Rob Lasso: The Prologue

As most of the G:TB family knows, I was hired recently as the head coach of my local high school's junior varsity girls' soccer team. Our man in the OBX hit me up around that time and suggested that I chronicle the season for posterity. To which I thought, postcount! Also, that's a fun idea.

I've coached girls travel soccer for five years now, always as an assistant. I have a lot to learn about the tactical side of the game, but I think I'm pretty good at the cultural elements, and I like building relationships with the kids and watching them grow as players and people. So when I got the head coaching gig, I spent a good amount of time thinking about how I wanted the team to play, planning practices with the expectation that the team would have a mix of experienced players and kids with some athleticism but limited time in the game. 

As far as my philosophy goes, I want kids to have fun first and foremost, especially at the JV level. It's not worth putting in the effort five days a week if it isn't fun. And I subscribe to Chris Jones' philosophy, which the writer set forth in a Tweet, "I joke about being a great coach, but of this, I am certain: 90 percent of kids respond to praise. Maybe 10 percent want a fire lit. But the vast majority of kids rise to your encouragement. Correct bad play gently, validate good play wildly. Then watch them be stars."

Tryouts started a week ago Monday. And I realized pretty quickly that my plans weren't worth the paper they were written on. Of the 27 kids that came out, 25 were highly skilled, tactically astute, and far more physical than I expected. The other two...have work to do.

On the plus side, my plans are irrelevant, because 27 kids aren't enough to field Varsity and JV teams, so the head coach of the Varsity team quickly decided that all 27 would make the team, and that he'd like my help as a Varsity assistant. As he told the girls that after the last day of tryouts, he was honest about what that meant for playing time. We want all the kids to be part of the program, to get some much-needed socialization during a really strange time for student, and to grow as a group. 

We didn't get off to the best start. Several of the best players on the team are freshmen, and they weren't terribly deferential to their elders during tryouts. As the coach announced the plan to keep all 27 athletes, a senior - we'll call her R, and she's a smart, tough defender with a leader's mien - stepped forward and firmly said, "you may be a great player, but you don't get respect because you can play. You get respect because you give respect. So when we ask you to get a ball, or help out with cones, you do it, because we did it, and because we've earned it." 

We broke that night unsure of how many kids would come back for the first day of practice.

Twenty-seven girls came back the next day. And with the stress of tryouts gone, the team began bonding almost immediately. The awkwardness of the night before was gone, and 27 kids got after it.

You'll learn more about the kids on the team over the coming weeks, though I won't be using any real names because I'm a public school employee and I don't need someone Ghoogling the name of the school and stumbling on my stories about their kids in a blog about dipshittery, weed, and William & Mary basketball. R was named one of the captains, as voted by the team. The niece of an FOG:TB is one of our freshmen, and I've known her mother since she was a teenager. I've coached B, a junior defender, since she was 12, so I've got a friendly face to vouch for me with the other kids. And since I'm an assistant coach, I get to learn with no pressure, and I get to focus on building relationships and coaching individual kids rather than thinking about the entirety of the program.

In Episode Three of Season One of Ted Lasso, the title character says, "For me, success is not about the wins and losses. It’s about helping these young fellas be the best versions of themselves on and off the field." To which I say, amen. Just don't tell the girls I called 'em fellas.

Our first game is next Tuesday. Tune in here next Wednesday for the next episode, and in the meantime, do enjoy the trailer for the second season of Ted Lasso.