Being an NCAA Division 1 coach you cannot set out to be judged just upon the amount of wins you achieve. There are so many other sides to the job that you want to be analysed on too. To provide an aspiring high school athlete the opportunity to join the program and assist them in 4 years of college life is an achievement in itself. As a coach it’s a great privilege to look on at the senior class graduating from the institution knowing that you played a huge part in their journey.
It is important to record a high percentage of wins on the field as a soccer coach. But it’s important to realise that winning a game of soccer is not life or death. Watching the student athletes you have been responsible for, attaining a degree that sets them up to live a better life going forward is the real success that as a coach you should measure yourself against. I believe attaining a high graduation rate within your program is equally important, if not more so than the win rate in the season of competition. Below is a account of what benefits a graduating student can receive from finishing college http://tiny.cc/y0rraz
From a self-centered point of view, being a soccer coach you constantly trying to develop yourself. As a coach you are on a continuous path that’s designed to improve your understanding of the game, the way you manage players and your coaching abilities from a tactical standpoint and delivering messages to your team. It is important to co-operate with the United States Soccer Federation coaching pathway. The United States Soccer federation provide courses that allow coaches to grow and earn licenses that represent their coaches credentials. The further into the pathway you decide to go as a coach the more rigorous and challenging the courses are, but ultimately these courses only improve and strengthen your coaching abilities. To check out what the Unites States Soccer Federation have to offer check out the link below. https://learning.ussoccer.com/coach/
As a college coach it’s important to constantly reflect on your own performances and have a direction as to what you are striving for. College soccer is not the pinnacle of Soccer in the United States. Its professional Soccer and making that transition from college to the professional level is a big jump. In the United States Soccer Federation they offer a professional licensing course that is the highest license you as a coach can earn in the game of soccer in America. This course comes at a cost of $10,000 and is concluded after 12 months of hard work.
Being a coach in the college setting you can never truly just think about yourself. It’s all about the student-athletes and providing them the best platform to succeed as a player and as a student. Below is summary by the NCAA on the student athlete experience and it’s the coaches responsibility to facilitate these goals. http://tiny.cc/jtpraz
NCAA Soccer at the division 1 standard is a very competitive level. For coaches to constantly produce conference winning teams is a huge ask and most of the time unachievable. So for many coaches the division 1 level is the pinnacle of their coaching careers, and that is perfectly understandable. Below is a collage of some of the best bits of the NCAA Division 1 tournament. The competition every institution is striving to win outright.
For many student-athletes who spend their college life part of the soccer team at the division 1 level, they want to pursue a different career path other than professional soccer. Which is why earning a degree in a field where they want work in, is vital. Below is a breakdown by the NCAA of the standards they set for the student-athletes across all sports across America with graduation rates. http://tiny.cc/8csraz
When graduation day comes around and you see the families gathered around your player, who has the cap & gown on it’s a great feeling to know that although they don’t want to step into professional soccer, they are going down a path of their choice. With that being said, the end game for a coach who doesn’t aspire to step into the professional ranks is all about graduation rates and win rates.
NCAA Soccer - A Coach's Life 