How the Summer of Soccer can make you a baller!

The Summer of Soccer is in full stride!

Copa America, Euro 2016 and soon the Olympics will all be providing us with great soccer action. Not to mention you can catch MLS and NWSL games online or on TV nearly every day of the week!

In addition to watching tons of soccer games and coaching a WPSL team, my main summer job is recruiting.

That has me thinking a lot about what I want in a player here at Stan State. The answer is pretty simple. I want ballers! I don't want soccer players. Ballers are soccer fanatics as well as soccer players. They have favorite players, they have favorite teams and most importantly they WATCH THE GAME!

Are you a baller? What's the last game you watched? Who is your favorite team? Why? Who is your favorite player (don't just say Messi)? Who are your five favorite players? What player that plays your position do you follow?

One time I told my college team we were watching a Champions League game instead of training and a player replied "the whole game? Can't we just watch highlights?" INSERT EYE ROLL EMOJI HERE...

Our job as coaches is to educate our players. A musician doesn't just practice their instrument and play concerts. They also LISTEN to music. A writer doesn't just write they also READ! A soccer player doesn't just play soccer they WATCH THE GAME!

If we really want to grow our soccer culture as coaches we must insist our players watch games as often as possible.

A few weeks ago our players got together to set a couple of goals for the summer. Things they thought were important. One of the 3 goals was to watch soccer games this summer! I LOVE IT!

If people want to be part of our soccer culture they will need to show me they are BALLERS!