New Southern California Youth Soccer Club Kicks Off
Winning isn’t everything. Sounds like a phrase from a fortune cookie or a philosophy that is hard to truly grasp, right? However, this is the heartfelt and lifelong approach of esteemed youth soccer coach and former professional player Wayne Harrison who is now launching his own youth soccer club in San Diego, America’s thriving soccer capital.
Harrison’ South Coast Soccer Club will hold tryouts for those youth soccer players wishing to take their talents to the next level later this month – and those who seek trophies over real development might want to look elsewhere as this coach of coaches takes to the pitch, teaching the game holistically rather than focusing on filling the stat column with wins.
Youth Soccer News: The youth soccer world is as competitive as it gets. Even at the recreational level, clubs compete for the attention — and registrations — of young boys and girls.
Now the competition for young soccer players is about to get even stronger — at least in Southern California.
Wayne Harrison has coached at the highest levels. He’s served as academy director at Blackpool in England as well as in the United Arab Emirates. His championship youth teams have beaten the likes of Inter Milan and Atletico Madrid.
Now he’s starting again in San Diego — kicking off a new youth soccer club. But the aim is not to win more trophies.
The goal of the South Coast Soccer Club is to teach – and play – soccer “the right way.”
The longtime coach – a former professional player himself, and author of 14 soccer books – believes passionately that emphasizing wins and losses is the wrong way to develop young soccer players. Highlighting the “lightning-quick 9-year-old who scores all the goals” does a disservice to that player, who may not be forced to develop technical skills, before suddenly discovering at 11 or 12 that others have suddenly caught up to him or her.
Also ill-served are that player’s teammates. They never learn how to play together. Instead, all they do is feed balls to the fleet forward.
South Coast SC focuses on “what’s good for the player,” Harrison says.
“We want to teach the game correctly. We don’t want to get caught up in the frenzy of wins and losses that happens all the time at the club level.”
Harrison quickly adds, “I’m as competitive as anyone. I love to win. The difference is, I want to do it the way the game should be played, teaching the way it should be taught.” By that, he means playing patiently out of the back and developing quick decision-making for players.
That means South Coast SC players will make mistakes. They’ll give up goals.
That hardly worries Harrison. “Mistakes are part of the game. They’re educational. It’s all part of the process of learning to play soccer the right way.”
He also notes the process builds confidence.
Confident players become winners.
Harrison himself is confident that his teams will win more than their share of matches – without sacrificing their “principles of play.”
Of course, South Coast SC teams won’t win all the time. They won’t win every tournament. But they will learn to play the game tactically. They’ll figure out the when, the why and the where of technique. Along the way, they’ll develop into soccer players who know and love the game.
South Coast SC is starting small. The club includes in-house recreational teams for boys and girls ages U5 through U10. They play 5-v-5 games, using futsal balls.
On February 25th, Harrison will hold tryouts for U9 through U14 competitive teams. He plans for an estimated 20 teams – perhaps two per age group. That’s tiny, compared to many Southern California youth soccer clubs.
Harrison states, “I envision a small, friendly but driven club, with a community feel. I want every player to feel appreciated, embraced and positively challenged.”
He knows he must work hard to convince parents that winning is secondary. They don’t always want to hear that losing a few matches in a tough league is better than roaring through an easier one. Fortunately, he says, “There’s a good group of parents who believe what I’m saying.”
Harrison places a premium on loyalty. He hopes to promote players from within, rather than stealing the ‘best’ players from opposing clubs every season. Continuity – not chopping teams up all the time – is a key element of success, the South Coast founder says.
The Surf SC or LA Galaxy San Diego it’s not. That’s fine with Harrison. He’s not looking to compete with the big boys, in terms of numbers. “We just want to compete with ourselves,” Harrison says. “We want to improve all the time.
“We want to be good – the right way,” he continues. “We want everyone to play with a smile on their face. We want to bring joy to players. If you just want to win, don’t join us. But if you want to learn how to play the game correctly, we want you!”
Making it all work is not easy, Harrison admits. His model is not for every player or parent. But, the veteran coach says, “I have to please myself.”
His dream is to build a clubhouse, where everyone gathers before and after matches, and dressing rooms for team talks just like the European model. But, Harrison says, “We will try to walk first before we can run.”
By which he means, run – and play soccer – the “right way.”
For more information on Wayne Harrison, visit his bio on Soccer Awareness. For information on his new youth soccer club, visit South Coast SC or check out South Coast FC on Facebook.
“The ultimate goal in coaching is helping each player develop his or her talents and abilities to the fullest. With this in mind, I created the Soccer Awareness philosophy of developmental coaching and training. It simply means training the mind before the body.” Wayne Harrison.