Len Oliver and Kate Samsot just completed their most recent USSF ’E’ Coaching Course over the blustery, cold weekend of November 30-December 2. The 35 coaches in the 18-hour E course came from 16 different countries, including from places, as Len admits, “we’ve never had represented before in these courses.”
Len has trained 3,761 coaches from 72 countries in the USSF courses since his first course in 1989, but he never had coaches born in Malaysia or the Philippines. Other countries represented in the weekend course came from Ghana, Sierra Lione, Cameroon, Peru, Columbia, Lebanon (with three coaches), Scotland, England, Italy, Chile, Honduras, Ivory Coast, India, and Trinidad & Tobago. And of course, there was a good share of Americans. Welcome to “the UN of Soccer!”
When Len started these courses nearly two decades ago, only a handful of American coaches had ever played the game. Now, everyone seems to raise his or her hand when asked the question—“Did you ever play soccer?” Both Len and Kate admit that, while still fully welcoming novitiate coaches who came into the sport when their kids started playing and needed a coach, the courses run smoothly when almost every coach can handle a ball and understand the tactical situations covered in the course.
Course highlights included teaching the technical topics on Saturday morning using the USSF’s “progressive method,” tactical sessions on Saturday afternoon where concepts from the classroom are brought alive on the field, the varied uses of small-sided games and conduct of restarts on Sunday morning, as well as the opportunities for the coaches to coach each other on Sunday afternoon.
Those coaches completing the course receive an official USSF-VYSA E Certificate, enabling them to coach at U9 and above. If Len could make one change, it would be to require more DC Stoddert Soccer coaches to take part in the USSF courses. As he notes: “We should be embarrassed by the low turnout of our own coaches when other clubs are thriving and sending their coaches to us!”
The next USSF Courses at Jelleff are scheduled for the first weekend of March, 2008 with both the U6-U8 and U8-U10 age-appropriate F modules.
