Like anything else, when you are building something, you need tools and a foundation.
The same holds true for SABR and its volunteer parent coaches, who are provided with the necessary information regarding coaching instruction in the form of annual clinics and observations made throughout the year by SABR Director of Coaching Carrie Barker.
“With coaching development, you get a coach who wants to learn and wants to be educated and wants to continue the (Grassroots) pathway,” Barker said. “It is giving a platform to these coaches who can go to a place to get better and figure out where they can get resources to become a better coach.”
The fact that volunteer parent coaches give up their Saturdays before the start of the season to attend a Grassroots Clinic that helps them learn different principles of coaching, including Play-Practice-Play.
“We are so fortunate,” Barker said. “Our club is quite large, and we ask the coaches to attend a mandatory coaches clinic to become better coaches, which will help both them and the kids, who will become better players. The Play-Practice-Play gives them a structure of how to coach and if the coaches have a little more experience, they can go outside the Play-Play-Play.”
Coaches are taught progression and how to stick to one topic based on the time they have for a session. The 5s and 6s meet on Saturday morning and then play a game at the end of their session. The 7s and older have one training during the week, and a game on the weekend. The separate Soccer After School program that Barker runs during the week gives players another opportunity to train.
“We guide the coaches to pick a defending or attacking moment for practice,” Barker said of their sessions. At times, she will go to a coach’s training and then go to a game on the weekend to see how the coach interacts during the training and then on game day. “We want them to be specific but keep it simple. The training should mimic the game environment.”
“Coaches have to wear multiple hats,” Barker explained. “You have to organize your training environment, your game environment, and lead the player in all of these things. Where they start and where they end is a cool thing. When you see growth in the coaches, you see growth in the players as well.”
Sheryl Willett, the Boys Under-10 Division rep, said coaching education is very important and helps develop the coach’s skills.
“It provides them with helpful tools and resources that help build their knowledge and confidence, which in turn improves the learning environment and experience for our players,” said Willett, whose eldest son started playing in 2019. She became a team parent in 2020, and a Division Rep in 2023.
“Having coaches who are prepared and organized for a practice or game provides a better experience to the players, allows them to grow, and develop their love for the sport,” Willett concluded.
Art Turpel, SABR Director of Player Development, lauded the programs available by the club to assist the coaches throughout the year.
“Coaching development is the key to the club,” Turpel said. “During the year we start with a mandatory coaching clinic, which is a three-hour session. Carrie Barker, our SABR Director of Coaching, is a Grassroots Instructor for the United States Soccer Federation and we are talking about having some local courses.
“We highly encourage our coaches to do that,” he added. “Carrie has put together a wonderful library of training sessions.”
Turpel said what SABR does with their youngest teams’ coaches, from U7 to U10, is that Barker or one of her licensed staff members would come in and do a session once or twice a year and the coach, who went to the clinic, would see how it is run with his team.
“If the coach wants to go further in his coaching education, then we’ll try and help the coach find the resources to do it,” Turpel said. “We can’t put coaches on all 190 teams, especially in our youngest age groups, but we will put one of the licensed coaches in to work with them, whether it be in practice or games.”
Daniel Leo has coached on and off in SABR for three seasons with his eldest son. This year, he will coach his 5-year-old son Anthony in the Boys 7-Under Division. He’s a former baseball player and said the coaching education the club has for its coaches is an invaluable tool.
“I think between player and coaching developments, that’s everything and the reason that SABR is so successful and attracts kids from all over the area,” Leo said. “Especially for coaches who played sports other than soccer, and this gives them an opportunity to get up to speed in soccer.”
Lisa McConnell has spent nine years in SABR as both an assistant and a head coach. Her eldest daughter, Julie, 15, aged out and is now playing JV soccer at Boca Raton High. Her youngest daughter, Alyson, plays on the Under-15 team.
“The program continues to grow and develop,” said McConnell, who attended the coaches’ clinic before the start of the season. “They are always bringing in fresh ideas, which is good for new and good for old (coaches).
“I learn something new every time I am there,” she said. “The pool of coaches also brings in additional insight and different experiences. We often learn from each other as well and it is great to have the veteran leadership to teach the clinic as well. It is a very collaborative effort. Of teachers and students.”
McConnell said that SABR has meant a lot to her family.
“It is definitely a club that they feel happy to be a part of,” McConnell said. “They are prideful. Our vehicles have bumper magnets. We recruit a lot of people to be a part of the club because of the joy that my daughters have had in playing the game.
“It is well-run from the condition of the fields to the referees,” she said. “It is a privilege to live here and have such a great recreational program.”
