Breaking the Line: The ECNL Podcast
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Breaking the Line: The ECNL Podcast
Championship Mindset: Managing Playtime and Winning in Youth Soccer | Ep. 102
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Discover the secrets to mastering youth soccer coaching from the champions themselves! Join us as we chat with four of the most respected ECNL National Championship coaches: Douda Kante from Kansas Rush, Chase Miller from South Carolina Surf, Mike Aubrey from GTFC Impact, and Kelin Briones from San Diego Surf. Get ready to learn how these experts balance the delicate act of providing playing time while keeping a sharp focus on winning. From Chase's insights on performance-based playtime to Douda's focus on development for younger players, this episode is brimming with valuable strategies. Managing player motivation and expectations can be a complex dance, and our guests share their wisdom on this critical topic. Hear their techniques for tackling tough conversations with both parents and players, and their innovative approaches to team dynamics, including changing formations and setting clear pre-game expectations.
Welcome to Breaking the Line, the ECNL podcast featuring ECNL President and CEO Christian Labors, ecnl Vice President Doug Bracken and ECNL Partnership Activation and Alumni Relations Manager Ashley Willis. Christian, doug and Ashley will be joined by four ECNL National Championship coaches on this week's show, which begins after this message from ECNL corporate partner Nike.
Speaker 2:Nike is a proud sponsor of ECNL. Nothing can stop what we can do together to bring positive change to our communities. You can't stop sport because hashtag. You can't stop our voices. Follow Nike on Instagram, facebook and Twitter.
Speaker 1:Stop our voices. Follow Nike on Instagram, facebook and Twitter. Welcome back to Breaking the Line, the ECNL podcast. I am Dean Linke and, as discussed in the open, we have a massive show with some big-time ECNL coaches. And to get us started with the introduction of the coaches, I turn it over to Ashley Willis of the ECNL.
Speaker 3:Yeah, thanks, dean. We've got an exciting list of coaches here with us today. We've got Dauda Conte with Kansas Rush, who is the U16 ECNL RL Boys National Champion. Chase Miller is with us out of South Carolina Surf, who is the U15 ECNL Boys National Champion. Mike Aubrey out of GTFC Impact, the U16 ECNL RL girls national champion. And Helen Briones out of San Diego Surf, who is with the U13, u15, and U19 girls national champions for ECNL Christian. I kick it back to you to get this conversation going.
Speaker 4:Well, hey, congrats to you guys. We were just talking. It's a huge accomplishment to win a national championship. Tons of big moments throughout the year, ups and downs. Every national championship team has the same story to some degree, which is overcoming adversity, bonding together, believing in something, working really hard. All of your teams, by default, have to do that. Huge shout out to you all, the players involved, the club and the support they provide to you guys.
Speaker 4:What we wanted to do in this podcast is talk to you guys as really successful coaches within the league coming off of really successful years, but talk generally about topics that we think are relevant across all of teams in youth soccer. Not necessarily specifics about each of your clubs, which I'd imagine. It's a banner year for all of your clubs, but when you have this accomplishment, I think it's a bunch of firsts this year first championships for almost every club here in that gender. With that, we're going to just throw out some questions. Hopefully you guys listen to our show, because if you don't and you're wondering how we do this, this is really going to be awkward that you don't ever listen to us. But assuming you do, we want it to be as conversational as possible, and so I guess we'll just start it with one of the topics you always hear it's almost cliched in youth soccer is this balance between playing time and winning and how you manage that over the course of the year at different age groups.
Speaker 4:Obviously, it's different when you get into the post-season and it may be even different post season U13 versus post-season U19. Talk about how you guys balance that. Because we are a youth soccer league. Winning is important. It is something, it's a skill that we want kids to get better at.
Speaker 4:The importance may change by age, it may change over the course of the season, it may change for a variety of different reasons throughout a year. So when I talked about you guys how you balance that overall within your clubs and your teams and how that changes potentially as they get older and how it changes specifically in a post-season run, because generally I guess, if I was to speak personally, my sense is that when you get into the post-season playing time it does become a lot harder and it does become something that is definitely more driven by the needs of the moment, when a lot of times in youth soccer you make changes and decisions on playing time that are not necessarily tactical but they're designed to provide opportunity for kids. So I'll start with you, chase give us your thoughts and we'll just kind of go back and forth.
Speaker 5:Yeah, well, thanks for having us. Yeah, I'm from South Carolina surf. It definitely varies from the regular season into the post-season, so I oversee all the boys teams at the club for U13 and U14. All the players will play in the regular season. That's not the case for U15 and up and this is regular season.
Speaker 5:Playing times are earned based on performance, based on attitude, based on the flow of the game, the success of the team. We want to win as many games as we can and that's particularly important when it comes to post-season. When we were out in California, there were matches where players didn't play and that was clear to the players and to the parents going into the event. We want to be competitive, we want to win as many games as possible. We were fortunate that every player did play throughout our time there, based on how the games went. We have players that played every minute when we were in California and then we had some player that played every minute in Cali didn't play much at all in Richmond, based on players coming to the team that were injured and informed. So we take it as it is. But for post-season play, we want to win as many games as we can and that's clear to the players and parents and they're bought into that.
Speaker 4:Dado. What do you think?
Speaker 6:Thank you very much for bringing us the big goal to let you guys know, we've been in this league first year and it's been incredible. Overall, the organization and I attend the same podium in Vegas. It was first class in every aspect. So for us, we are privileged to be part of this league, looking forward to contributing a little bit we can do for this league, because I think we feel like this league is a great league going forward.
Speaker 6:So for us, beginning of U13, u12, until U14, we allow players to play because that's part of the development. But when it comes to year 15 and up and we send the email out to coaches and also to the parent product of the event to let them know our goal is to win. And whatever put us in that situation, that's what's come out. And also I think it depends on the game. If you're winning by a lot and you qualify, so you kind of bring players in who doesn't play a lot of times? So, for example, in a lot of the showcases we attend, we have 16, 17 players. So it was very difficult. You have three, four, five games, so you have to find a way to play players. So overall, I think that's part of a head-to-play. It's very difficult for us as a coaches and director to manage the majority of time, but that's how we do it. Going forward.
Speaker 4:So both of you guys draw a philosophical line at U15 to some degree. Yes, all right, mike Kellen, you guys want to jump in on this, mike Aubrey?
Speaker 1:from 419.
Speaker 7:I have a little bit of a different answer. The reality for us is we feel like we have to play everybody to be successful at some of those levels. Regionals and Nationals both of those events for us were hotter than the surface of the sun. I think we only had one game from our teams that were at regionals and the two teams that were at Nationals. We only had one game where somebody didn't play at all and that was a kid that was coming back from an injury. It just felt like it was easier to go deep in the roster and certainly we have a disparity in terms of talent from top to bottom, but those talented kids being fresh in the big moments at the end of games helped us win. So we don't ever kind of address the playing time issue. That's certainly times when kids won't play, somebody's having a bad day or a bad weekend, but for the most part we felt like going deep into the roster was part of the reason for our success this year.
Speaker 8:Kellen, pretty similar to most of the answers here. I think the only difference is we set a standard at the very beginning of the year, saying, through the league, we're going to try and get as much playing time to all the kids as possible. Showcases are very much, so equal playing time for everybody it's a showcase, so we want to make sure we're giving the kids the best opportunity to get seen and they have a whole entire season to prove themselves come playoff time and we let the parents know that we are here to win and we have a little bit of a luxury in San Diego with our player pool. So we're looking to bring the best talent to try and repeat the things that we do every year. We try our best to get as much playing time to all the kids as possible, but it's just based on performance.
Speaker 8:Attendance is a huge thing and then just being consistent. I think as the younger kids go to the older kids though, you start to see a little less commitment as time goes on. So you need a bigger range of a roster to have because, like for us with the U19s this year winning it, we were only able to bring 14 to playoffs because other kids had already committed and were off to their colleges and had left early. So we needed a big roster to make sure that we can get as many kids playing throughout the year as possible.
Speaker 1:Doug Bracken, you have a question.
Speaker 9:Given that you're working with goalkeepers specifically and I'm assuming most competitive teams at older age groups have two how do you manage that specifically with the goalkeepers?
Speaker 8:Great question. We have to make sure that one we establish one as a starter and we have a backup and we give that starter a fair playing shot and if things don't go well then we'll establish the other goalkeeper. But we do look at the schedule ahead of time to see where we think we could get as many minutes to both goalkeepers as equal as possible. It's not always splitting at halftime. I usually go to the kids directly and say what do you guys want? What is it that you guys want? Do you guys only want a half or do you guys want a full game? It guys want. Do you guys only want a half or do you guys want a full game? It depends on what it is they want, based on our philosophy here and the individual head coach. So it just kind of depends, but more than likely, yes, we have every about. We have two goalkeepers on almost every team.
Speaker 4:When we talk about performance, because I think that's something that's hard for some parents to understand what that means exactly.
Speaker 4:And I remember a conversation that I had years ago with a parent who said are you telling me that you know so-and-so at 50% is a better and more effective player than so-and-so at 100%, fresh off the bench?
Speaker 4:And my answer at the time was yes, because the player that's really tired doesn't give the ball away and make 11 players run, and the other fresh player who may not be as skillful or tactically sophisticated, can make mistakes that make an entire team pay. Do you guys have conversations like that? I heard you guys talk about sending emails out to parents and trying to outline hey, at some point performance is going to dictate this. How do you deal with you have some examples of situations where I mean an email's fine, right, but at the end of the day, the email doesn't mean much to the parent who sits there and their son or daughter does not get into a game and a big moment, and that's tough, but it's part of the learning and growth and performance part of the sport. How do you handle those performance discussions and where do you draw your lines onto performance in that regard?
Speaker 5:Chase, we have conversations, honestly, weekly, about playing time following the matches. So we just played this past weekend and some players didn't play as much as they would want, and that's something we have to manage as coaches and we want to be open with making sure the players know exactly what they need to do to get on the pitch to either get minutes in their position or a secondary position where they can still help the team. So it's also about maybe based on the match, changing formation, changing a system to put a player somewhere where they can still benefit the team and get minutes. But really, yeah, we have conversations weekly about playing time. We want the players and the parents to know what is needed to get minutes. We want to develop everyone and whether they're playing 90 minutes or five. So it's, we take conversations all the time, we just mandate that it's not within 24 hours after the match, when emotions are high and attention's high.
Speaker 5:So we wait a bit, but we want we want to have those conversations with families and players so they know what's expected.
Speaker 4:Maybe I'll zoom out real quick before the other three of you answer, because I'll contrast these two things. I mean, doug, you've made the comment before that if you take a player on a team and use soccer, you have an obligation to play them right On one end of the extreme and then on the other end of the extreme you have if you don't reward the high performers. You're kind of sending tacit messages that underperformance is OK and still going to get you opportunity which is not what should be said at the high, highest levels of kids who want to be prepared to compete in college and pro soccer and that sort of stuff. So with those two sort of frames on one side it is youth soccer, on the other side you want to reward excellence and performance to prepare kids for playing at a higher level. How do you make those assessments and decisions?
Speaker 5:I guess I can continue and then we can go with the others. For U13 and U14, everyone's going to play the minutes we just played this past weekend. Roughly half the match. Everyone will play at the youngest ages and then for the U15 and up, it's based on getting points. If the players, even at the 75th minute and they're fatigued, if they're still going to give us what we need to get results and they're going to stay on the field. That's how we handle it.
Speaker 7:Mike, we don't have equity in playing time, I don't think at any age group, because there's always games where things are extremely competitive and then I think it balances out and that's always kind of our discussion with families when we have them is that you're going to play somebody where you don't need to play your top talent for an extended period of time. I've been very fortunate this year. We haven't had a lot of those conversations with parents. The kids have been better about advocating for themselves and we've been, I think, very proactive about kind of sharing film moments of things that kids need to do better. I think we're in kind of a weird demographic as well where if we can get 11 truly talented kids on the field, there's not seven more behind them. There's a lot of glue kids, uh, because the population toledo is not massive. So I also feel like there's there's a lot of time. There's a clear line.
Speaker 6:most people understand that very, very well for me, I think the biggest thing, especially the group I took to the tournament. So the biggest thing is having a conversation ahead of time with the players and I like to talk to the players and have a relationship with the player and also have that player understand the role, his role going forward, and it's for them to decide if they want to go or not. For example, in that group I have 20 players in a roster so each game kind of go by game so I have a conversation with one or two players. You're not going to dress up for this game ahead of time. So those are the stuff you know, having a conversation, and also depend on the game time. You know sometime, you know, like you said, 50% of Johnny might be better than 100% of you know a smash. So and because as a coach we make those hard decisions, so let me ask you a different question.
Speaker 9:Uh, kellen, we'll start with you because this, I think, is an interesting topic. Christian and I, we were talking about this, we were thinking about this podcast. What is the role of a coach in motivating players?
Speaker 8:It's just to make sure that they're ready to perform and make sure that their mentality is right and make sure that we've helped them throughout the week to prepare for these big moments. I think a lot of the times the parents want to get involved and be able to do some of the things, ask some of the questions, but for me like I after U15, it's just it's just mainly the coach and the player to have that conversation to get them ready. At the end of the day, we were getting these kids hopefully ready for their next step, and so I've made sure that I've built the relationships with the kids so that way they just know they have trust in me. They're not here to play for me, they're not here to make me do all these things. We're all here for them.
Speaker 8:And I think a lot of times the kids just think that they want to prove something to their coach and we want to see them move on, because a lot of times, especially for like us at our club, it'll be about a two-year cycle with one coach before they move on to the next.
Speaker 8:So we want them to be prepared for the next cycle that they go into and then hopefully it's a college a pro or whatever that may be, after that a ceo at another company, something of that sort. So we want to make sure that we're here to motivate them so that way it starts to become self-motivated and then it's also motivated through their own teammates. For a goalkeeper, I think the mentality that comes from being able to perform is a little bit higher, because mistakes are always looked upon us. So I just need to put them in an environment for goalkeeping that it's okay to make a mistake at a young age, it's okay to be able to do these things. Failure is part of life and if they can accept that and start to understand and failure starts to become less and less, and hopefully they're having some kind of success.
Speaker 9:Chase how much of your role and what you do is about motivating these guys guys.
Speaker 5:As you said, we want them to be self-motivated. Really, we want players that want to be elite, that want to get minutes and win and be competitive. A lot of the motivation comes. We want it to come from within them. If it isn't, then we've got to try and ignite that or it's not the right environment. They've got to be self-motivated to be elite. That's more expected at the older ages. For younger kids sometimes it needs a bit, maybe a push sometimes. But for the older kids they've got to want it at that age and if they're not self-motivated then it's probably not the right environment for them.
Speaker 4:Can I just be blunt on this and ask if anyone disagrees with the fact that if you got to talk about motivation with these kids at 15 and above, they're probably not on your team for very long. Yeah, that's right. I say that because you know you got. You guys are successful, you know, this year at the highest levels of youth soccer and you know somebody is going to think, hey, these coaches are such great motivators and at the end of the day, that I think if anybody thinks that you need to, you need to change that opinion real quick, because these kids motivate themselves or they're not at this spot, they're not on that team, they're not in the field in that moment. And this, I think, is a really important point of sort of putting locus of control back to the kid and back to the family and instead of saying, hey, this coach is the reason these kids got motivated, to work harder, pray harder, work longer, train more, all that sort of stuff.
Speaker 1:Kellen, you've got an answer.
Speaker 8:If anything, I feel like what we need to do sometimes as coaches is calm their nerves down, especially in big moments. I'll just say, from the U13s winning it this year, they had lost to Blues four, five, six times in a row and so they were nervous because they felt that they weren't going to be able to beat a team that they've gotten beaten by so many times. So it's just more of in these big moments is being able just to calm them down and hopefully let them feel like it's just another game, even though internally we all know it's not.
Speaker 6:And also, I think, as a coach, I think we need to know our players. We need to know what motivated our players, what get. As a coach, I think we need to know our players. We need to know what motivates our players, what gets to our players. We're not just a coach, we're an educator as well, so we need to understand each individual player, what motivates them, what helps them to get the best out of them as well.
Speaker 1:We're just about everybody on today's edition of Breaking the Line, the ECNL podcast. They also are parents, so Christian will flip the switch for our fine guests when we return and ask about what it's like to be a parent and how they deal with that. That'll come after this message from an ECNL corporate partner.
Speaker 2:Soccercom is proud to partner with the ECNL to support the continued development of soccer in the US at the highest levels. We've been delivering quality soccer equipment and apparel to players, fans and coaches since 1984. Living and breathing the beautiful game ourselves. Our goal at Soccercom is to inspire you to play better, cheer louder and have more fun. Visit soccercom today to check out our unmatched selection of gear, expert advice and stories of greatness at every level of the game.
Speaker 1:Welcome back to Breaking the Line, the ECNL podcast, where we once again turn it back to ECNL President and CEO, Christian Lapers.
Speaker 4:I'm sort of contrasting here. I said this to Doug earlier. I've been on the parent's sideline probably now seven or eight times in my life because I have a seven-year-old and I'm astounded at what goes on on those sidelines. Having never been on that side, it's actually a little bit insanity.
Speaker 4:I say that because of the perceptions of what the role of the coach is are so off by so many people and I would imagine all of you could put your hands up and say you know, on the one hand you guys are national championship winning coaches this year going to get a nice trophy saying coach of the year, and on the other hand, you've also coached plenty of teams that haven't come anywhere close to a national championship. Some of them have probably had losing records and yet you're the same coach. Talk about that perspective because I think there's so many people like to point the blame at the coach when things don't go well for the team or their individual. And you know the this sort of concept well. If we had that coach, things would be so much different and better because that coach, he motivates those boys. You know that coach, he's so good at this. But first of all, anyone here going to tell me that they've never had a team that they're losing record or that's not made the playoffs, or something like that. Can anyone say that?
Speaker 7:Most of my teams have not made the playoffs or not made, not made it right with that, just each. So there we go mike humility.
Speaker 4:We love that absolutely.
Speaker 7:Ellen's in san diego, so he's probably like oh no, we're always winning all the time here talk a little bit about that.
Speaker 4:I mean because you know, on the one hand, you go to that team and it's always fun to coach when things are, when you're playing for big games and you're winning a lot and, by the way, it's a luxury to be able to rest your top players. A lot of clubs in this league don't have the luxury to say, hey, this game, we know we're going to be pretty much in control, so players one through three can kind of take some minutes off. There's a lot of clubs that can never do that. So just talk about being the same coach with very, very different levels of player and player and team.
Speaker 7:That's the most difficult thing as a coach sometimes is to understand are you really doing everything the same in every capacity or are you always the same coach?
Speaker 7:And I've asked myself that a million times, because it gets pointed out to me by parents regularly that you know the team that's winning I'm a different coach than the team that's not winning regularly that you know the team that's winning on a different coach than the team that's not winning. Um, and I think you know the biggest thing is you always have to kind of hold yourself to certain standards and there's got to be certain absolutes in how you coach. And then there's a lot of stuff that is different from team to team based on the player. Um, we talked about the self-motivation factor. You know the teams that are winning national championships motivation isn't really the issue and the teams that are, you know, going eight and eight and lead player whatever, you know, motivation might be the problem and trying to explain to parents their role in helping drive the players and the players being accountable for that motivation it's a different role for those kinds of teams, for sure. Dado, what do you think?
Speaker 6:The biggest thing for me is respect and also show care to players and each team you play. For example, when I started coaching in the coaching level, I coached the third team. They were in seventh division and the biggest thing for me and I coach the first team as well so the biggest thing, that's different and I coach the first team as well. So the biggest thing of a difference is I show the same care I show with the first team and also coming and saying maybe the standard is not the same, but the care is the same and all players what they want to know and parents want to know is how much you care for my player, how much you care about the development of my player, not just the soccer aspect but life in general. So I think that's some of the stuff you know for me that helped me in how to become a better coach.
Speaker 9:What feeling sticks with you more the exhilaration of winning or the pain of losing?
Speaker 8:Pain of losing, losing, losing, losing, definitely losing. You feel like you're never going to get back there again. Ever when you lose, it's a hard feeling to get over. It's something that you just don't want to experience again. I've experienced it as a player and a coach, so those are the two memories I remember more than some of the ones that we've won. It's hard. As competitive as a person as I am, I wish I could always get that game back again, and also a kid you know how they feel after the game, the emotion to see them.
Speaker 6:You know all the work on it, our work they've done through the year and to see that. You know that kind of that. You're all a little bit.
Speaker 4:What was the roster size of your teams that won? Mine was 20.
Speaker 8:Mine was 17. The U19 started the year with like 23 and I think ended with 14. The 15s, I think, had about 20 and I think the 13s had around 20 to 22.
Speaker 4:It's a humble brag right there where you got to go through multiple age groups on this question. What?
Speaker 5:about you, Chase? We had 14 or 15. Oh, wow so significantly smaller.
Speaker 4:How do you manage 20? Because I think 20 is probably more common than most parents would think. At this level, 20 is hard because only 18 can suit for any game. So how do you manage? Manage that with them?
Speaker 6:I think the first thing is kind of let them know. After trial we have team meetings and write down what is the expectation, for example, attending training, training, working hard and then, depending on the game situation and because you have some injury and all this stuff. So prior to each game, so I get you know personal meeting with one or two players to say you're not going to be dressing up today and I give it and they will ask me question why? And I'll give you know, I will give an answer and I think being honest and be at the front is the best policy you know for me is is when you do that doubt.
Speaker 4:Is it always the same three or four kids that are kind of rotating who's sitting out, or do you have a?
Speaker 6:no, I think it depends on the game, so it's not the same. So I'm trying to have everybody participate and be part of it. You understand it might not, there might be 12, 13 players. Who's going to be in it every time? But the two players are to be rotated all the time. So but it's a conversation. It's a hard conversation because you're kind of breaking. The kids are in the spirit of a kid. You understand it's a very difficult conversation. A kid, you understand it's very difficult conversation. And also it's even difficult when they travel because they're in hotel and always spends, they're not participating in minutes. So that's a very hard, difficult. And also the turnaround the next day to motivate the player to play. But you know you didn't dress me the next day now that you want me to play, you understand trying to motivate them a little bit. So that's the hard part.
Speaker 9:So I think you know having a conversation in the beginning and set up a spectator in the beginning, that helped let me dig a little deeper on that data, because I had a team that had 20 healthy players and I had to tell two players the night before the national championship game that they weren't going to play, which kind of made me physically sick to have to make to have that conversation. Did you have 20 healthy players going into the final?
Speaker 6:No, no, really. So I have only like that was easier. You don't need to tell anybody know so kind of. He was a little 17 players yeah, that's, that's better that was much better, but leading to it, you know, leading to the tournament, so there was more play chase.
Speaker 9:I guess I would flip it and say how do you manage a season where you end with a national championship at the level you did with 14 or 15?
Speaker 4:yeah, how did you get down to that?
Speaker 5:based on quality. It was based on quality. We thought those players would be the ones that would allow us to be competitive, and that was we have at our club. We have three levels. Uh, we have, you see now, regional league and we have like a we call blue, so state league, and we felt those players gave us a the best chance to be successful. We weren't going to add a player that wouldn't go and help us compete for a national championship, so that was a roster we had.
Speaker 5:So, you started with 14. I think we had 15, 15 players, yeah, and then one wasn't able to go to California. He joined us in Richmond then. So we had four, I think we had. We had three subs in California. A bit, probably a bit easier to manage than in terms of like everyone felt. A bit you know part of it. They had a good chance of going in and everyone's. You're not going to play every minute of every game. Like I said, we used everyone, so it was probably a bit easier to manage than a bigger roster. Everyone was part of it.
Speaker 9:Something to be said. If you can take the players that are good enough, that's something to be said for that. Mike, a question for you. You talked about, kind of those kids that come in for you. You know that 13, 14 and beyond. How do you help them understand the role of being a glue player? I think is what you said. I think we can all understand that. How do you get those kids to buy that?
Speaker 7:You know it's always understanding the roles and again, I think we've been fortunate that there's times when we can play those kids so that they're not feeling like they're just there for 10 minutes or you're just there for, you know, a half. It's always difficult. I mean it's always, you know. I think always difficult. I mean it's always. You know.
Speaker 7:I think we talked, we've talked a lot about, you know, having these relationships with players where they trust their coach and I think even the motivation piece. You know them knowing that there is a path to play at some point if they meet certain criteria, they develop in a certain way, and then the coaches being accountable, you know, holding themselves accountable to making sure that, if those things happen, that those players play. I mean that's part of the trust piece and the relationship between a coach and their team. So I think it's very, very difficult to do that, but I've been good about being honest and you know always being accountable to those conversations that we have, where I think, for the most part, players understand that I don't want to say they're grateful for the opportunity to be a glue player, but they know what their role means and they know that there's always an opportunity for them to grow, which is, I think, really important.
Speaker 9:Chase, you had a double overtime game along the way against Pipeline right Wild game it was. I have a son who's nearly this age, so I know their emotions and how they are. How did you keep them getting through that tough kind of rollercoaster, emotional kind of game?
Speaker 5:We started the final really well. We scored in the first 90 seconds, which is a dream start for a final against Pipeline. We went ahead 2-0, probably 15 minutes in, and should have went ahead 3-0, which probably would have finished the game in the first half. They responded as you would expect two goals off of corners in the second half and we fought to make it a game to overtime. To be honest, we controlled the first half, they had the second half and going game to overtime. To be honest, uh, we, we controlled the first half, they had the second half and going into overtime.
Speaker 5:Um, it was kind of a relief that we could reset ourselves because we struggled to to see out the second half with the um, the intensity they played with and we had some both teams a good good chances and over time. Um, I was actually getting ready to write down the penalty kick takers when we scored the third. It was probably two minutes left, but the boys were, the team was confident through the whole postseason, which I was really proud of. They were confident in our game plan and they were confident in their ability to play how we wanted to play and yeah, it was, of course they were nervous. They were always nervous. The coach, the staff were probably more nervous than them, but they had a really good experience for them.
Speaker 4:If we try and make this as specific as answer as possible because, like I said earlier, I think every team that wins the championship has a similar emotional story. You know, I know there's variances in the details, but if you can pick one thing that you took from your teams that won this year that you would say, hey, we can take that process, that program, that quality, that whatever, and be intentional about it and across the rest of our club as a sort of differentiation point that made this team that you coached this year successful, can you pick one thing that is very specific that you can take from these teams and say we need to build that capability or that quality or that process into our other teams?
Speaker 6:I would say, for example, any nine kid played together since they were six years old, five years old. So that process they stayed. At first they were not successful, there was a lot of failure to get to where we are, but nine of them kind of stick together until the end. So that kind of consistency and belief, the process that helped us live. So they knew each other a lot, so that kind of helped the process. So if I have to go back, you know having that conversation since the right side of our game for a fan to believe a process, you know there's no winning, you know in the right side. So believe a process and that would help you know going forward. So that helped my group.
Speaker 8:Yeah, I think, um, it's making sure that you have your a whole roster is connected. So having the 15, 16, 17, 18 player feel as important as probably you the people that you have you write down first and every time you have a starting lineup. Uh, we just had a. We had some players that got hurt in some of the games for the U13s that we had players step up.
Speaker 8:As coaches we feel a bit nervous because they haven't been in these big moments before, but absolute trust in us after those games and I took away that everybody is as important so as talking to the players on the bench before they come in, making sure they understand their roles and just knowing that all 18 players were completely bought in and the players that didn't get rostered were the first ones off the bench cheering for the girls, telling them good game, and the first ones that were on the field when we won, and so making sure that everybody is involved as much as possible to know that they're important, even if they aren't rostered or they don't play significant minutes throughout certain moments of the games, that you are important and that we need you. I think the U13s absolutely were a huge component in that If we didn't have all those players, I don think that we would have been as successful as we were.
Speaker 7:I agree a lot with what kellen said. I think you know, making sure that you have that relationship with the, with the complete roster, and that there is not the vision, has been something I have learned as, as time has gone on as a coach and a lot of really intentional conversations with everybody versus, you know, just focusing on, you know, maybe the 11 starters or the 13 kids that play the most, I think a complete roster and having conversations with everybody, making everybody feel that they're a part of this process, is really, really important.
Speaker 5:I'll give more of a soccer specific one that's changed the blueprint of how our boys teams play and and also our girls. Uh, in possession, we were really confident in what we were executing. Uh, we focused on three principles so it's arrival, change of angle and tempo, and we were really confident and how we were going to do those things with the ball. And I'll play probably all but one team through the, through the playoffs, and we're using that now into the season.
Speaker 4:Is this the first national championship for you guys as coaches? Yes, no, okay. So for everybody, who's first? Maybe from this perspective, and then, kellen, looking back to your first one, it's sort of a watershed moment, I think, for a lot of coaches the first time you have a championship like this, because it's what you have worked for for a long time, such as a goal to some degree, when you got to that moment. Now you're weeks past it.
Speaker 4:When you look back at it, do you have a different perspective on your role as a coach or on the profession or how you want to approach things? Having now got to that point that for so many coaches, they point and never and never get to, has anything changed? And and when you look at how you interact with players or what you want to, what you want to be as a coach, now that you've actually gotten to the top of this mountain however small amount mountain it is it's not pro sports, it's not college sports, that sort of thing, but it's a big deal to get there Did it make you reflect in a way that surprised you?
Speaker 7:Our 07s were also at nationals and I think I truly reflected much more about the 07s not winning their first game and kind of ending their season in that fashion than I did the 08s winning. I feel like that was on my mind the entire tournament and maybe even affected the enjoyment of the 08s. But I think I spent more time thinking about the 07s than I really did the 08s. I think the 08s they celebrated together and it was awesome watching them, but I didn't feel like that moment caused a ton of reflection as much as I think the loss with besides did uh, yeah, I reflected a lot, so I think it was four years ago, while we'd lost one in the u19s uh, final um, and then the next year, the 2009, ended up winning it.
Speaker 8:And so I thought about what was the biggest difference from what we did as a staff to prepare the kids for the U19 game versus what we did as a staff to prepare the kids. I think at that point they were either U13 or 14. And one we, just as a staff, we all had different roles, so that way we can make sure that we all weren't trying to butt heads on the sideline or we weren't giving different information, right. So just some of the roles that we had and making sure we stuck to those roles throughout the game, and everything I think really helped us to make sure that one, the kids were on task the whole entire time and that they had their focus just directly on winning a football match.
Speaker 8:And then, two, it's not having to worry about any other noise because, as we all know, when you're playing a national championship game, there's usually one or two games that are going on at the same time near you and you hear one team score and the celebration goes wild and it starts to creep into your head Am I going to be that team that's going to score next, or are we going to be the one that's going to give up the goal? Um, so, just being able to keep positive and making sure that, like, look, this is just another football match that we want to obviously win, but we want to make sure we're also playing our brand of football at the same time, um, and so I think after that reflection, it started to come a little bit more calming into our minds as a staff member, and hopefully we're then bringing that on to the players from there, chase or Dada.
Speaker 5:Really came down to player performance. We won a national championship because all of our players performed really well at the right time. We're a smaller club and we had to play above the opponents. And it came down to player performance. And I look at how we've started our season now, and when the players don't perform well, then you're not going to get results. So, regardless of what I'm asking them to do or the intensity that I demand from them, it comes down to their performance. So my reflection is it's up to the players to perform and I'm a part of that, but they've got to perform, this team especially they lost three state cups prior to this and they never win stakeup, so this was the first time they passed this level.
Speaker 6:So, like every loss, we learn from every losses, you know, to this point, and this one, when we win it, you know, is a reflection of what years I've been telling them, you know, the way we practice, you, we have to practice harder. Practice need to be, you need to create a competitive environment for each day when they come in with the fighting. But after training, we shake each other's hands and create an environment where they can excel, where they can work hard and also so at the end of the day, at the end of it. So I kind of let them know all our works and practice and over the years, our failures, you know, become this final, you know your final years of. You know, club soccer, you know, for you to award, you know to get that that's a reward.
Speaker 1:Great conversation with four national championship coaches from the ECNL. We're not done. We still have Bracken's brain buster and even the four coaches were kind enough to stick around and have their brain busted. We'll do that after this message.
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Speaker 1:Welcome back to Breaking the Line, the ECNL podcast, where, as promised, we end with Doug Bracken and Bracken's Brain Buster.
Speaker 9:Bracken, brain, buster guys, I'll just let you know. I always ask a question at the end. It's usually off-topic of soccer, but today, given you guys being on the pod, there's a book I read many years ago. It's called why we Win and they went and asked all these high level coaches what the main factor was to winning. Pat Soman, mike Krzyzewski, you know, bob Knight all those guys would answer. So I'm going to ask you what you think. The one factor, most important factor, is to winning, and I will pick on Chase chase first when I look at winning the national championship.
Speaker 5:It was preparation. We watched every opponent as much as we could and analyzed how they played, how they pressed, and we were prepared going into every game and we adjusted to their plan. We still played how we wanted to, but our preparation was there for every match the chase goes.
Speaker 9:Preparation okay, it's a good one, kellen.
Speaker 8:Thank you for comparing us to Mike Krzyzewski and all these great coaches out there.
Speaker 8:I feel honored, but yeah, I think it's a little bit of diversity, as being able to just, I know we feel like we're a luxury here in San Diego.
Speaker 8:We get the weather, we get this and that, but it's having to deal with the kid that calls us and says, oh, I can't be there because of so and so reason uh, injuries that come from it, parents that pull their kids away from different things um, it's just being able to deal with all the different variables that we have no idea that's going to show up. Um, I agree with chase. I think being able to see film and being able to do this and that is wonderful, it gives the kids the best option to be successful. But I think, at the end of the day, is that, as long as we can make sure that we are accounting for all the different little pieces that we could do to help them out, it's totally just being able to adapt to those abilities. So I just think being able to be diverse in the way that you play readjustable, and for us we're super-fueled players. Sometimes you have to play a different role that you're not normally asked to do Okay.
Speaker 7:Mike, I'm going to say the players. This is, I've never felt, less necessary than I did this year. I think the kids, the courage of my players, or the courage of any player, is probably the most essential thing to a championship, douda.
Speaker 6:I think togetherness, like being together, believe a process, because for us, you know every player, it was not just one person's goal, both level goals. It was different players step in into different world when we need it. I think togetherness take us to where we need to be.
Speaker 4:I'm going to go with knowing and maximizing what makes you special as a team and as an individual, because I don't think great teams and great players have one or two qualities that set them apart and you got to make sure that you get those things to matter. It's not about being pretty good at everything. It's about maximizing the unique talent.
Speaker 9:Okay Ash, what do you got?
Speaker 3:I'd go. It's all in the details, plain and simple. I think every coach stresses the details more than anything, so if you have the details correct, people buy in. Pretty straightforward on how you end up winning Dean.
Speaker 1:Doug, I'm going to go with chemistry and cohesion, which I think leads to confidence, and, from what I've witnessed in the broadcast booth, confidence is the best drug, the best thing that can happen to a player and a team collectively.
Speaker 4:Dan just upped us all with an equation.
Speaker 7:Yes, I get to say too. Before we played we had a Dean Linke drive-by pep talk to the team. So Dean might be the key to all championships. You're welcome, Thanks You're welcome.
Speaker 9:I'm a bias because I read the book and, almost like universally, the answer was talent, which I think Mike kind of alluded to. I think we all when we have good players, we probably have good teams, when we have bad players we probably don't. So I would go with talent. So I'll go with Mike, my fellow Buckeye, for this day. So it's practice brain busters, dean. There you go.
Speaker 1:There you go. Indeed, always a great way to end another exciting edition of Breaking the Line the ECNL podcast. I want to thank all of our guests and all the great people at the ECNL, especially you, our members, coaches, players, everybody that's involved with the ECNL. I also have to thank our producer, colin Thrash, for each and every one of them and all of you. I'm Dean Lincoln. We'll see you in two weeks for another edition of breaking the line the ECNL podcast. Thank you for listening to breaking the line the ECNL podcast and remember, if you have a question that you want answered on breaking the line the ECNL podcast, email us at info at theecnlcom.