Coach Apse - Head coach
My coaching style and philosophy is creating a player-centered versus a coach-centered environment, I believe that the coach should facilitate and lead instruction during a practice that teaches respect for the game, others, and self and work to drive inclusion of all players in the activities. We will focus again on the development of these social skills, as well as work on soccer related concepts for ball control, and situational decision making, commitment and team. The focus will be allowing the players to work through the analysis and decision process, with the coach facilitating and guiding with demonstration and appropriate questioning. The basic will and desire to win a match is not how I have led teams or discussions. I have focused more on developing a competitive atmosphere and a love of the game, allowing the players to drive and respond to that environment.
Regarding the importance of development in the competitive environment, I believe that the practices are the time for more instruction and coaching. Directly learning around key concepts. While there should be time in a practice session to allow for game like scenarios, there is truly no teacher as good as a live scenario. Game time environments, allow the problem-solving skills and game related skills to come out in real time against other players that are working on the same concepts. In competition I have focused on reminding players of the concepts we have learned regarding space, communication, movement, etc. The time for analysis is at the next practice where I tend to focus on items the team brings up or that I noticed in the last game(s).
This year I will be joined by 3 amazing assistant coaches:
Chris McCleskey, Addie McDaniel, and David Diehl