Every Player Needs An Advocate

What does it take to be a professional soccer player? What does it take to be a professional athlete? And continuing from my previous post, why does every eight year old kid dream about competing on a grand stage, like the Home Depot Center or better yet, the Nou Camp, Old Trafford or San Siro? I watch movies like Goal and Invincible, and like anyone else inspired by sports movies, I feel a deep longing within to compete, to strive against the odds, regardless of the outcome. I connect with the main character in movies like Rudy and Cinderella Man on a much deeper level than any other story. Perhaps it's simply the audiovisual impact that movies have on us, but I don't get emotional when I watch the Titanic or Seven Pounds - they're great movies but they don't hit me quite like Hoosiers.

When I was 13 or 14 and I played club soccer for Santa Rosa United in Sonoma County, CA, and during that time my team went through a transition and our beloved coach Ron Blue left to be director of coaching for a club in New Mexico. Our new coach, Paul Richardson, was an Englishman, and was very particular about how the team should play. Under Ron, I played every game. However, under Paul, I played very little. When I asked Paul via email why I wasn't playing and what I needed to improve upon to get on the pitch, he gave me quite a laundry list of what I lacked as a player. The list included first touch, speed of play, transition, everything..... Basically, I understood that he was saying "you're not good, get better or you won't play".. and it was true. Nevertheless it was heartbreaking for me, and at that point I began to realize that I couldn't get by on natural talent alone anymore.

I don't know if Paul ever kept track of what I've done after club soccer. To finish the story, after that email (which I printed out and saved), I started working substantially more on my own. Within a year I had earned back a starting position, and went on to play just about every game the rest of my club career (and on the side earned league MVP my senior year in high school). Then I went on to play for a Top 25 Division 1 team at USF, struggling again at first but then becoming Captain my senior year (that's another story).

So getting back to my question at the beginning, what does it take, essentially, to succeed? First, I believe, it starts with a dream, "aspiration" as Santiago Munez said in Goal. Then, it takes preparation and training. And finally, ends with realization of that dream.

Well, I haven't realized my dream of playing professional soccer yet. But, Paul, if you're reading this, I had a very successful college career, and just signed with Tony Alejandre at SAA Proservices to represent me as a player. Every player needs an advocate. Thanks for the laundry list...

Jeff


P.S. The movie Goal is fictional. Needless to say, I wish it was real, but I'm still inspired by the story.

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