Daily Pilot Cup proved fun, as soccer should

Thank you to the Daily Pilot and to Kirk McIntosh for organizing a

fun soccer tournament this past weekend. Almost 2,000 kids having fun

playing soccer!

I grew up in Spain and have played soccer all my life. I played my

first tournament when I was 5 and I still remember the excitement of

that day. We did not have the luxury of perfect organization and the

unbelievable fields of today, like the Costa Mesa Farm Sports Complex

and similar fields in this area. Instead, we played anywhere we

could: on concrete, on dirt, on any space available. Most of the time

we played with no cleats nor shin guards; we built goals and fields

anywhere with whatever we could find.

We did have the same passion for soccer our children have and we

played just because it was fun to play. Surely, we had dreams to

become professional soccer players, but at that time there were no

scholarships, big contracts or endorsements. That meant that we would

be better off being good students and pursuing other professions. But

we still dreamt of how fun it would be to play in a big soccer

stadium with grass instead of dirt.

If the statistics are correct, 90% of the children playing AYSO

recreational, tournament of club soccer will quit and transfer to

another sport before they even get to high school.

I have seen 12-, 11-, even 10-year-old, extremely talented soccer

players quitting the sport because their parents or some

inexperienced coach burned them out.

In Europe and lately here in the U.S., we coaches have a simple

principle to train and coach at every level: Let them play the game

and have fun with it. It is very important that we try to coach with

the “3 L’s rule:”

1) No laps: You will achieve more physical endurance running with

a ball or after a ball than doing boring laps. Laps are not fun.

2) No lines: Players will get bored or distracted waiting their

turn. Waiting in line is not fun.

3) No lectures: This is the most common mistake of a lot of us

coaches. Let the players analyze the game for themselves and try to

give them guidance, while not killing their game creativity.

This is a wonderful soccer community and the involvement of the

families, cities and schools is giving the No. 1 sport in the world a

chance to become a leading sport in Southern California.

Let’s not burn out the main source of this success: our children.

PEPE TENA

Newport Beach