Two NorCal Coaches Honored by the Positive Coaching Alliance

Out of a field of more than 2,000 nominees, two coaches from NorCal Premier Soccer-affiliated clubs have been honored as the winners of the Bay Area Double-Goal Coach Awards by the Positive Coaching Alliance, one of NorCal Premier Soccer’s loyal partners.

Isias “Chay” Bardales of Mountain View Los Altos Soccer Club and Ray Kellum of the Alpine Strikers have been selected among the 50 national winners for the prestigious accomplishment.

“NorCal is proud to continue to partner with the Positive Coaching Alliance, and their mission to develop better people through sports,” said NorCal Director of Operations Daniel Chamberlain. “We share their belief that a positive sports experience can improve the lives of young people, and are honored that two of our member coaches were selected for this award. We continue to work closely with PCA to continue to improve our youth soccer culture in Northern California.”

According to the PCA, a “Double-Goal Coach,” is one who “strives to win (one goal), while pursuing the more-important goal of teaching life lessons through sports.”

The definition is further divided here into four subcategories that encourage coaches to “model and teach your players to honor the game,” “help players pursue mastery of their sport, not just scoreboard wins,” “fill your players’ emotional tanks,” and “have conversations with your players at every practice and game.”

Each nominated candidate for this award goes through a rigorous vetting process by PCA representatives, where the coach can email the Positive Coaching Alliance with up to 25 references who are asked to answer some questions about the coach.

From the original pool of nominees, the coaches were whittled down to 150 finalists, who then completed a background check and a phone interview to select the 50 winners, which included Bardales and Kellum.