Outside of Family, Minnesota Stars Assistant Carl Craig Says Coaching His Reason for Being

Assistant coach Carl Craig watches intensely in the Stars win over the RailHawks last Saturday. All photos by Jeremy Olson – www.digitalgopher.net

The camera enters the locker room as the team in blue bangs on water coolers, lockers or anything else they can find. They are singing an Oasis song, Wonderwall, at the top of their lungs. Some have hands raised, others are interlocked shoulder to shoulder. The enthusiasm, energy and pure joy makes you want to join in. If you’re a Minnesota Stars fan and are watching the video shot by Brave New Media, you feel like you’re there with your team and the footage just makes you smile.

In the middle of the jubilant players who were celebrating the securing of the last playoff spot on the last day of the NASL regular season is Carl Craig, assistant coach for the Minnesota Stars. He’s the one leading the song, hands and head lifted high, proud as a father would be of his sons and singing louder than anyone else in the room.

Craig can almost always be seen in the midst of these post game celebrations, leading the players in song, quite often Oasis. He would never make any proclamation to being the reason for the Stars success this season. Yet this assistant coach from Newcastle, England may be the perfect compliment to head coach Manny Lagos’ more serious personality. The two coaches, along with player/assistant coach Kevin Friedland are certainly all pieces of the puzzle that have allowed Minnesota, this league-owned team with the lowest payroll in the NASL, to be one goal up as they enter the second leg of the NASL semifinals this Saturday.

“He’s been a great assistant under Manny,” said forward Brian Cvilikas. “He brings a lot of joy and fun to the group. He’s always had the spark to get the guys going and enjoy themselves. So now it’s sort of a superstition that after we win we have to sing some Oasis.”

“They’re like the odd couple,” said team captain Kyle Altman, who believes that the differing personalities between Lagos and Craig makes for a good chemistry amongst the team. “If you have too many similar personalities it can be a bad thing for a club. He’s probably the one person I’ve ever met in this world who’s one hundred percent comfortable with who he is at all times and he has no regrets about that. He can lighten the tension when he needs to but can command respect when he has to.”

“These lads now know me well enough to know that I’m going to raise my voice sometimes if I need to,” said Craig through a heavy Geordie accent.

Craig, center along with head coach Manny Lagos (right) and assistant player-coach Kevin Friedland (left) observe a game at the NSC Stadium.

For fans, they may know Craig as the assistant coach who walks with the players over to the supporters section after games and gets them signing in appreciation for their support. But to the players Craig has a much more important and deeper role.

“His goal in the club is to try to challenge everyone,” Altman said. “He will sometimes challenge Manny, Kevin the other assistant coach or he’ll challenge me the captain or the players on the team. He just does that with his everyday dialogs. He’s very into the psychological side of the game. So he’ll try to get inside your mind and ask tough questions that get you to think about your own performance and how you can improve as a player but also as a person.”

“I think part of my job is to dissect, but anyone can dissect. A bigger part of my job is to come up with a solution,” Craig said.

“When there’s difficult messages to be presented to players about playing time or traveling, I like to be able to look guys in the eye and try to be honest,” said Lagos. “At the same time it’s nice to have someone like Carl with the ability to be honest but also be able to give them a little more perspective and to let them know to keep their head up and keep focused. He can deliver that in a nice way. He can develop relationships with the players as an assistant coach that I think the players really appreciate.”

“I spend a lot of time one-on-one chatting with the lads,” Craig said. “So I’m the conduit between the boss. So if the boss pisses someone off I’ve got to be the one who picks that player’s head up. At the same time I’ve got to relay messages to the lads where the context is right, but how I deliver it might not be quite as cutthroat as the gaffer seen it. I have to be very conscious of how I approach it.”

Craig, who is 45, says he’s spent the better part of his life training to do what he now does. After playing as a youth and then coaching since 1990 in England, he moved to Minnesota in 1994. He assumed the head coaching position with the Edina Soccer Club and worked for Simon Whitehead for the precursor to Coerver Coaching, Educational Sports Programs (ESP). He also spent ten years with Hopkins School District in their special education department. Craig also coached high school soccer and eventually went to work for Shattuck-St. Mary’s Academy. He has been a Region 2 staff coach since 1995 and is the head coach for the Minnesota Boy’s ODP Program.

“People outside of this (soccer) think I’m daft,” Craig said. “People who know me understand I’m very serious about what I do. My job isn’t just when I’m here. Even when I’m away I study hard, I’m reading about the game, I’m looking to improve myself.”

“I’ve practiced this craft for way longer than I’ve played.” said Craig who admits he’s enjoying coaching at the higher pro division 2 level. “It gives me an opportunity to practice what I’ve been trained to do. I’ve taken the classes, I’ve went and studied and I’ve watched the game. I’m passionate about it and I grew up in a football mad town. So to able to practice at a level where people are as passionate about it as you are, well that’s a good thing.”

He says there are similarities and differences in coaching at different levels. “The players at this level are much more in charge of what goes on out on the field than the coaching staff. My coaching style with these fellas is much more verbal. I think your methodology even changes with the group you work with. In the past it’s been much more hands on. This is what I want,  that is what I want. Of course we run it the boss’s way [Lagos] and he, more so, allows the players to make their own choices. My education is much more: We are going to put this system in play and take care of it.  Is there a right or a wrong way? I don’t think so. I think the important thing is for coaches to find a happy medium between the two. If there’s too much hands on, the players get bored. If it’s too lose, well maybe it’s a bit too chaotic.”

Criag (in purple shirt) has a private moment with Andrei Gotsmanov while the rest of the team celebrates. Gotsmanov scored the winning goal in the 90th minute to snatch a semifinal victory.

And Craig may be the one who finds the “happy medium” on the team. “A lot of what I do is to reframe what was said by the boss,” he says. “To put things in perspective. Because a player may often say, I’m not in (the lineup) or I did this or that and really that becomes quite myopic. So it’s important for me to help the players understand what the real message the boss is trying to send and to keep things in context.”

“I think we’ve grown a rapport and he understands my vision of how I like things to be done, how I like a team to be run and he does a good job of feeding off that,” said Lagos. “I now have a lot of trust in him. I feel very confident in him and I think the players feel that as well.”

Lagos says one of the things he most appreciates about Craig is that he comes from a place in the world that has a true soccer culture, England. Yet he has embraced living in the U.S. and understands the strengths of the American player. “That’s key to me,” says Lagos. “Carl has a wealth of knowledge because he gets the best of both worlds.”

Craig, who says it’s fair to say that the Stars may not be the most talented group of players in the league, feels the team has something even more important going for them. “They’re a tight group of lads who work hard for each other and understand what it’s like when you don’t get a win. At this level it’s what you’re paid for. It’s what you train for every day of the week. If you don’t get it, the rest of the week can be pretty miserable. So it’s important that you come away from your game with a smile on your face. I mean you can play well, but at this level it’s not about playing well. It’s about the result.”

“Sometimes the players may come into training miserable,” says Craig. “I’m not miserable. I’m very happy to be around all this. I enjoy it. In terms of life outside of my family this is my reason for being. I’m very happy!”

Craig and the rest of the Minnesota Stars will travel to Cary, North Carolina on Friday and then suit up on Saturday night to play the Carolina RailHawks in the second leg of their semifinal match. The Stars are up 1-0 in the total goal series and Craig and the Stars will be looking for 3 more chances to sing Wonderwall.

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The Stars vs. the RailHawks game can be viewed online with live streaming by going to the NSC Minnesota Stars or the NASL website. Kickoff is set for 6:00 p.m. CST.

Wonderwall by Oasis

And all the roads we have to walk along are winding
And all the lights that lead us there are blinding
There are many things that I would
Like to say to you
I don’t know how

Because maybe
You’re gonna be the one who saves me ?
And after all
You’re my wonderwall