NorCal and Mustang Host D License Course
Better coaches make better players.
This is one of the core ideas of NorCal Premier Soccer’s driving philosophy — it’s a mission for the organization to provide as much quality coaching education as possible.
So when the opportunity arrived to host a USSF-sanctioned D License course through a partnership with US Club Soccer, NorCal jumped at the opportunity.
In a two weekend period at Mustang Soccer Complex in Danville, 20 coaches completed the course under the instruction of NorCal staff members Cris Gilmore and Nick Lusson.
“NorCal Premier has always prided itself on the level of its coaching education,” Lusson said. “It’s a central tenet of what we’re about. The USSF license courses are a key piece of that, it’s not everything, but the investment that the board puts into this is significant. What’s also important about this is NorCal aligning more with our federation, which we think is an important thing to do. The federation is not some separate entity, the federation is all of us and we’re all part of the federation. ”
One of the larger barriers for coaches to garner education is the cost, leading NorCal to subsidize the course for its members, roughly halving the cost for those interested.
Filling all its spots in roughly 12 hours, there was a high demand for the course that as a wait list appeared almost immediately for the imperative class.
“When we assessed the needs of coaching education a couple of years ago, we actually realized that there’s a much bigger need for the introductory levels of coaching education versus the advanced stuff,” Lusson said. “The advanced stuff is great, but the basic level is what we need in our system.”
And those in attendance found the course imperative for what they’re trying to take back to their clubs in helping build better players.
“My love of the game really needed more guidance and more structure and that’s what I got,” said Belinda Halloran of Napa Soccer Academy. “The coaches that really want to take their coaching seriously and look at coaching from the whole perspective, courses like this are really essential.”
“This was the catalyst for the next level of coaching, I can’t say enough good things about it,” Halloran added. “I really recommend it to people who want to take their soccer seriously. It was a turning point for me where I said, ‘now I’m really excited about my coaching,’ because I’ve got more knowledge, I’ve got more tools, I’ve got more support and I feel so much more confident in my direction as a coach.”
NorCal plans to host 20 Grassroots courses over the course of 2019, which will provide approximately 240 coaches with an opportunity to get their 4v4, 7v7, 9v9, or 11v11 Grassroots License.
We’re also planning six D Licenses which will serve 144 coaches. All of these courses are continuing to be subsidized by NorCal Premier Soccer. If your club is interested in hosting any of these courses then please contact Nick Lusson at nlusson@norcalpremier.com.
