this information through absolute parallel totally The soccer coaches I had were great But I think it was more

first of all, they're younger, you know, and I, I mentioned the European guys say you're generally younger and, and maybe with one exception and, you know, there, there wasn't the same pattern where you just have these guys out. I think it was more. They were younger and they were, they were, loved the game and they're out there having fun. They might've had, they were, some of them were probably trying to have fun with us as opposed to, you know, be our coaches. So the soccer coach thing varied. I, know, I had one coach who was way too serious. Didn't know what he was doing. You we, were like a low.

Practically what would be considered a rec team right now and he was going crazy I mean so you had the whole gamut of good and bad coaching it from on the soccer end but in distinction to the baseball where I think it was all this yeah, you know, so okay, so You've played as a teen you played some in college soccer. Yeah, and at a certain point You begin to think about coaching. now maybe

Talk about that a little bit. Like how did that happen? Was there a moment where you thought, Hey, I'd like to coach or this kind of random? it's question. And it's, it's not, it's pretty boring. I dropped, I sort of felt, sometimes those are the best stories. know I fell after pretty much after college. I stopped being in, in, I always had soccer in my blood because my friends played soccer and I loved the sport and the game, but I was doing different things with my life. And, and back then, of course it wasn't.

You didn't, we didn't have the media exposure. So since I wasn't playing as an adult, I dropped out of the soccer ecosystem and I basically would touch base with it every four years for the world cup. And that went on for 10 years, I think. And then basically when I had started having kids, they have two kids when they got of an age, then all of a sudden I said, wait a second, maybe I should be involved coaching because It sort of reconnected me. And even then it took me, I was standoffish at first, I think.

I didn't know if I wanted to be involved and then I was suspicious of the whole youth soccer thing I think and in a way what were your well, I kind of felt like none of these I don't know I felt like I don't know if I want to be involved with this does anybody even know what they're talking about I literally got that impression every and then and then so I Tried I didn't want to be involved for some weird reason and then I my daughter was probably in

third grade. She was playing rec soccer for J.P.S. Soccer and a good friend of mine was the coach and a friend of our family because our kids are the same age and he after a season of playing you know during the winter break he came to me and said can you please help. He knew I played soccer. Sure. So then that spring me and another guy agreed to help him and we both knew soccer and I just became pretty instantly just became the guy that I didn't bully the other guy but I basically

I actually had a sense as to what it was being a coach would be like I think even even though I hadn't met, you know, my mentors yet He didn't and so I pretty much took over and that was it the rest of the way the next year I coach the team and so And so this is the moment where you're going from someone who's played the game. Yeah been coached to now Becoming a coach. Yes. And so as you Became conscious of that. Yeah reality. Yeah confronted with it perhaps

So what were your first steps in? Deciding or figuring out how to be a good coach? Well, that's a great question I think I think I had a basic idea about what good coaching meant and I think it was actually fairly far advanced But I did not have it was almost like I had an outline of a painting Just the the black lines of all the figures in the painting without any of it filled in so Whereas most people who maybe who didn't play soccer and were in my position wouldn't have even had the paint the outline of the painting on

But I had the outline of the painting in my head. I just had no idea how to fill in the figures and the colors. So at least I had that head start. And then I think, so I just started and then the resources came mostly either on my own or through JP Youth Soccer to help me start filling that in. And so your children start playing. Yeah. And this is Rec League or what we call Grassroots Soccer today. Yeah.

What were some of those resources that you had? mean, you were maybe reading, this was, I guess the internet was around. Incipient, yeah. would get some off the internet, or else literally go to the bookstore and get books. And I have 20 books up on my bookshelf that I bought during that period of time of all varying degrees of like, they're not that great. You know I mean? It's like, here's

50 drills or whatever they call it, okay fine. Maybe one of them's any good, or three of might be good, but nothing about the context of how you actually do it. So. Well so if you can, and we'll come back to the coaching piece in a second, but if you can just describe a little bit the grassroots soccer program. This is Jamaica Plain Youth Soccer Both of our kids have played in this program, but what was it like when your oldest. Sure, mean was, you know, you know, as your listeners probably don't know this, but you know the.

The organization went through a growth and change shortly after this period of time when we started our academy. but we hadn't done that yet. So at the time, when I first started, it was a, it was a traditional rec league where you had a, ate, 10 and you 12 and you, there was six in-house teams in each age and they played each other and the games were treated as if it was the, you know, World Cup final And there was parents screaming and.

And the teams, the composition of the teams was utterly thoughtless. the coach knew somebody and said, he's on my team, you know, or whatever he or she. So it was, it was coed. was coed. It was coed. Yep. Which is kind of nice all through through all the age groups. yeah, I never coached at U12 in the rec league cause we blew that up, but, I think U12 even was, but definitely you wait and you 10. I was, I started at U10 and, you I didn't like it. I didn't think it was.

well organized and I think the whole, luckily a whole bunch of other adults who were involved or just starting to get involved thought the same thing. So pretty quickly we, we ripped all that up and made an academy and, you know, which will probably be one of your podcasts, hopefully. Yes, absolutely. And yeah, I'd love to hear maybe touch a little bit on that moment because I think it's a pivotal moment for JP Youth Soccer and you're now in this program. You've been there for a few seasons and you're like, okay, yeah, we can do something different. can do something different. So I moved from the, I did the rec for one.

Only one season. then, the woman who ran the league and said, how would you like to coach the U 10 girls travel team next year? And I didn't even know what that was. And I said, sounds great. You know, so we basically took all the girls up from my team and there's like all the girls were like on two, two of the rec teams or something. And we basically said, you, all the fourth graders, you're in a couple of third graders. You now are playing on this travel team. And I was the coach and it, that that's when I really got the bug and it bit me and I was like, okay, this is.

This is more than just kooky rec league where you got kids running around and parents screaming and they have no idea what they're talking about. Now I felt like, wow, now there's a purpose. It's travel soccer, you know? So that's what really got me the bug. And then I just started trying to devour things. then at some point I literally don't remember when, I met Dean Conway, who of course was hugely influential in me as a soccer coach. So it was sometime in there cause he was helping JP and I met him and then just started.

Devouring whatever coach classes he gave or coach training or his book the whole thing everything. Some people listening may know but others may not and and Dean Conway who Jon just mentioned has been a mentor to both Jon and myself just a phenomenal individual and someone who has done incredible work in helping us Build out this program at Jamaica Plain Youth Soccer and this was really the beginning of it the Genesis but Jon maybe

just talk a little bit about about Dean. Yeah I mean Dean was a nationally renowned coach and more importantly coach educator coach trainer who by happenstance You know lived and raised a family in Jamaica playing and volunteered his time for Jamaica Plain youth soccer before I got involved and Luckily the people who ran the league were smart enough to realize he's an incredible resource Because he's a very low-key guy and he didn't try to in any way force his

coaching development, soccer development beliefs onto the league. He's so persuasive in explaining and showing how that it should be done that everybody embraced it. It was over, over a course of a few years. I'd say he's the most gently authoritative person I've ever met. That's an excellent description. Gently authoritative. I love it. And that's exactly who he is. So that's who he is. And I fell under his spell immediately and said, Holy cow. And just,

Devoured he you know, he was so gracious with this time He gave he would give us coach training sessions and you know, you go to one you're like, that's pretty good I would go to every one even if it was the same topics I would just keep going because you always learn something and so Dean had already been I'm not sure the timeline here, but he was he still working at the state level. He was art here by the time I got involved He was no longer working for Mass Youth Soccer. Yeah. Yeah, so he's now he teaching he was he was was he's a teacher he would

So at that time he was just volunteering with us and he was making his living as a teacher. And so then this idea of you mentioned the academy. Yeah. How did that come about and what was your involvement? Yeah. So it came about through Dean and Dean suggested it. And I, you know, I don't remember all the gory details, but let's just say that we did a dramatic restructuring of how the league was organized and also how we would teach. And that was all because of him.

And so, it was a fateful decision. The board.

Everybody embraces change and the board voted, but it wasn't that contentious. There was one or two people who didn't like it, but basically everyone said, this is a great way to go. So we blew up our rec league and created a U eight Academy and a U 10 Academy totally development-based. think it was way ahead of its time. This is 20 years ago. I think this may be a bit of an exaggeration, but I think what we were doing then is no longer revolutionary. I think most youth organizations probably have a lot of elements of what we were doing. So.

And so you you mentioned you immediately fell under Dean's spell and I have a story that very much parallels that yes So what was it though understood as you started to you get to know Dean and hear how he's talking about development of players What was it specifically that really? Resonated with you and that enabled you to get behind this idea to then help. Okay, that's it. That's it. I think

Other than his, just as amazing way of being a teacher. I think that, I think I said this to you the other night. think that, if you did play soccer growing up, right. And you're in this, so you consider yourself a soccer player. You understand the game, right? You have this intuitive understanding of the game. If you play at a high enough level. And so you understand that game, you understand how it works, what it means. that doesn't mean you, you know, how to.

be a youth soccer coach. But what Dean was able to do when he explained the theory of how you should coach and what the best way to foster development oriented coaching is he had this way of connecting that intuitive understanding that you have of the game and translating it into youth coaching. so you would.

So when you, when that happens, then everything is a light bulb. It's just a constant light bulb going on because everything he said makes sense. Cause you intuitively understand the game and then he's able to awaken what you subconsciously understood might be the way to do it, but you would never be able to put it in words. So I'll give you the most basic example is the principle of small sided training, which, seems so obvious to us now, but.

that's not obvious. It wasn't obvious to me when I was not at all. I I was seven years old playing on an 11 11 team. And, this idea of having kids start in a four V four format going to seven V seven, nine V nine, et cetera, was completely foreign, totally foreign. Now Dean would explain the four V four concept to the small sided concept, both for games and training. And I think

his real genius is he's able to reach the guy or the woman who? Didn't play soccer and wants to coach and also explain it to them. But if you played soccer It didn't take long for you to say my god that makes so much sense Why hadn't I thought of it? So that's the genius of Dean in that regard Yeah And so then what was different about the academy than say this, you know in-house 6 team . . . Yeah, I mean, I think the biggest things was it was not team-based.

all the kids in the program are practicing together. course you didn't run a 70 person activity. You, would break them up and there's whole theories about how to break them up when they arrived. But it was, everything was thoughtful and done with the efficiency in mind, but basically it was non-team based. So they would show up and get trained we would debate in some seasons that we would, the kids would get put in with their levels during training and some seasons they didn't, but the generally it was all small sided. were with a group of kids that night.

And then you were at the different group of kids the next night and you were at the different group and then a different group of kids on the Saturday games or what are Sunday games, whenever it was Sunday. that was the basic idea. But the other thing was that, the activity leaders, not coaches were all given specific training about how to run, you know, small sided practices for seven and eight year olds. And so you, weren't relying on a coach who had ownership of a team who could make up whatever they wanted to do.

So part of it was the organization of it and part of it was taking the power away from someone who may not have known what they were doing and investing it in the concept that underpinned the academy. Yeah, which is going to happen in a house league or any other kind of league where you're like, this is, the coach, this is my team, these are my players. Yeah, So we took that, we tried, we sort of neutered that. Yeah.

You still need the volunteers and they have to be invested, but we were able to provide not only training, but on field monitoring so that you could provide support for them so they could learn during the season. That was the big thing. Yeah. Which is only possible if everyone's there at the same time. Exactly. So, talking about your own history and then where you're, you're headed here, your kids are playing soccer.

I know you got very involved. You were the president of Jamaica Plain Youth Soccer for 13 years, which was before I insisted that you give yourself a break from that and took the job for four years. Thank God. And there's probably a whole nother podcast just to talk about, you know, leadership and administration within these grassroots programs. But let's stay on the coaching track here because where you ended up coaching.

And where you are today is as the girls varsity coach at Boston Latin school here in Boston. why did you kind of end up there both on the girls side and then at this high school level? that's a, that's a great question. I think that first of all, I, primarily coached girls in the youth ranks and my daughter was older and I coached her and my son played soccer as well, but I coached her first and then got really, really invested in coaching her cohort of

of girls, not just her, all the other kids. And I also quickly was the girls travel director. So I think for some reason it clicked in my head. became just became an immediate fan of as a father of a daughter, I just became an immediate fan of girls soccer. And so I was totally invested. And I think that's why I stayed on the girls side. I coached my son for one year and it was very satisfying. It was a really nice team. It was a good team. I was U-12, but

But I coached girls exclusively other than that one season. And I think that's part of it. So then at some point my daughter faded away, wasn't really interested in playing anymore, which is fine. But I was still interested in coaching. So I kept coaching within JP Youth soccer and I kept, like for four years in a row, I was the U14 girls coach. meanwhile I was the travel director, so I was also invested in all the other kids of different ages. So I think at that point I...

Had, think it reached a certain level of coaching knowledge and skill and ability, enough that I was able to positively impact, you know, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth grade kids from a coaching point of view. But I was still, I wasn't tired of it at all. I want, if anything, I wanted more. I would, you know, I, I, kept working on my licenses and you know, every two years we get the next highest license or whatever. And I would maybe go to a,

coaching conference or whatever. So I was still considered myself a coach who wanted to learn. think the Boston Latin school job came up and it immediately appealed to me because both my kids attended the school. My daughter was just about to graduate and I knew a lot of the kids who played in the program because I had been in touch with the kids and their parents as they sort of left my U14 team and then many of them went to Boston Latin school. I was actually

sort of followed the program. And when the job opening came, said, wow, I think I can do this. And I think that

You know, high school soccer is a unique thing in this country. And I say that there's both pros and cons to the way we have it set up. And one of the things about it is it's, there's looser coaching standard, let's just say, and say club, top club soccer,

And, you know, I was a good coach and all that, but I certainly didn't have the coaching resident. was not a professional coach. Like were you ever interested in potentially coaching in the club system? No, because I, I, know, I think you have to be a pretty much have to be a professional coach to do that. And I was already an adult who had a whole career. You know I mean?

That wasn't I just was not in that world. So the high school in contrast, it's a way for someone like me to actually continue coaching at a high level. I have a job or my own company and I'm able to coach in the high school level in spite of that, which is kind of interesting. That's actually maybe a negative to the high school ecosystem, but I was able to take advantage of that and get the job and I got the job and I and you know, the rest is history in that regard. Yeah. So with high school soccer,

So just a little bit about Boston Latin school. So this is a school in the city of Boston, but kids are coming from all over the city. So Jamaica Plain youth soccer, which we talked about, there's certainly kids coming through that program and that will play at Boston Latin school, but you're also getting kids that are coming from different neighborhoods. And so you've got these girls arriving in the school soccer program from different parts of the city, you know, different, they played under different coaches. They don't maybe know each other socially so much, but

Talk a little bit about how these girls are arriving and then as you as a coach, how you form this into a team and what that looks like. think one advantage is, know, it's BLS, Lion School is a, as you mentioned, it's a public exam school that draws from all over the city, but it is seven through 12. So one, I think one advantage for me as the varsity coach is that although some kids enter ninth grade, 95 % of the students enter in seventh grade.

And so everybody who's playing soccer, by the time they get to me as the varsity coach or even the JV team, they've already been in the school for a year or two or whatever or three. And so, I think the, the, we're all from different neighborhoods. That's fun, but it doesn't impact their ability to perform on the soccer field because they've already been in school together for several years.

But anyway, makes it fun. get kids from all over, different neighborhoods. And there's been some social, you can kind of track the social changes at Boston Latin School as well as socioeconomic or whatever changes in the city a little bit by who plays girls' soccer. That's for sure, that's something that's, even in the 14 years I've been doing it, that's something that is notable.

I'd like to kind of step on under the training pitch, so to speak. if you can talk a little bit about how the season progresses and how you think about it from a training perspective, because it's the end of the summer kids are coming off their summer break and into the soccer season. So what does that look like? That progression from a training perspective? Yeah, it's a great question. mean, so the one that the thing that

Is notable in my mind. One of the most notable aspects of high school soccer, is that it's unbelievably intense in terms of time. So it's a massive time commitment. And you know, it's an everyday thing. every day for us generally means five days a week. in theory it could be six, but you have to be mindful of that as you kind of realize how the season plays out.

So the season's also intense because it's compressed. if you measure the season from the first day of that, we're legally allowed to start tryouts and preseason, it's a, it's basically 10 weeks. And now if you progress in the state tournament and so forth, maybe it turns into 11, but it's basically a 10 week season and you cram 16 to 18 games in there. Plus preseason, it's super intense. The on average, there's two games per week, you know, not ideal, less than ideal from a soccer development point of view.

The way I approach the season is very cognizant of all that. injury prevention is, is massive because you get an injury and you miss half the season. It's not like if you, if we were playing, you know, 24 games over eight months, you know, well, okay, you work them hard and, know, maybe someone gets injured, they missed two games or whatever, but you get injured in high school soccer.

you could be an elite player and you miss half the season. just missed one eighth of your entire career. Yeah. And if you're a senior, you know, even worse. So, the preseason is all designed to get kids up to speed without injuring them. and then during the season where we're, doing sort of a, a really blunt, not super sophisticated version of,

of periodization, if you want to call it that, the term that governs how you train players for maximum fitness. we, you we do our own blunt version of periodization. If there's two games a week, that limits how much we can, how hard we can train. We train, we do very little training the day after the game, you know, the whole thing, but it's kind of this, again, it's a blunt version of periodization because we never, because there's not enough time between games to do it properly. But, but that's, that's what we're aiming for. We're aiming for keeping kids healthy.

and making them fit enough to be able to compete. Talk a little bit about, I mean this is high school soccer and you're getting, think, is it fair to say most of the players at the varsity level are also playing on club teams? yes but. And the interesting thing about Boston Latin School, and I love this, you know we play in a tough league, we're division one and we play in the DCL which is a good league for girls soccer.

not all of them play club soccer and BLS like a lot of high schools, I'm not saying BLS is unique, but BLS definitely has the type of athletes who are, there's always going to be room in our program for the three sport athletes who are just jocks our program is certainly advanced enough that if you never played soccer, you have zero chance of making the freshman team And you have to have played a certain level to make that team or the JV team. So they're all good players. They've all.

At a minimum played a lot of travel soccer. Most of them play club, but some of them don't play club because they're good enough to be three sport athletes. And, also they're, that means they're probably learners. They might be learners. And so they, you can learn a ton during that 10 week season, cause it's so intense. So if you're somebody who got a good baseline with travel soccer up through say seventh or eighth grade, you make the JV team in eighth grade and you're playing three sports at BLS.

If you know how to learn and you're dedicated, you can learn enough during the season that you can be contributing varsity player. You won't be a league all-star, but you can be a contributing varsity player. So we have, I'd say a third of our girls probably never played club and two thirds play, I'd say half play club actively. A third never played club and maybe a sixth used to play club and don't anymore. Something like that. It's kind of interesting. Now you and I are friends. We talk.

soccer a lot. I know you to be someone with a lot of technical knowledge and you're watching the game at the highest level, both the men's and women's side, whether it's Premier League or you're a big fan of the US women's national team. So these are the highest levels in each realm of the sport. But the realities of high school soccer and you've got your ideas about how you want the team to play.

And maybe you're going to run up against limitations about being able fully do that. But how do you implement your vision for how you want this team to play within the realities and the constraints of a high school season? that's a great question. I think, there's a balance. You do have a range of abilities and commitment levels. mean, everyone's committed to the team, but are they committed to, you know, becoming good enough player that they want to play in college? No, many aren't. So you have a range. think, to some degree.

When I first started coaching, the level of play was not as high and that was at BLS. mean, this was how long ago? 14 years ago. And, we, first couple of years, I think we did way more technical training than we do now. And the theory being you can, first of all, I do firmly believe, I don't care what age you are, you can never have enough technical training or practice because in this country anyway, we're not good enough technically, right? There's not a single player I've ever coached who's good enough. Technically they can always improve.

So we felt the level was so low that we were doing a lot of technical training the first couple of years. The level got better. And then I think, that allows you to not spend so much time on the technical stuff, So we were able to do less of that more about it's more about technical maintenance almost and more.

You know, slightly more advanced stuff. I think, the vision is, know, I don't think kids like to read much. have, I've written material for everything and we distribute it don't think kids read a lot. They, they, they, the vision is, conveying every day at practice. It's the, it's the way you go about organizing the practice. It's the things you say to them in the, in the moments you do speak, which I'm not a big believer in a lot of lecturing. I think that conveys the kind of soccer you play. then if you have kids who are committed,

The leaders start speaking up and they're generally going to agree on how we want to play soccer And so then you the leaders will also be conveying to the team The sort of the playing principles that we want to implement and it kind of creates its own. Yeah, and so Talk a little bit about your Principles of play like what are the things you're looking for in your teams? Yeah, I think you know one thing is

At the risk of giving away all your secrets to other DCL coaches. Let's put it this way. None of this is rocket science, but I think, you know, when I first started at the high school level, I was obsessed with playing beautiful soccer and I still think that's a principle you want to have, but you have to be realistic about it. I think I'd say more that if you play attractive soccer,

You're actually, you have a better chance of succeeding as well. Cause there's such a high overlap between that and because that, because we're at the end of the day, we're talking about high school players. if we were debating. Professional teams and those styles that they played and which style is more effective for them to try to win their, their, their league that they're playing in. you could have that debate all day and just cause you play beautiful soccer doesn't mean you're going to win the league. But at this level where there's such a variation in the skills of the kids and the teams.

If you're playing attractive soccer, that probably means you're a better team and therefore you're going to have success. So that's, we're aiming for attractive soccer, not just because we believe in attractive soccer, because it actually sets the team up for success. And that's, know, possession based, thoughtful soccer. That's one principle. But again, that's nothing revolutionary at all. I would say that for 90 % of the time I've been coaching,

Especially the last six or seven years, we play a 4-3-3 system where we want to be on the front foot. So we spent a lot of time learning how to press the opponent. so all the things that go with being on the front foot, how do you press properly? We play a high defensive line for that reason. So it all kind of goes together.

we will adjust for opponents, but in general, the principles are we want to have the kids have fun attacking and being on the front foot. So therefore we work on trying to win the ball back. And what is that? If you want to do that, what do you have to do? Well, you have to have a high line. You have to have a compact midfield, all those things. That's what we work on. So I've coached some teenagers. have a teenage son myself. they're not always the most agreeable of, of human beings. And so

Have you ever come up against situations where there's just tension or friction between how you're wanting the team to play and how the team or some of the leaders on the team might Great question and that's an I think it goes to another thing which is at some point It's their team. So I I know what I think even more so because it's high school Yeah, I do think so more so because it's high school and I really believe in empowering the players and especially the older players and so

I am very open to changing formations and stuff, it's not about some kid requesting it and trying to accommodate that. It's like, what is the team comfortable with in general? And if the leaders are comfortable with something, everyone else will get in line. So I, I don't impose this stuff on them. I suggest it. And then we all kind of agree. And so an example would be the four, you know, formation, some might argue that the formation stuff is over, overblown, right? But let's say for the moment that the formation you choose is important.

Well, I just mentioned that we've been playing the 433. there have been times during even this most recent season where I felt like we might be better served if we switched the formation a little bit. And at least this year, when I suggested that I got pushback from the leaders and the pushback was rooted in reality. And so we, we did not change our formation much this year at all. and that was mainly because the players convinced me that they did not want to. And I had faith.

That in them and that their beliefs and their principles such that I thought it could work now When we got to the state tournament and played our second game against the fourth ranked team we still played a 433 But we distinctly changed how we defended and they bought into that because that was a special case But during the season we played really good teams In the past I would have switched to a different formation against some of those teams this year. We never did we played we now number one I had a really good team. Yeah, but number two the kids believed

They were good enough to be able to play the way we wanted to play and by and large they were correct and we had a successful season and it worked and that was I would have changed sometimes actually. Yeah. They convinced me not to. That's a great. That's a great sign of a team that wants to play the same way game to game regardless of opponent. Yeah. And I felt like they have they have good. They're present. Example we played you know whatever Acton Boxborough you know a top 20 team in the state and they I think they either finished first or second.

our league, the DCL this year. and last year we played them and they, they man-handled us. was three, nothing, but it could have been worse. And last year we played them and we played a four, four, one, one and, set up a certain way defensively and the kids, did okay, but they didn't really buy into it, I guess. And it wasn't a good game. It was only one game. So this year, when it came time for AB, I suggested gently that maybe we want to consider doing that again. And they were, the kids are adamant that they felt we were good enough to play our way. Maybe we might adjust, but we're to play the four three three.

and see how it goes and we ended up, we lost them two to one and you know, had in the last minute had a shot that could have gone in easily and it could have been two to two. So in other words, we competed against them playing the way we wanted to play and I can give the credit to the players who made that happen. So a couple more things. I'd like to just go back a little bit to the technical development, but specifically

Looking at kids at this in this age range. I mean you're with a lot of these players for a few years some are making the team is in their ninth grade year So you're getting a few years with these kids, but just one season out of the year. Yeah Any good examples of players where you see kind of a lot of change happening across those three or four years and how they show up each year and kind of what would you attribute that to? To a high school athlete. it's it's two things

And I think they're two distinct things. They're the same. It's soccer training and being open to learning. half the kids or whatever I said, it could be more play club. So so they're going to be with me for 10 weeks and they're going to be with their club for, you know, 28 weeks or whatever it is. Now the club is probably three days a week and we're five days a week, but nonetheless, Their club training probably has a greater influence on their technical development.

you know, think for the most part, you, have to assume that most club players are getting pretty good coaching. And even if they're not getting great coaching, they're still playing with other kids at a higher level. And so they're just going to develop anyway. And so the first thing is, you can see the kids who are playing club and committed to play club and you can see them develop as players. You know, I see them in seventh grade. They might come in front and try out for our freshmen team.

And I can say, wow, she's got a lot of potential, but you don't know the fast forward. I'm thinking of one of our captains this year. She in seventh grade, when I went to the freshmen tryouts and helped the freshmen coach for the freshmen tryouts, she was clearly the class of those, all those girls who bothered to come out for the freshmen team. that doesn't mean she's going to turn it, but yet she was a committed player. And fast forward now, she's just a senior and her senior year just finished and she was our best field player.

And made, you know, all league, all star, all DCL. And, and it was because she put the time in, in the off season. Now she played for me for three, four years and you know, did great and all that. But I mean, she was even injured one year with us and yet, so it was really the off season stuff or the high school off season. That's one thing. The second thing is though, what I mentioned, those players can still learn from me and from our coaches during the season. And many of them want to learn and they do learn. And that's, it's really important for

the three sport athletes who aren't playing soccer in the offseason are really important for them to learn and some of them do and but it can also be the the elite players can still learn in the high school context if we're setting up the you know, the training the right way, so Great. Well, thanks for that. And then so kind of two two last things here Yeah before we wrap it up. The first is You've been the high school coach now. You just finished your 14th season. Is that right? Yeah, just finished the 13th. Yeah. Congratulations and

If you can maybe share a little wisdom sure you've got someone who's had some experience coaching but hasn't coached at the high school level or hasn't coached in a high school program before What would you say to some of these newer coaches?

At some point it really is incumbent upon the aspiring coach to, and this might only be effective after she or he has started coaching, but at some point the aspiring coach needs to examine why they're coaching and what attracts them to coaching and what are they getting out of coaching and I think that's really, really important. Be clear on why you're doing Why are you doing it?

And so why are you doing it? And what are, what's motivating you and how might that influence how you coach? And because then you can start identifying, sure, your strengths, but also your blind spots, I think. And I think it's important for coaches at some point that if they want to continue coaching and be an effective coach, they really need to examine why they're doing it and what they get out of it.

And then they can start picking apart where they can improve, how they can improve. You have to always be working on improving as a, improving as a coach. And it doesn't just mean making your activity better. It means that kind of thing. think that that'd be the biggest thing I would offer to aspiring coaches. I, as you know, many people are, I was in therapy for 10 years as an adult and it happened to overlap when I was as a coach. And I ended up spending more of my time talking about soccer than you would, you would not imagine.

and it was unbelievably helpful to me to examine why I was doing what I was doing. And it didn't make me a perfect coach, but it certainly improved me. know? Well, this is a perfect segue into the next question I had for you, which is how has coaching changed you as a person? it's changed me because it's

Well, it's improved how I relate to people, So let me say that first. So yes, I got into it for good reasons, but it wasn't until I was into it for a couple of years and started examining that I really started understanding what I needed to do to become a better coach. And so that understanding allowed me to try to do it and I'm still not perfect and it's always a journey, but

if I was into it that much that I, that the self level of self-examination allowed me to try to improve as a coach. can only imagine that also, in theory makes me a more, if you will, whole person I think. So that's pretty dramatic, but so I don't, I don't want to over, whatever, overcook that analogy or that egg, but, you know, in theory, if you really into this,

That's what coaching can do for you. can help you, you know, just, think become a better, a better person. so that's, think that's the impact. just set independent of that. It's, it's incredibly fun to have a, a, a challenge and then, you know, try to excel at it. And because coaching is, you know, there's measurable success. There's plenty of success. It's hard to measure that you can, you know, the.

You know, I still believe that at the high school level, even it's all about developing kids and players. That's the number one thing. So that's hard to measure, right? You can't directly measure whether you're developing a player or a kid, but, but you know, you are, and that's the number one thing we should try to do. Having said that the number two thing, if you will, or whatever number three thing is success on the field and measured in terms of performance as a team. And that's what high school sports is always about also. And so that's the icing on the cake. When you have that, then you can look to that and.

feel great satisfaction about something that can actually be measured. You should feel satisfaction for the first thing. I developed, wow, I felt like I developed most of my players this year. They really developed as players and they learned some lessons as leaders. And that of course gives me great satisfaction. So that should be number one, but that's hard to measure. so in high school soccer, you had this advantage of this sort of artificial setup where it's deemed to be important with the standings and the leagues and the tournament and everything.

So you can measure your success that way too, which is fun. I mean, it's not really what it's all about, but it is fun. Well, and not everything has to be measurable. I know we live in an age of big data and this impulse to want to break down the numbers and measure things. But I think high school soccer and watching my own son play, watching you coach, watching your teams play, I think what you may not be able to measure, you can very much feel.

you can very much feel and see how these kids are experiencing it. And it means a lot in these wins. They're fun, you know, and it's kind of a once you get one shot at playing with your school friends. And so I think high school soccer is unique in that way. And I certainly have not always appreciated high school soccer, but watching it through that lens, I've found to be very enjoyable. And I can imagine as a coach also working in that space to be very interesting. It is.

And you you talked about coaches. It is a, you know, you're, never the perfect coach. Every coach who's, who's worth his or her weight in anything is, a, is a lifelong learner and is trying to improve as a coach constantly. And so, I've learned a lot from watching you coach from talking to you. and here is kind of our last question for you is, we'd just love to know any information or a resource or something that you can share.

With listeners with other coaches that you tune into something, you know that you're reading or watching currently or something That's just this touchstone for you. Yeah, I guess I have a couple things and The Well the first the first thing I think is a great general resource and I think a lot of your listeners will know this but United Soccer Coaches which used to be the NSCAA the National Soccer Coaches Association America So they rebranded ten years ago or whatever United Soccer Coaches. It's a great organization

For a lot of reasons, but one of the things, if you're a member, one of the things they do is they have a, used to be monthly, but it's now six times a year magazine. And I think it's excellent. And it has, it's dedicated to coaches at all levels in the, in the United States. And it has a lot of great articles. also has training. They always throw in training sessions and, activities for coaches of different levels. And I get a ton of activity. actually get a ton of activities from that I use from that, but it also just has great articles about.

You know, the, the, the emotional aspects of coaching, the mental aspects of coaching, you know, what are the issues facing American soccer for you? What are the issues at the high school level college, the whole thing? It's a, it's a great resource. So the United soccer coaches, maybe at a higher level,

I mean, there's so many resources out there, but, it's kind of funny. If you, if I look at one of the books that influenced me, Dean Conway turned me on to, to, to Raymond Verheijen. I don't know how to pronounce his name, of course, but he's the, he's a, extremely well-known Dutch, physiologist, you will, soccer physiologist. And he's written many books, but one of them is called conditioning for soccer. And, it's more than conditioning. It's really about how to think about.

About what soccer really is all about the training aspects of soccer and I still refer to that book and it's it's written at a very high level so I don't even fully understand everything he talks about but it's is also accessible and so I think if you're at it's you know, It doesn't say much about eight-year-olds or ten-year-olds, but when you get to a certain level the stuff in that book Is quite enlightening. So that's another resource. It's a classic. It's it's still in print I think it's probably 30 years old at this point

conditioning for soccer, Raymond Verheijen but that's, you know, there's many books like that that are out there or resources on the web that you can tap into. That's one that influenced me. So those are a couple of examples I would say. Excellent. Perfect. Thank you. Thank you for sharing those and thanks for taking the time. This has been great. I've really enjoyed the conversation. too, Alf. Thank you. always do with you and I appreciate you doing this.

Yeah, any final thoughts Jon? No, I just I just want to wish you best luck for the podcast. I think it's a great idea and I hope I hope I know you're gonna get other good hopefully some other guests who offer you some insights But I hope you get a lot of listeners who want to tap into I think you coachings a fraternity that's I'm sure that's one you're gonna be one of your themes and We didn't talk about that today, but it's a really a fraternity sorry for using the male the male term there, but

And you feel that when you're with other coaches. And so it's fun to talk about coaching and not just soccer, other sports as well. And I think we're a certain breed. Yeah, absolutely. Well, I've very much enjoyed this and appreciate it, Jon. So thank you very much. All right.