Placer Coach Awarded New Coaching License
Posted On April 21, 2017 by PUSC
In 2016, US Soccer set new standards in an aggressive coaching education program and advanced licensing structure. The new USSF A Youth License course, which launched in August 2016, had 250 applicants and the US Soccer educational department hand-picked thirty coaches to participate in the very first class of this kind. Among those selected to participate was Placer United Director of Soccer Operations Paul O Brien.
“I am very proud to have been one of the first coaches who were selected to attend the revised USSF A Course,” said O Brien. “The curriculum was just over nine months long and was designed and adapted based on a set of tasks each coach had to complete and implement within their own home environment,” explained O’Brien. “The tasks were defined as coaching matches, coaching training sessions, leading the team, leading the player, managing a performance environment, and leadership. We were given plenty of information through lectures, seminars and workshops, and then assessed based on the progression of these tasks relative to our own club and team situations.”
“The course was intense, educational and extremely demanding, consisting of a series of four meetings with USSF staff, three of which were week-long educational and coaching sessions based in Houston,” said O’Brien. “We had three development periods in between each meeting, with a final meeting, including an assessment, carried out in our own club environment. I remember the first day of the first meeting in Houston when the outline of the course curriculum was passed out to the participating coaches. There was a combination of feeling overwhelmed, anxious and challenged. Yet, I was also very excited knowing that this was going to be a completely rewarding experience and an opportunity to do something different than I had ever been exposed to in other coaching courses. I received my final results the week leading into Easter, so needless to say I had a good Easter weekend.”
Congrats to Coach Paul on a job well done. Go Placer!