Apple Valley Eagles Boys Soccer and Head Coach Chuck Scanlon Breaking Records Again
33-year Apple Valley head soccer coach Chuck Scanlon
Last Saturday Apple Valley completed another perfect regular season by going 17-0-0. The Eagles have now won 41 consecutive games since their last defeat in the state tournament quarterfinals on October 24th, 2008.
It’s a typical Minnesota late September afternoon. The temperatures have cooled from the warm days earlier in the month and the high soccer season is in full swing. On this day two very good soccer teams face off against each other. It’s a ritual that has happened for years dating back to contests between coaches Buzz Lagos of St. Paul Academy (SPA) and Chuck Scanlon of Apple Valley. Lagos is still coaching but is long gone from the SPA program. Scanlon is now in his 33rd season as head soccer coach of the Eagles.
SPA comes into the contest with a very respectable 8-3 record. But Apple Valley seems to be on another tier, playing for their 35th consecutive win dating back to August of 2009.
I run into an old soccer friend and sit down beside him. He’s analyzing the two teams who both look good but play entirely different styles. He tells me that St. Paul Academy looks to be the better of the two sides with more possession play. He comments, “This Apple Valley team doesn’t look all that good.” I remind him that the Eagles are already up by 3-0 and it’s just a few minutes into the second half. I also remind him that the team is undefeated this season and is sitting on a stretch of 10 consecutive wins. He smiles and says, “There is that.”
“Many soccer purists look at the Apple Valley game and think it is really ugly,” said Chris Lee, who has been an assistant coach to Scanlon for 27 years. He played high school soccer in Washington State and college soccer for St. Olaf. “Our game is just a direct, in your face game of soccer. We keep coming at a team over and over until they can’t take it any more.”
Scanlon too admits that his game is direct and is unapologetic. “A lot of guys like to play this stuff,” as he waves his hand back and forth across the width of the field after blanking SPA 4-0, the team’s 11th win of the season. “Ten years ago Pele said US teams are direct and push forward. If Pele says it everyone will listen to him but if I say it they probably won’t.” Scanlon gives a wry smile.
“This was a little bit unusual game today,” continued Scanlon, referring to the fact the Eagles didn’t dominate around the goal as much as usual. “We attack from the middle and from the sides and our center midfielders have a role to be an outside shooting presence. Our defenders are very good one-on-one and we’ve had an excellent keeper the last two years in senior Tim Van Beck. That allows us to be a little more aggressive because our guys know he can save us.”
Scanlon points out that on this very day Van Beck notched his 30th career shutout with the Eagles which breaks an all-time school record previously set by now head coach of Hamline University, Jon Lowery.
The Apple Valley head coach knows a thing or two about winning. Last season he lead his team to a perfect 24-0-0 record, something that had never been done before in Minnesota high school soccer history. At the end of the 2009 season, his overall lifetime record was 518-87-49 and it was his 8th State Championship and his 16 tournament appearance. It didn’t go unnoticed. Scanlon won the Division I High School Boys Coach of the Year Award from the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) and the ESPN RISE High School Coach of the Year.
Apple Valley lost ten key seniors last year including defender Bijan Jabari and David Rosenthal. Both players earned All-State first team honors and Jabari was named Mr. Soccer in 2009 and Rosenthal was named Star Tribune’s and Pioneer Press’ Player of the Year. Yet the Eagles keep rolling along in 2010.
One of the keys to Apple Valley’s success this year is senior forward and co-captain Tom Obarski. On the day of the SPA game Obarski’s attacking partner, 6′ 4″ sophomore Hudson Fasching, was at a hockey tournament, something he had arranged at the beginning of the season. That combined with a very lenient referee who seemed to be letting the game get a bit out of control for both teams meant Obarski was getting his share of knocks. After being dropped to the ground several times and not receiving very good service from his own midfielders, the forward became frustrated. A scuffle for the ball took place in front of the goal and Obarski was knocked to the ground. He made sure that SPA defender Conor Perkkio, who had been marking him, went down as well. When all was said and done both players received red cards.
“It’s too bad Obarski got into that scuffle today. That’s very uncharacteristic of him. But he’s good! He’s an excellent leader for us and he comes from a good soccer family. In fact, his dad played for me back in 1982. He’s also the kicker on our football team and he just missed a 47-yard field goal last night by a few feet. That would have won the game for us. He goes at everything 100 percent. I just think he might have been getting a bit worn down,” worried Scanlon. “He still got a goal and an assist today.”
Scanlon says his other captains, senior forward Simon Goettl and senior goalkeeper Van Beck, have also been key in the Eagles success this season. In fact, Apple Valley has 15 seniors on their roster. “Obarski (Sr. forward) is an outstanding player and our leading scorer and has played with us for three years,” explained Scanlon. “The same goes for Simon Goettl in the midfield. We have senior defender Dan Schumacher in the back who played outside defender last season and Van Beck in goal. So we’ve got four experienced guys up the middle and I think that’s important. If you build a new team that’s the way to start.
“There’s others that are also important like Nate Tenpas (Sr. forward), Dane Grundstrom (Sr. midfielder) and Alex Schams (Sr. midfielder). Tim Ness (Sr. defender) marks any dangerous player, like SPA’s #7 (Nick Forsgren). He didn’t get a sniff today. The same was true with (Elliot) Cassutt when we played Minneapolis South. Cassutt did get a goal as our keeper fouled a guy in the box and he scored on the PK. But our defenders, including Adam Sampson (Sr. defender) who played JV last year, have really risen up and played some outstanding soccer this year. These kids come to play every match. They are really hard workers and they’re just good people.
Even with all the experience, Scanlon says this year’s team is not as good as last year’s. “Sometimes guys think they’re going to show up and it’s going to happen automatically,” said Scanlon. “We don’t have the players to do that. We’re not as talented as last year’s team. A lot of them are juniors and they’ve played behind some pretty good players last season. But they have to work hard if they want to get there.”
“Chuck is an amazing motivator,” said Lee. “He mainly does this through his enthusiasm for the sport, whatever sport he is playing or coaching be it soccer, hockey, badminton, broomball or tiddley winks. You should see him work the kids in his phy-ed classes. He is one of the most popular teachers in the school.”
Scanlon says he uses that motivation to challenge his players to take risks. “I always ask my players, can you actually beat someone one-on-one with your great moves and great skills; anybody! A midfielder, a striker and outside mid. Do it – let’s see it.
“I’ve always been a great admirer of Wayne Gretzky and in his book he says he creates 2-on-1′s throughout the rink. We try to do the same thing throughout the field so we always have 2 or three different options and we try to keep the ball on the ground.”
Lee says another key is Scanlon keeps things simple but fun in practice. “There is a big difference between coaching a summer traveling and a high school varsity team,” says Lee. “I think many coaches believe they’re the same. Summer select teams most often have many great players. The high school teams tend to have 3 to 4 great players and then the rest are pretty good. So, when a coach tries to make things too complex the team drowns in the complexity.”
Lee explains that Scanlon was an All-American at Bemidji State University in the early 70s where he played hockey. A couple of those teams won national titles for Division II. “His coach Bob Peters was a no nonsense coach who I think really instilled in Chuck a tremendous work ethic,” said Lee. “Chuck was drafted by some pro teams of the WHA but decided not to play in the pros because of the difficulty of U.S.-born players making it to the top level. Hardly any U.S. players played pro back then. It was mostly Canadians and there were a lot of politics. Chuck just didn’t want to spend a long time in the minor leagues. He worked hockey camps in the summer with his coach, Peters. Herb Brooks hired Chuck away from Peters. He worked for Brooks for over 20 years at the Summer Hockey camps in Faribault. I think that’s where Chuck really learned many of his coaching techniques.”
Lee outlines Apple Valley’s coaching sessions:
“We shoot every practice for almost half the session,” explains Lee. “We look at shooting the same way a good basketball coach approaches free-throws. It really boils down to muscle memory. So, we have a lot of repetition in our shooting. This has a second benefit as well. It really makes our keepers great. We’ve had some awesome keepers come through our program because of the amount of time they are receiving shots in practice. Most teams hardly ever work out their keepers. A great keeper is going to make that amazing save that will advance you to a section or state title game. If the keepers don’t get those reps they won’t get the same muscle memory as the shooters. We involve the whole team in the shooting not just the forwards. The guys have a blast. Don’t get me wrong, working on passing is important too. We do our share of that as well with 6 v 3 and other types of passing as well. It is just that we don’t have the whole practice focused on that.
A second focus on practice is heading. This is one of the simple skills of soccer that most players don’t like to do. We have always stressed the importance of winning the air in games. If you win the air you win the game. We have several heading drills that we do almost every practice. They revolve around shooting too so that the keeper is involved. In fact we have some double and triple header drills. I think we have scored about one-third of our goals this year on headers.
A third focus in practice is set plays, both offensive and defensive. We practice offensive and defensive corner kicks almost every practices. Our belief is that set plays are gifts from the opposition to score a goal. So, we work on free kicks, throw-ins and corners almost every practice.
The last focus we have is that the guys are in great condition. This is really accomplished in the pre-season. The high school season is so condensed that it is really hard to continue conditioning during the season. Our guys do a lot of endurance running before the first regular season games start. So, we are a very fit team.”
Parental involvement at Apple Valley is also a key as is player unity. Parents help to host pre-game meals the day before every match. The players and coaches also have pre-game focus meetings at school before the team leaves for each game. In those meetings the coaches go through the team strategies for the match.
“We only had three kids that played on Obarski’s premier team this summer,” said Scanlon in reference to his success. “The rest of them come from Valley United and Lakeville. To me, the key to winning is all the coaches here at Apple Valley know soccer. They’ve all played the game. We have good coaches that know what we want done and we insist on doing it a certain way.”
Lee agrees and says the Apple Valley coaching staff have all bought into the program.
Lee explains:
“Craig Opel is the Freshman A Coach. He coached with Chuck for 32 years. He played varsity for Minnehaha Academy in high school and Varsity for Augsburg College.
John Christiansen is the JV Coach and has been with the program for 14 years. He was captain of the 1991 Apple Valley Varsity team.
Chris Scanlon is the Sophomore Coach. A 7-year veteran of the program and Chuck Scanlon’s oldest son. He was a varsity captain for Apple Valley in 1996 and played four years of D1 soccer for Drake.
Jenna Scanlon has been the B Squad Coach for 2 years. She’s Chuck’s youngest child. She played soccer and hockey in high school. She was a captain of the hockey team in high school and played college hockey at the University of Wisconsin River Falls where she was the captain her senior year.”
Last Saturday Apple Valley completed another perfect season of 17-0-0, setting another state record with a 5-0 win over Farmington. They are currently ranked 1st in the state, 2nd in the region and 13th in the nation.
They have scored 64 goals this season and only allowed 4, recording 13 shutouts along the way. The Eagles have now won 41 consecutive games since their last defeat in the state tournament quarterfinals on October 24th, 2008. That’s 3290 minutes of soccer without a loss or a tie.
“It’s hard to get to the top but once you get there you have to make sure your players don’t get complacent or cocky,” reflected Scanlon. “I just told my guys recently, the final two weeks of the season is the time you’re going to get a change of weather, people start getting sick, you’re going to get more homework and there’s a chance you’re going to get complacent and sloppy.” Scanlon pauses, then says, “Its kind of scary because were ranked first in the state and are even nationally ranked. But there’s lots of teams that see that and would love to beat us. Everyone knows with this game you can outplay someone and still be on the losing end. As a coach you always think about those things. You could have a great season and great players but it could all end quickly. I’ve said it a million times to my players, shoot low and shoot hard. I’ve seen plenty of balls flying over goals in championship games. If you don’t score they can come right back down on a counter and your season is over.”
Coach Scanlon will do his best to keep the Eagles’ season going all the way to the state final on November 4th. They start their quest today with their first sectional game against Hastings (1-8-0). You can bet he will not allow his players to take the game lightly.
You can see a high resolution slide show of the photos below by going here.
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The MN State HS league is filled with teams that play direct. They mostly play on football fields that are many times narrow with long grass (many are turf). You can pressure the whole field because it’s many times very narrow and the players don’t have the same amount of space. You can play the ball long with too much weight on the fields with the longer grass and the ball does not run out the end like it would on a shorter grass field. The high pressure defending and direct attack work in the MN State HS league, that has been proven. The biggest fact about that style of play is that it’s based of the basic condition that the young players will make mistakes and when they make those mistakes close to their own goal then the other team can easily take advantage. We all know in the game of soccer it’s harder to attack and maintain possession, than it is to apply high pressure to a young unskilled player trying to force a simple mistake.
Unfortunately the one disappointing factor of this playing style is that few of those conditions exists at the higher levels of the game around the world and when you rob the players at this age of their proper development of possession play at a high intensity rate then you actually produce nothing more than wins for the coaches, few of those direct, dump and chase players go on to be successful in any other level beyond collage (not say that some good possession players haven’t played for AV, but I’m saying their important upper age skills development phase was taken away from them and replaced with the priority of winning). Winning is not a bad lesson to learn ether, and they have been very successful at it at AV. But, when other coaches from smaller schools without 5,000 kids to draw from try to do the same, then you have a tragedy in the making for the young skilled possession player playing on his HS direct “in your face” HS team.
Don’t think playing style is important to the players development? Let me give you an example. Were talking about player development now not about winning games. Many good points can be proven as to why a direct style can win games.
I was in Salt Lake City in 2007 and went to watch a double header game being played at the current Real Salt Lake MLS field which at the time was played at the Rice-Eccles football Stadium at the U of U. The field is considered to be one of the narrowest MLS fields and had the old astro turf which is a super fast surface. The main game was a friendly between Real Salt Lake vs the Chinese National Team. The Chinese were in the stands watching the warm-up game. The first game was a UT state OPD game U16 vs U17 and the game was played at the very high paced and high pressure defending style mixed with a good possession style of attack. The big turning points of the game were because of mistakes made near the goal by the U17 team and the U16 team took advantage of that and ended up winning the game. The overall pace of the game was so fast and the young aggressive player only played in one direction while attacking, a dead straight line to goal with no movement sideways at all, it was not the most difficult to defend against the attacking side. If it were not for the mistakes made the game would have been a 0-0 draw. On the smaller width field the defending was “in your face” and it did produce results at that level.
Then the big boys stepped on to the field, I sat back in anticipation at what was looking to be another very exciting high paced game on that super fast field. Real Salt Lake to the kick off and went back with the ball, the Chinese came at them 100 mph and the very experienced foreign MLS back line players received the ball with great first touch skill. As they saw the play coming back to them they all dropped back and out to open up their possession space. One Chinese player would apply high pressure and the Real player would just turn and play the ball quickly to the next Real defender that had just moved into open space. After a few minutes it actually looked funny as the inexperienced Chinese players were chasing after a ball that left that space they were attempting to pressure quicker then they were able to get there. After all the ball can travel much faster than any player can run. Their were no first touch mistakes and the passes were all made correctly rolling on the ground and in front of the receiving player so that he already faced the next outlet player in the back line chain and could play quickly. They played up, back, over, back, across, up again, then back again… It was like watching a simple game of keep away, because after all that’s what Real was doing. It only took about 7 minutes of play before they had completely worn down the forward positioned two or three Chinese players, Real was using five in their defending group, a four man back line and one holding player in the middle and it did create a circle around the three forward Chinese players. It was so funny to watch at that level, Real was just so patient and let the Chinese run around like chickens with their heads cut off. Right when the Chinese players got tired and stopped chasing then Real went forward and attacked the tired Chinese midfield that had been shifting with the quickly moving ball, they got through and behind the first time and the score was 1-0 Real. It was really funny to see the Chinese realize that their high pressure “in your face” tactic did not work against a well trained team playing out of the back.
The defending style of the Chinese team changed and then the game looked like a professional game not based on anticipating simple mistakes made by the other inexperienced team.
jw7, you should start a blog.
Just to point out- Jon Lowery is the head coach at Hamline University, not “Hamline College.”
I give Scanlon lots of credit for being very successful in terms of wins and losses, but let’s not kid ourselves here — his teams play ugly soccer and he doesn’t know much at all about the game. This quote is a classic example of his lack of soccer knowledge:
“Ten years ago Pele said US teams are direct and push forward. If Pele says it everyone will listen to him but if I say it they probably won’t.”
I think Scanlon misses Pele’s point, which is simply a description of the style (if you can call it that) which American’s have typically played in. But what Scanlon doesn’t get is that it’s not an endorsement of that particular style, rather it’s an indictment. It’s the main reason why the US has had little success at the international level. And to emulate it ain’t helping things here in the states…
jw7 – good posts
bq – no he shouldn’t, your serves us just fine
M- I give the players the kudos and credit for the wins an losses along with their club coaches
Picture 5 is very cute and priceless
bq, if I started a blog my second paragraph (of my second post) would have to actually make sense??
“I was in Salt Lake City in 2007 and went to watch a double header game being played at the (?current?) Real Salt Lake MLS field which at the time was played at the Rice-Eccles football Stadium at the U of U”.
I had to get to work and did not prof read it, I was late.
prof reading is important at times
@jw7 – don’t start a blog. We need your input here. Your posts are always good; although a little overly passionate, hehehe. Plus that I don’t want to have to check any more sites to get news.
BQ – Why turn off the comments on PSA? Not that I wanted or needed to make a comment it just seems strange to have comments being made on AV while turning off the comments on PSA.
I don’t suspect CS or anyother high school coach differ in they all place winning over development. Any development that goes on is not during the school season. On the same hand if it was so easy you would think more high school teams would be playing that style. Give AV credit, they are doing a great job given the conditions of the game.
Because I screwed up and left them on for AV until a number of negative comments had already been made. In this case it was about the program and not the kids so it’s not so bad but still.
It’s my policy in general that when it comes to youth players under 18 I do not allow comments. Most people at IMS are polite and decent but not always and kids that are still minors don’t need some snooty coach or a parent from the opposition making nasty comments about them personally.
I agree that AV have done a fantastic job and as much as high school soccer may not be in the best interest of the US developing talent, it is what it. Most coaches are not really developing talent in high school soccer. JW7 is a high school coach, I was a high school coach and of course you are trying to make your players better. But really? The key time for that here in MN is the other 9 months of the year. Of course you are always trying to develop players but if a guy is really trying to develop, lets say as a pro, then he should be playing Developmental Academy, at an MLS Academy or over in Europe with an academy team.
I think for most people (players, coaches and parents) HS is all about playing with your friends and actually getting some notoriety for the game you bust your butt at for 9 other months of the year without anyone hardly noticing. How often do you get to score a goal during the year and have it announced on the PA system at school in the morning? Or how often do you get 50, 100 or sometimes even a couple hundred fans coming out and watching your games in June and July? That to me is what HS soccer is all about.
Here’s a quote I got from David Rosenthal, former AV standout. I interviewed him after AV won the state high school tourney last year:
Rosenthal, who has been successful at both the club and high school level, was asked what he thought of the criticism sometimes raised over the lower level of play in high school soccer compared to club. “Its two different games,” stated Rosenthal. “The summer games is all about select teams and how to find the best teams in regions, stuff like that. But high school soccer is all about playing with your friends – the guys you grew up with. To me it’s a lot more special, a lot more meaningful to win something with these guys than it would to win something with my summer team.”
Coach Scanlon deserves credit for leading a tradition that has produced so many players that have played the highest levels out of MN soccer. Chicken and the egg. The club has its drive because the HS is still a capstone for a majority of players in the community (yes I said community), while certainly many players now are choosing other clubs, VUSC still puts out pretty good top teams (this last years U18′s?). Boys want to play at AVHS as seen in three figure (100+) tryouts year after year. And while I agree with the HS game being direct and generally played on narrow or crappy fields – have you ever played at Johnny Cake? Full size (75×120), no crown with natural turf as good as 99% of college fields. His style works and the 80% of boys in that program who are not interested in scholarship level soccer or “soccer development” leave with trophies and discipline in winning. That is why they deserve credit.
bq you named two teams in your article Apple Valley and SPA one has developed many players that have gone on to be professional players, national team players, high level professional coaches, AND had fun on their high school team , AND won games there. I did give AV credit for winning games.
Why could they not do both? Are you saying to have fun on the HS team, everybody should just forget about player development. Are you saying every coach should just ignore what the USSF has been working so hard to accomplish with the high level coaches in America?
I did coach HS soccer in MN, I don’t anymore, have not for over a year, and will not in the future. I only did that job while back in MN spending time with my family after my father died. So, It’s not about me trying to promote myself as you seem to want to accuse me of. That is complete nonsense, I have a full time job and will not be coaching HS soccer in MN for the rest of life effecting another group of young players each year. I most likely will continue to coach at the youth USSF level.
It was while coaching my own team (JV), and being an assistant coach of a varsity HS team that I saw a young head coach of the boys varsity team that placed winning above everything else. He was trying to create his full-time coaching profession and only looked at his win-loss record. That did not create a fun and happy environment for his players. The coach was obsessed with winning at any cost and their was little team spirit. The players all knew the team was not about them as players, it was about the coach and his accomplishments. You see it on such a high percentage of HS teams it’s very disappointing and people should call it out, or it will never improve.
I believe all coaches at all levels need to strive to have a balance to accomplish both goals that are important at the U16-U18 age group level. Winning games, and developing better players.
This is the stated goal of the USSF coaching best practices.
It not all that hard, if they just set the right goals based on good training of possession based play. You can win games and play in a good developmental style, every European, South American, Middle Eastern, Asian, and most African teams prove this every day.
It’s not all that hard, if you actually try.
“So, It’s not about me trying to promote myself as you seem to want to accuse me of.”
Wow! A little sensitive there for a guy who’s usually so quick to call others out. Anyway, I was not saying that about you at all. Not sure why you thought that. I was just pointing out that we’ve both been in those shoes and know what it’s like to coach HS soccer and we’ve both tried to make players better. But the best time to really do that is the other 9 months of the year.
You can certainly strive for both competitiveness and development in HS soccer, but it is extremely difficult. Most teams have a wide range of players, maybe a few from Premier (if they’re lucky) and all the way down to kids who don’t even play outside of HS. Then there’s your game schedule, with as many as 4 games in 6 days, plus all the distractions of school, tests, dances, work, etc.
Scanlon once told me that AV’s 1992 state championship team, still one of the best-ever, had players from 7 or 8 different club teams. Competing in what was then the state’s toughest conference (Lake) would have been virtually impossible without a relatively simple system that players from varied backgrounds could grasp quickly and implement.
BQ, I would say then turn them both off or turn them both on. While I beleive the discussion here is civil and interesting. ( which is why I read your blog ) For the most part the discussions always seems to me to be at a higher level, from which I learn from and enjoy. Kudos!
The PSA article (unless I’m missing something) is about the coach and the program and not the players. By not having the comments turned on implies that we cannot expect the same level of discussion on their program. Which is a shame, I think their are things that could be discussed with the same level of civility that are being discussed about AV. I think their are interest ideas about private school/charter school to be discussed. I think their are issue regarding all coaches remembering that their players are students first, hence a 3.5 gpa. But right now, by not having both comments turned on seems to imply that it ok to discuss AV program but that a PSA discussion would not live up to the same level of civility.
PollyAnna – I don’t blame Bq for turning them off if they are anything like the comments from the other wanna-be site where everyone is an anon. If the migration of idiots ( I went through the proper & legal IMS immigration process for bloggingship) come over here and post some of the non-civil crap they do over there, it compromises the integrity of this site and I don’t know how Brian would have time to constantly monitor and filter those posts. He already has his hands full with me. Although he devotes a lot of time to the site it still doesn’t pay the bills – yet
I don’t think anyone monitors or cares what is written on the other pseudo -site.
It would be nice if there was more civility ( me excluded cuz I am who I am) But if we could shoot for a goal of clarity of positions over agreement of positions then civility would follow.
I try to remember that I am still just a guest and visitor here and even though I may not like all the policies, but it’s not my site.
Whew – all that sucking up should have earned me a get-out a jail free card when I do F-up
Tomass & BQ I agree! I so, enjoy this site and BQ comments and others (even you Tomass). I cannot tell you how much I enjoy a lively discussion were parties can agree to disagree but can give each other perspective. I stopped trying to post on the other site when people started pretending to be me. It really made me mad! I’m not able to go to as many Star’s games as I like, I’m not able to even see as many MYSA games as I like because of my current job situation. But I still enjoy reading BQ articles and the comments on them. I can be sitting in Ottowa watching youth games on TV and pull up IMS on my laptop an find out what going on at home. I certainly have opinions on stuff and relish making a fool of myself. This maybe even one of those times, I just cringe at seeing one article with the comments section off and the next article not. It’s a mom thing.
But just in case BQ you didn’t get the my main point here, I REALLY ENJOY READING YOUR ARTICLES and most of the post! Ever thought about doing a IMS Cable Show?
Thanks PollyAnna, I really appreciate the comments and your readership. That’s very kind of you and it helps me to stay motivated doing what I’m doing. It can be a lot of work and pretty thankless at times.
BQ has a face made for radio or a blog site – he would need a Dennis Miller personality, like myself for his cable show. He would need some controversy for the show
Controversy (LOL). The cable show could have the same format as “The View” Tomas you could be the Woopi charractor, BQ you could be Barbara, Ian Barker could fill the Ripkin role along with Tony Sanneh. For interesting topics in soccer, US Soccer Development alone could provide enough controversy and discussion to last a year. Then bring in MLS and Division II stuff, along with High School you would not even need to get into MYSA Leagues. Buzz Lago’s would be great on this show as well!
” The View” ?? Sounds like a women’s show . Is it something like “Oprah”?
If so I’m out
Tomass the “View” is a bunch of opinionated women who argue about today’s topics. Oprah is one woman telling you what you should think and why you should think that way. Which is why the View would be a much better format. If it helps, it should be like ESPN sports night show.
But, back to high school soccer. When I think back of the past 3-4 years of MN High School Championship teams the biggest similarity is they all had was their direct style of play.
05-06 AV, 06-07 Anoka, 07-08 Osseo, 08-09 AV . Why would any coach choose any other style of play when it is so proven to be effective in high school soccer.
Note I’m only speaking of Class AA, I think private and charter schools bringing a whole different dynamic into high school soccer. I’m trying to think when was the last time Class A Boys Soccer wasn’t won by a private/charter school? Which I think is really unforetuneate as the success of a small Class A school could really change soccer in out state Minnesota. I don’t see this ever happening under the current rules for high school soccer.
I think most soccer people here in the state and on the message boards would readily admit that high school soccer is, far and away, a much different game than club soccer. The style is more direct, uses a different style of athleticism, and is overly physical.
Is it an inferior style of soccer? from a purist standpoint, yes. But really at the end of the day it is just a different style of the same game we all enjoy and love. A friend once compared the club to High School distinction to the club to National Team distinction. When you are coaching at the HS or NT level you have a short amount of time to bring in a wide variety of players and playing styles and must have a certain level of success (as much as it pains me to say this, im talking W-Ls here).
I coach club soccer, High School Soccer, and do Coerver Training and for me development should always be the primary objective and if done properly on-field success will come as a result.
@PA who stated “the “View” is a bunch of opinionated women who argue about today’s topics”
sounds as bad as the mn futbol opinion page
@Tomass – no mn futbol gets nasty. I’m always amazed at what poeple post when you know they would never say it out loud in public. I’m also one of those poeple who think arguements can be discussion or an exchanges of ideas. That people can disagree with someones point view but still respect their point of view. I also think people can learn from those discussion. I don’t always agree with the ideas posted here but I always respect their position.
Well maybe “The View” is more like MN Futbol blog than I thought.
http://theview.abc.go.com/
love reading these posts. It shows the great camaraderie developed on IMS.
PollyAnna – I hate to inform you but I would be more like Bill Reilly. I like conflict
@fotbalist – PA and I have some history from the other pit of hell soccer blog.
I never take myself too seriously unless I’m being serious………and even then…..
join in the banter