Passionate Goals

For the past 3 years, I have been a youth soccer coach for the LVR (Laurelhurst, View Ridge, and Ravenna) soccer club near the University of Washington. For the past year, I have been on their board as the Boys City League Registrar. I have had the honor of coaching two youth girls teams, The Puppies and The Pink Kitties and I have loved every minute of it. Many of my players came onto the team with little or no soccer experience and it was my role as their coach to provide them the necessary skills to be successful in the game. I have always had a passion for soccer through my years as a player and referee but being a coach provided me many wonderful experiences and memories I will never forget.

Half Time at Pink Kitties Game, 2018

I played soccer, recreation and select, for 15 years of my life. The game of soccer taught me invaluable life skills and lessons that I haven’t obtained anywhere else. When I left my small town in California to attend UW, I didn’t want soccer to be out of my life. Intermural soccer on campus wasn’t an option for me so I decided coaching would be a great fit. The game not only shaped me into who I am, I found lifelong friends through the sport and wanted to give back. Soccer gave me so much importance in my life and I had to continue that spirit. After my first year of coaching, I was eager for more responsibility and commitment within the club and that is when I decided to join the Board. Being on a Board has taught me how to think of the big picture of an organization, how to communicate with numerous and diverse cliental, and how to work in a team that doesn’t meet in-person often.

Through my role as a soccer coach, I have led each of my teams to an undefeated season, watched my players grow into beautiful young woman as I watched them build confidence on and off the field, I watched each score a goal, and I made soccer enjoyable for each and every person on my team. As a Board membered, I have effectively help transition our board to a new registration system as well as I project managed a website make-over. From research website models to finding a designer to watching the website come to life, every step of the process has been wonderful to see.

Mini Alyssa's Professional Soccer Photo

Competencies Gained

Inclusion

In youth soccer, the goal is for everyone to have fun and learn basic skills. There is no winner or losers, no first place or last place. Everyone is there because they want to be, not because they have a golden foot. Due to those facts, it is important as a soccer coach to make sure every player on my team is included in practice, games, and outside events the team does. As a registrar, I make sure that every team welcomes the players onto their team with open arms because every child in our club or who wants to play for our club should be included and feel included. Inclusion is important to me because it helps children develop a sense of safe space. It provides them with a place where they feel welcome and want to be.

Sometimes it gets very cold in the late months and playing out in the rain is not always ideal. Sometimes we do a lot of running at practice and the girls are tired half way through. Empowering them to push through is not as easy as it sounds for 7 and 8-year old’s. They require a lot of empowerment through fun activities and myself as a coach pushing them to be their best. Empowerment to me is ensuring that my players believe in themselves and that they know they can achieve anything they set their minds to. It is encouraging them to keep going, keep pushing, and keep being awesome

Empowerment

Group Development

Many of my players went to different schools. Half of them to one and half of them to many different ones. This created a challenge as sometime it would get cliché and out of control when girls wanted to gossip instead of do the passing drill. However, because they were strangers, it allowed my as a coach to teach them how to be apart of a group when many are strangers. I brought them all together and assigned partners where I knew they both didn’t know each other. Group development and interaction is important at any age and working in groups in an inevitable part of life so might as well start them young and show them how to be a team player on and off of the field.

From my first day as a coach, the parents entrusted me to ensure their daughters were safe and having fun. Many of the parents leave during practice to run errands or pick up their other children so most of the time, I was alone and responsible for their child. I greatly took on this responsibility of supervising the wellness of the children. One day, during practice, on of my players was stung by a bee. At the time, I was still learning how to be a coach and didn’t have a first aid kit. I thought of the times I would get stung by a bee and my mom made me put a penny on it. Who knows if that actually works but physiologically, for my player, it did work. She was up and back on the field in no time.

Supervision

Social Justice

Social Justice at LVR is very apparent and it is important for me to express those values with my work of being a coach and especially as a board member. As a registrar, it can be difficult to get enough players to form a team and part of the challenge is parents being able to afford the cost of registration. It is awesome to be a part of such a great soccer club that is able to offer a fully funded scholarship to any player that needs it. We are working to break the social equity gap that exists in our neighborhood. I always like to think that the with my help in offering a scholarship to a child in need, I am providing them an experience they will never forget. I also like to think they will be the next Alex Morgan or David Beckham.

From players to parents, to referees, every week I am communicating with a different group of individuals who understand different grammatical language, need different information, and help communicate with me. Parents are told when and where the game and practices will be so they can coordinate with other parents to carpool. Parents are also the kiddos chafer which is why I communicated every week with the parents what was happening and when so they could plan out their week effectively. The players, being 7 and 8 understand things differently than adults do. Many soccer terms, they do not know and I have to communicate effectively with them in references they will understand. For example, I called the soccer ball candy because we always want candy and we don't want the other team to get it. They, as children, understood that reference. Communication is key in every aspect of life and it is equally important for me to shape my communication style based on the audience.

Communication

Through my experience as a soccer coach and a board member, I have learned many valuable lessons that will contribute to my future successes. No matter where I go in life, I always want soccer to be a part of my journey. I truly couldn’t imagine myself without the sport around me because it has always brought me so much join and it has shaped me into who I am today. When I reach my goal of becoming CEO, or even before I reach it, I would love to start a non-profit that creates social equity around sports. I want to provide any and every child who wants to play soccer, the opportunity to do so. I want them to experience the same kind of fulfillment the sport can bring and to learn all the lessons you can by the amazing sport of soccer.