What can soccer coaches learn from football recruiting?

As our regular readers will appreciate, I have a strong affinity for the University of Michigan - academics and athletics alike.  With head football coach, Jim Harbaugh and his satellite camp tour in nearly every news cycle I have had plenty of reading material to occupy what little free time I have. Undeniably, Harbaugh's antics hold  pure entertainment for me - what a great graduation speech he gave at New Jersey's Paramus Catholic? His Twitter account is gold,  Whose jersey will he wear at today's camps? But let's not kid ourselves, these satellite camps are about recruiting first and foremost and it is in this area that soccer coaches should pay particular attention.

Every day I am reading or watching interviews one recruiting service or another has conducted with high school student athletes being recruited by the University of Michigan.  There exists a common theme through these interviews as the athlete describes the process. They all want to establish and build relationships with the head coach, position coach and overall staff of he schools recruiting them, Those being recruited by Michigan almost always state how football is actually only a small part of the conversations they have with Michigan coaches.  It seems that Harbaugh and his staff speak about academics, the student / athletes family, hobbies and especially life after football,

I have had success in increasing participation numbers in whatever program I coach in. I field questions about how I do this. The answer is simple - I build relationships with the players I coach.  That's how I went from 17 participants in year one at Lima CC to 26 the second year and getting dressed down by the athletic director about the need to "share athletes" with other sports at the small private school,  This is also how I ended up with two true U19 club teams in an area that has always struggled to field one in any given year, And this is why the numbers at my current school are beginning to grow at a rate quicker than even I anticipated. (hope I didn't just jinx myself there!).
Here's another little secret, Coach Harbaugh has won everywhere he has (played and) coached because he understands winning is all about quality relationships,  Sure, he and his staffs know the game of football, but that is not enough. Football is only a small part of who a student athlete is. Hence the Michigan staffs interest in a recruits family, hobbies and life after football.

Jim and his brother John recently referenced reading the Bible on a daily basis.  They stressed building their relationship with God to a group of over 650 young men and thousands of on-lookers at a football camp.

When our sons were playing people used to say your life is all about soccer."  No!  Soccer is something we do, but it does not define who we are. I define myself as a believer in God first and foremost,  I place my family and friends next. A whole cornucopia of varied interests follow after that with soccer falling in there somewhere,  As passionate about and committed to coaching soccer as I am, it's not about the sport itself.  It's not about winning or losing matches, It's all about the people. And because it is, our teams do find quite a bit of on-field success.  Remember this always, coaching is all about the relationships.

#ChangeNCAA

The NCAA recently banned satellite camps in response to Michigan football  coach Jim Harbaugh (and a growing number of others) travelling to other states to conduct football camps.  Here's the long and short of it.

Satellite camps allow coaches to go to players who cannot afford to come to them.

It's just that simple.  Those who pressured the vote to eliminate satellite camps did so to maintain what they believe to be a competitive advantage they enjoy in recruiting or access to prospective student athletes in their area. 

THAT's it.

Nothing more. Nothing less.

You have an opportunity to make a difference for the high school student athletes seeking the best opportunity for themselves.  

Make       #ChangeNCCA     trend on twitter

and go here to 

Sign the petition

to overturn the NCAA ban on satellite camps.

Meritocracy - Dorrance and Harbaugh.

Regular readers of this blog know I am a fan of the University of Michigan.  More than a few of the quotes found on these pages can be directly attributed to former and present Wolverine coaches and players.  With the hiring of Jim Harbaugh as head football coach at Michigan comes a wealth of new material headlined by the word meritocracy.

1. an elite group of people whose progress is based on ability and talent rather than on class privilege or wealth.

2. a system in which such persons are rewarded and advanced:

A recent quote from Coach Harbaugh:  Meritocracy- Process to determine an elite Team. Progress determined by Talent, Execution & Effort

Now, Coach Harbaugh is not re-inventing the wheel as Anson Dorrance's Competitive Cauldron approach is well documented and has proven wildly successful for his teams. Coach Harbaugh is returning the topic to the fore and in using the use of the word meritocracy in defining what the Competitive Cauldron is in reality. 

If I had the staffing to chart every detail of training and games I would like to, I would adhere closely to a meritocracy approach.  First of all, I love statistics.  Yes, I actually do.  This will seem strange coming from someone who doesn't even keep simple statistics like assists or goals scored for his teams. Heck, I rarely know the in-game score unless a scoreboard is present.  Just ask my players. I am constantly having to ask referees the final score after matches because I have no idea.

The reason why I am not overly concerned about assists and goals scored is because I view them as a product of so many other areas of the game that can be charted or documented.  Statistics on the quality of one's first touch, the number of lost possessions directly attributed to a specific player and where on the pitch these occur are much more useful to me.  I want to know how many crosses a defender allows / denies and how many un-pressured services we allow. 

I am anxious to see the Wolverines take the field next fall after a spring and fall camp of Harbaugh "charting everything" and posting each days and cumulative results on the locker room walls for all to see.  It's a form of internal program pressure on the athletes to determine who the "winners" are amongst them.  These are the people Dorrance and Harbaugh want on the field of competition against opposing teams.  Winners, that's what a meritocracy is all about defining.