Paul Currie chats with SoccerNation at the Del Mar Polo Fields

Youth Soccer News: Coaching Spotlight on Paul Currie

Paul Currie is a respected and successful coach at San Diego Surf, but how did this native of Burnley, England, come to be coaching in California? And how did his experiences as an English player mold his coaching style? SoccerNation caught up with Coach Currie to find out more about him.  

Part One of the interview: Great Coaches on Great Soccer: Paul Currie on Soccer

SoccerNation: When did you start playing soccer?

Paul Currie: I started playing as a boy because everybody played in England. I have two brothers, Mark who is 18 months older and Dave (Surf coach David Currie) who is a couple years younger, and the three of us played together all the time.

SN: Is Mark also involved in soccer?

Paul Currie: He has never worked in soccer, but he’s played all his life and he’s still playing now. He lives in Manchester, England, and he coaches kids on a volunteer basis.

SN: Who were some of the players you admired or grew up watching?

Paul Currie: One of my heroes as a kid was a player named Bryan Robson. He was captain of Manchester United and captain of England. He was a fantastic player.

I got the chance to meet him four or five years ago when Nico (Mike Nicholson), Dave Currie, Colin Chesters and I went over to England for the Nike Cup. Bryan Robson was doing the draw for the tournament, and so we got to meet him briefly, which was exciting for me.

My first hero was George Best.

George Best: (Born 22 May 1946 – Died 25 November 2005) was a professional footballer from Northern Ireland, who played for Manchester United. Best won the European Cup with Manchester United in 1968, and was named the European Footballer of the Year.  Almost forty years later, in 2007, GQ named Gorge Best as one of the 50 most stylish men of the past 50 years.

I grew up going to watch Manchester United with my dad starting when I was six or seven years old, and George Best was my first hero. He was the best player ever, a genius. Unfortunately he had a lot of problems with alcohol and he passed away.

SN: Who is your favorite player playing today?

Paul Currie: It’s anyone who plays for Manchester United, because I love that team.

My favorite players; one of them – Paul Scholes – just retired. I like Wayne Rooney, and Ryan Giggs is a genius. I also like one of the young lads who is coming through at United, Danny Welbeck. He just got called up to the first team. He’s only 20 years old and he’s a local boy, which means a lot. He came up through the youth system, which all supporters like. But I love most Manchester United players.

Aside from Man United, one of my favorite players is Xavi, who plays for Barcelona. He’s fantastic; he’s probably my favorite player outside of Manchester United.

SN: So when these players were young, what do you think made them so special?

Paul Currie: As I’ve said, you’ve got to be born with natural talent. And then you’ve got to work really hard as well.

It’s all about work and just practicing all the time. Take David Beckham; he came to Manchester United when he was 14 and just practiced all the time. Obviously he had God-given ability, but then he really developed it. And then you can be like me, for instance. I was never close to being a David Beckham, but I practiced all the time. I had a great attitude and I still do, and that’s why I’m still playing now. I ended up playing for a second division team, but it was still good, you know what I mean?

It’s about being in love with the game. I might be going off on a tangent here, but I’ve been coaching in America 16 years now, and I used to work at Del Mar Sharks for five years. I remember talking to parents who felt if their kid couldn’t play on the first team they were going to stop him from going on and playing in the sport. I never understood that.

I feel you shoot for the top, but if you love the game you play wherever, at the best standard you can play at. You wouldn’t stop playing just because you can’t be, for example, David Beckham or playing for England. So I think it’s all about being in love with the game. My brothers and I, well, I don’t know anybody who loves football more than us.

SN: Tell us a little about your experience as a player.

Paul Currie: I played professionally in England from being sixteen to twenty-one, and then I got sponsored to play in Australia.

SN: What team did you play for in Australia?

Paul Currie: I played for a team called Newcastle Town FC, which was in New South Wales, and then I played for a team in Tasmania. After that I came home and I got another professional contract in England for a couple years, which was quite unusual because I was about 27 by that time.

SN: When did you come to America?

Paul Currie: I came to America because I was keeping Dave company. After playing in England again, I was nearly 30 and I didn’t know what I was going to do because I had been playing soccer for a living. David had also been playing in Australia, and we played on the same team for a while. He had this idea of coming to America just to see what could happen.

I had been coaching by then. Dave and I had both done our coaching badges (licenses) when we were young, because when you got involved with a professional club they advised you to take your coaching badges early. I did my first badge when I was about 18.

SN: And a coaching badge is the same is a coaching license?

Paul Currie: Yes. Back in the day, in England, it was called the ‘prelim,’ the FA (Football Association) prelim badge. So we both did that very early. And I’d done a bit of volunteer coaching in England for my local pitch club. Then in Australia I got involved with coaching with the youth team at Newcastle. I liked coaching.

So Dave suggested we go to America. I didn’t want to go, but he said, “Let’s see what happens. We might see if we can get involved in coaching.” So I agreed to go and we came over. We didn’t know anybody, we just landed one day and went from there.

SN: How did you end up in California instead of, say, New York?

Paul Currie: It was Dave, really, because he started reading travel books and he came to the conclusion for soccer it was either Florida or San Diego. Dave read in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to San Diego that you could watch English football at the Shakespeare Pub. You probably could watch in Florida as well, but he said, “We have to go there and see what it's like.” And he looked at the weather and it was supposed to be nice weather all year. So we came here. We didn’t have a clue what we were doing.

SN: That was brave of you.

Paul Currie: I suppose it was. But we had nothing to lose. We had all our family and friends back home, so we could always go back. We stayed first in Old Town and we got out the Yellow Pages and found a place called Pacific Beach, so we took a taxi out there and found a place to live.

SN: How old were you?

Paul Currie: I was about 31 and Dave was 29. And then things got flukey, really. It’s funny how life happens, because we met this Irish guy there in Pacific Beach. We weren’t used to walking across the street properly, we were jaywalking. So Dave was walking through these cars like an idiot and I said, “Hey, you silly bugger, what ya’ doin’?” And this Irishman overheard us and asked “Are you from Burnley?” which was where we’re from in England. And he said, “I lived there.”

So we got talking to him and got to be friends. We didn’t have a car, of course, and he did, so we started palling around with him.

We went up to UCSD one night and we were watching some kids playing soccer, the college team as it turned out. Derek Armstrong, who runs the Nomads, was running the session.

I went up to him and I said, “Excuse me, mate, do you know anyone who needs a coach?” He looked at me and he said, “Bloody hell, where are you from?” I said, “I’m from Burnley,” and he said, “Long time since I heard an accent like that. I’m from Blackpool,” which is just up the road from Burnley. So, of course we got talking and he said, “Yes, I think I might have a job for you,” just like that. So Dave and I got a job at La Jolla Lasers, which was affiliated with the Nomads, and we coached the U17 boys team together.

Meanwhile, Dave and I started playing for an English team because we started going to the Shakespeare Pub and watching the games and meeting the lads from England. Then we started playing for the Rovers, which was the local team. And then we got a job at Carlsbad Lightning because of that. Mike Hovenic came down and watched us coach and offered us a job at Lightning.

I was coaching girls then, which is amazing to me now. I remember when Dave and I went up to the Nomads' Allen Field and saw a girls team practicing, we looked at each other amazed.  We had never seen that before because back home, girls didn't play like that.  Girls just didn't play football like that, ever.  

We only worked at Lightning for a year and then we met Jeff Illingworth, who was running the Del Mar Sharks then. He recruited us to go to Del Mar from Lightning, so we did, and we were at Del Mar Sharks for five years. Then from Del Mar we came down here to San Diego Surf because Surf was always viewed as “the” club to coach at.  

The way it happened was, I had a girls’ team at Del Mar Sharks who ended up playing Colin Chesters’ team at San Diego Surf. I had the ‘B’ team at Del Mar and we played Colin’s top team in the Celtic Cup in San Bernardino. My team played them off the field, but we ended up losing the game 1-0.

SN: But your team clearly dominated.

Paul Currie: My team was brilliant, and I think he was shocked by it. And so I subsequently got talking to him and he asked me if I wanted to come to Surf. By that time Jeff Illingworth had left Del Mar and gone to CV Manchester. Dave and I decided to come to join Surf. My team decided to come over with me, so I ended up coaching them at Surf, and I also worked for Jeff at CV Manchester with a boys’ team.

SN: So you were at two clubs at one time? I didn’t know that was possible.

Paul Currie: I didn’t know then, but I sort of broke the rules, and not for the first time.

I ended up coaching that girls’ team for nine years, which was amazing. I had them from U10 to graduating high school. All fifteen girls left Del Mar Sharks and came to play at Surf, and we went on to win State Cup.  Then after I was at Surf a couple years, Colin Chesters said he wanted to get me on the boys’ side of the field. So for the past eight or nine years here I’ve been coaching the boys. I really loved coaching the girls at the time, but I can’t imagine doing it now. 

SN: Coach Currie, thank you for taking time to talk to us.

Paul Currie: My pleasure. Thank you.