Where do I start with this one? This will probably take a couple of posts to truly put my experiences at these courses into words. For starters, let me tell you who went. I, Cristian Velasquez, John Kokkoris, and Jose Lopez – three coaches from the Johan Juniors soccer club. We all live in Long Island, New York, but decided to not take these courses in New York. Why? Networking.

We wanted to expand our network of coaches by taking a course in a state about 5 hours away (driving). But this was not just about meeting people so that we could ask favors of them when needed, this was about learning from people who live in different regions of the United States. There were coaches from Chicago, Delaware, Maryland, and even some from Canada! How great is it to learn about someone who coaches in an environment completely different to yours? Each coach has a different deck of cards that they had to deal with, but together we were able to learn from one another and take what we learned back to our respective clubs.

We also had some top instructors. John Dingle, a USSF B Licensed coach who is also the director of Soccer Source 360. George Mihalopoulos, a USSF A Licensed coach and DOC for Heat United Soccer Club in Chicago. And finally, Willie Ibarra, the director of coaching for Maryland State Youth Soccer Association, also an A Licensed coach. These three have put in a tremendous amount of work to make the D and C courses tremendously impactful for my coaching career.

Click on this link to see my reflection for my first day.