Great Coaches on Great Soccer: ROY LASSITER

In January, Roy Lassiter took a trip back to the East coast to be inducted into the North Carolina Soccer Hall of Fame.  North Carolina has produced more than its fair share of soccer stars, and the hall of fame organization did an amazing job organizing the event, bringing in some of the biggest names in U.S. Soccer to help celebrate Lassiter's career.  Mia Hamm,  Anson Dorrance, Eddie Pope, Carla Overbeck, and John Rinnie (fellow Hall of Fame inductee) were all on hand.  Roy Lassiter coaches in San Diego for the Albion Soccer Club and holds a USSF National A License as well as a USSF National Youth License.

Now that his travel schedule has calmed down a bit, Carey Schumacher from SN set up a time with this soccer legend to discuss his career and youth soccer in America.

Roy Lassiter on "RESPECT THE GAME"

As Lassiter took me on a walk down memory lane through his college and pro careers (bio here), I asked him for the best advice any coach had ever given him. "Respect the game" was the advice that Coach George Tarantini stressed during Lassiter's years at NC State. That advice stayed at the forefront of Lassiter's mind every time he stepped onto the field or hit the gym. "Respect the game. Never cheat. Don't cheat in the game, don't cheat yourself. Work hard at everything you do without cutting corners -- when you're training, when you're playing, every day.  If you cheat, that diminishes your accomplishments. Respect the game."

Roy Lassiter on "Every game. Everything I did. I HAD TO WIN."

I asked if Coach Tarantini was the most influential person in his soccer career, and Lassiter was quick to answer, "No, it was definitely my younger brother, Arick. He is a year and a half younger than I am, and he constantly pushed me.  He was a better soccer player than I was, but I had the desire to win. Every game. Everything I  did. I HAD to win, and Arick was there challenging me every day. He was more casual about it.  Losses didn't affect him as much. Me?  You didn't want to be around me when I lost.  I'd keep playing and playing and wouldn't stop until I won.  I was driven to be the best for sure.  My brother ended up not playing at the highest levels because he didn't like the politics of the sport.  I kept out of the politics and just focused on my game, being the best, and winning."

Roy Lassiter on PARENTS: "Be a distant support system."

Speaking of politics in the youth game, I asked Lassiter if politics has too big of an effect on youth soccer today. "Definitely. Parents needs to be a distant support system instead of being so over-involved in every aspect of the club.  Nine times out of ten, when a parent is very involved in politics in a club, that parent's kid won't make it to the highest level. If they are very involved, they need to work really hard at sheltering their kids from the politics of the game. It's difficult, but it's worth the effort."  

I then asked what advice he'd give parents. "Again, be a distant support system. Let the passion for the game come from the player. Give him [or her] the resources to train and succeed  and leave out everything else except lots of encouragement. All of the club stuff will fade away over the years. When players get to the highest levels of a sport, they identify with their home towns or their colleges, not clubs. When parents get into club politics, they risk hurting their kids' love of the game."

Roy Lassiter on socks "Just so."

Since we were on the topic of youth players, I asked if he had any game-day traditions or superstitions when he was a young player. "I was always very serious, and my entire game prep had to be perfect.  Especially my socks. My socks had to be 'just so.'" With a father who had played for the Washington Redskins, I asked if he and his brother played any other sports growing up -- especially American football.  "Wide receiver and quarterback were the only positions that were cool to me, and I'd play around with my buddies, but I didn't like that sport a lot. My dad wanted us to play, of course, but it was so boring to me. Not enough movement. The play always stopped. I started kicking a soccer ball around at 5 years old, and I tried lots of sports at the same time, like basketball and baseball. Soccer was definitely my favorite." 

Roy Lassiter on FIFA 98 Road to the World Cup

Lassiter certainly has had an illustrious playing career, earning 30+ caps for the U.S. Men's National Team and shattering MLS scoring records.  A crowning achievement that every young soccer player will appreciate,

however, happened off the soccer pitch when EA Sports chose Lassiter as the cover player for the very first edition of FIFA soccer -- FIFA98 Road to the World Cup.  EA Sports brought Lassiter to their Vancouver headquarters for a week of high tech motion capture.  A 40ft x 40ft grass pitch was set up with a goal, and Lassiter was outfitted in a snazzy bodysuit with motion capture sensor spheres all over his body.  I asked him if he had a photo of his motion capture wardrobe.  Chuckling, he denied the existence of any such photograph.  He spent many days going through runs, passes, shots, sprints and tricks that the EA programmers turned into the players' movements inside the video game.  EA Sport's FIFA franchise is now the most popular soccer video game in the world, and all of the world's top players are now put through motion capture to recreate all of their signature movements in the ultra-realistic video game.

Back in 1998, however, the FIFA video game was in its infancy, and Roy Lassiter provided all of the player movements for the inaugural video game release.

Roy Lassiter on TRYOUTS and TECHNIQUE

Lassiter's career has now shifted to coaching, and this "A" license holder has taken on the job of Advancement Director at Albion SC. With tryout season in full swing, we shifted our discussion to coaching and club tryouts. I asked what he looks for during tryouts. Again, the answer came quickly: "Technical skill. That is THE most important. Technical skill. That shows in the 1v1s and 2v2s we do at all tryouts. If the technical skill is there, it will show in those 1v1s.  Once I see that the technical skill is there, I look for attitude. How the player approaches the game, how he [or she] directs traffic.  Communication. The communication has to be there. A confident player will communicate and dictate the flow of the game. I also want to see how he [or she] reacts to mistakes. Mental toughness is KEY here. Everyone is going to make mistakes. I know it. Mistakes don't bother me. In fact, I want to see mistakes so I can see how the player reacts. When a player messes up but gets right back in there and fights back, that's what I want to see."

To prepare for tryouts, I asked if private training is a helpful tool. "Absolutely!  A private coach can improve confidence and focus. A good private coach can identify small technical details that are hard to fix in group training. The confidence a player gaines from good private training is great preparation for any tryout."  I asked if he thinks private training is appropriate for any age, and again the answer was swift, but with a condition: "As early as you can, as long as the player loves it. The player has to be the passionate force behind private training. If the parent is forcing private training on a young kid who doesn't want it, that's counter-productive. Let the player be the most passionate about development."

Roy Lassiter on ACADEMIES, LEAGUES, and CLUBS, oh my!

Tryouts are always followed by a soccer season, so we took a turn into the topic of club leagues and academies. Albion SC recently joined the West Coast Development Academy, so I asked for a bit of explanation on the WCDA.  "West Coast DA is a high-level competitive college readiness program.  It's very similar to the U.S. Soccer Development Academy system.  It's not meant to compete with USDA, but to provide another option for clubs.  USDA is expensive for a club to join.  The MLS academy teams are fully funded, but for non-MLS youth clubs, it's difficult to meet and maintain the USDA requirements, and the WCDA is a great offset that doesn't have the strict requirements and high costs that the USDA has.  It's a great offset program to get kids a high level of competition and get them in front of college coaches and ODP scouts.  Albion will send U13 teams and older to the WCDA system, where they'll play other WCDA teams in about 7 games over a season.  That season runs from January through June.  In July and November, WCDA will host showcase tournaments.  The teams will play in their normal fall league season in between those two showcase events."

Speaking of the fall league season, I asked if he had heard of the newly formed Southern California Development Soccer League.  He answered carefully, saying that Albion has been invited to join the new SCDSL.  "I know that there are clubs in Southern California who are leaving Presidio and Coast League to form their own league.   We'll definitely keep an eye on that to see how it develops.  More options for competition are never a bad thing.  We're always looking for great opportunities for individual development. We're definitely not ruling it out."

Roy Lassiter on "The wins will come. It's inevitable."

Throughout every topic of discussion, Lassiter continuously stressed the important of individual player development. He discussed, at great length, the need for American soccer to place less of an emphasis on wins and more focus on individual player development. He pointed out that he specifically chose Albion SC because he feels Albion has a great system for development of individual players. He explained, "Albion's individual development philosophy is infused into every level of the club and every decision that's made when we're forming rosters, hiring coaches, joining academies and leagues. Everything is about individual player development first. When individuals are well trained, the wins will come.  It's inevitable." 

Roy Lassiter on Concussions in youth sports: 

Expanding on the issue of individual development, I decided to venture into a topic that's been in the news a lot lately -- concussions in youth sports.  Many young bright stars have had their careers cut short because of too many concussions.  Some young athletes, not just American football players, have even died because of brain damage due to multiple concussions.  I asked Lassiter his thoughts on concussions.  "It all comes down to coaching and education.  Coaches have to be trained in proper technique and how to spot the signs of concussions.  The U.S. Soccer licensing system does a great job of educating coaches about this. There is a lot of training about concussions and how to avoid them. It's impossible to avoid injuries, especially with young passionate players, but education is key. One aspect we can improve is educating players and parents about concussions and the signs that they must tell coaches.  We can't read their minds. If they're having symptoms like dizziness, blurred vision, they have to tell their coach and not play through it. You can't mess around with these head injuries, and taking the time to pull them out of the game to heal could be the difference between a long and a short career or even life and death."

Roy Lassiter on Everyone loves Messi, right?

We needed a lighter mood after such a heavy topic -- on to fun questions! I asked Lassiter who he would choose as his favorite current player. "Well, everyone loves Messi, right? And he is amazing. But my favorite current player is Luka Modric.  He's a midfielder at Tottenham, and the guy never loses the ball! He's so smart, and he's got these simple little precise moves that he pulls o

ff to get out of trouble. He never loses the ball, he's a team player, and he's always thinking ahead.  Barcelona is also full of amazing players, but Modric is definitely my current favorite. Stateside, LA Galaxy's Landon Donovan is my favorite American player. He's so consistent, and he's a good man."

Roy Lassiter on "Touch the ball every day."

We both had to wrap up the phone call so we could catch the Chelsea v Manchester United EPL game (which Chelsea won, 2-1, by the way! GO BLUES!!), but before we finished up I asked if he had any parting thoughts for players who were going to read this article.  Lassiter hadn't been slow to answer any question yet, and this was no exception: "Touch the ball every day.  Even non-training days.  If you want to be great, you need to be touching the ball for at least an hour every day.  It doesn't have to be organized.  Just go juggle, go play, go dribble.  Every single day.  You have to decide to do this yourself, not have your parents force you to do it.  That's what will make you great."

 

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