Photos courtesy of Ohio Premier Soccer Club
For many kids, soccer is a way to be active and social. But there’s now an approach to the sport that takes it to the next level, teaching players how to not only score goals, but to achieve their own.
Players First is a license available to soccer clubs around the country. The program takes a club team and shares information and techniques on player and coach development, parent engagement, and player health and safety.
The Ohio Premier Soccer Club, located in Dublin, can now further their teams with the help of Players First. President and Executive Director Chris Baer says Players First is a holistic approach to soccer, meaning it’s not just about winning games; it’s about furthering a player as a teammate as well as an individual.
Baer originally worked at US Club Soccer, a national organization that fosters and encourages club soccer, so he was happy to be involved in the planning phase of the Players First licensing process.
“It’s not just the x’s and o’s of coaching,” Baer says, “but working with and talking to kids about what a productive club environment looks like so we can produce well-adjusted young adults.”
Though players continue to sharpen their soccer skills and techniques at practice, with new knowledge and programming from Players First, they’ll also develop new character traits and problem-solving methods.
Baer says that the more equipped coaches are, the better experience players will have.
“Helping the kids get equipped to learn how to deal with things out of our control (like losing a game), we feel will be more important in life decisions as adults, regardless of whether they play soccer later on in life or not,” he says.
Prior to the collaboration, Baer knew that Ohio Premier getting licensed with Players First was just around the corner. So, coaches started making connections and developing relationships within the broader local soccer community.
The Positive Coaching Alliance worked with Ohio Premier to help further their involvement in Players First.
“We’ve partnered with courses in their youth sports session planner,” Baer says. “There was a whole list of offerings that we’d already started looking down the road to say, ‘Hey, we want to include this.’”
Ohio Premier is led by strong leaders and boasts a group of well-respected coaches that players can look up to.
“Our greatest asset in our club is a former coach by the name of Billy Thompson,” Baer says.
Thompson serves as the team’s technical director, and his background in soccer not only makes him a great asset, but a role model for players. Thompson is a former professional player for Columbus Crew Soccer Club and has even played for the U.S. Men’s National Soccer Team.
He spent time in Europe observing professional soccer clubs and learning about the different coaching techniques they used for certain age groups.
Along with the long list of benefits, this license brings, players and coaches in Ohio Premier are now held to a higher standard as part of the Players First-licensed club.
“Being a two-goal coach in the sense of, yes, winning is important, but there are more important things that we’re teaching in pursuit of those wins,” Baer says. “Character development, respecting the opponents and understanding the integrity of the game that matters.”
Bethany Schultz is a contributing writer. Feedback welcome at feedback@cityscenemediagroup.com.
