If you could only keep five coaches...

[Unregistered]

Imagine you received an email from the front office...

Dear parent, due to poor performance, we have decided to clean house and will terminate all but five coaches. Please submit your request to retain a coach from the attached list, all other coaches will be terminated and replaced by highly trained coaches with the purpose to develop our players, reinforce advanced technical skills, tactical awareness, and physical conditioning.

I know this is highly subjective, but I would like to ask users if you are willing to list the top 5 coaches at your son or daughter's club, who in your opinion, are doing what it takes for your son or daughter to become a great soccer player.

No coach bashing, we don't need to hear about the worst coaches or their faults. Also, don't post why they are great, most people don't care, we don't need to know the details.

It would be great to see something like this:

Crossfire - John Doe, Mary Smith, Jane Doe, Bill Walton and Megan Magilicuty.

[Unregistered]

To be frank, there aren't a lot I'd keep,

Eastside FC:

In no particular order...

Randall Birkwood

MIlan Ivanovic

Kelvin Galvez

Andrew Dortch

Tony Armitage

If I could keep a few more I'd add David Lozano and Quinn Grisham

And good luck with that pipe dream 🤣

[Unregistered]

Imagine you received an email from the front office...

Dear parent, due to poor performance, we have decided to clean house and will terminate all but five coaches. Please submit your request to retain a coach from the attached list, all other coaches will be terminated and replaced by highly trained coaches with the purpose to develop our players, reinforce advanced technical skills, tactical awareness, and physical conditioning.

I know this is highly subjective, but I would like to ask users if you are willing to list the top 5 coaches at your son or daughter's club, who in your opinion, are doing what it takes for your son or daughter to become a great soccer player.

No coach bashing, we don't need to hear about the worst coaches or their faults. Also, don't post why they are great, most people don't care, we don't need to know the details.

It would be great to see something like this:

Crossfire - John Doe, Mary Smith, Jane Doe, Bill Walton and Megan Magilicuty.

What makes this a hard exercise is most people like coaches because they feel like the coach is nice to them and nice to their kid, or even worse they measure success by their 11 year old kid became a stronger more competitive athlete under a coach (vs a smarter player with mastery of the ball and field). They have no idea how to measure what good soccer development is, and what age athleticism vs skill should be developed. They will just list coaches that had a winning season, gave their kid plenty of playing time and didn't make little Billy cry.

[Unregistered]

1) Porter Lombard (Eastside FC)
2) Maria Arrant (PAC DOC)
3) Lyndsey Patterson (PAC)
4) Jillian Nicks (formerly DOS, but no longer coaching)
5) None others come to mind

[Unregistered]

I'm not sure this is really possible. If you only have one kid, how many coaches do you really know? Also, A great coach for one kid may not be a good fit for another. Probably easier to make a list of people who should not be coaching, but...

Good coaches at Seattle United -- Ralph Black, David Griffiths. Probably many good ones I don't know, but my personal list of bad SU coaches would be much longer.

[Unregistered]

1) Porter Lombard (Eastside FC)
2) Maria Arrant (PAC DOC)
3) Lyndsey Patterson (PAC)
4) Jillian Nicks (formerly DOS, but no longer coaching)
5) None others come to mind

Sorry I would disagree completely here. Seriously, have you had these coaches for any length of time at both Pac and EFC and then had any other coaches to compare. I don't think any of them are terrible coaches but they certainly are not anywhere near the top 5 best coaches at Pac and EFC. I would put your first 3 as middle of the road coaches. I have no experience with number 4.

[Unregistered]

What makes this a hard exercise is most people like coaches because they feel like the coach is nice to them and nice to their kid, or even worse they measure success by their 11 year old kid became a stronger more competitive athlete under a coach (vs a smarter player with mastery of the ball and field). They have no idea how to measure what good soccer development is, and what age athleticism vs skill should be developed. They will just list coaches that had a winning season, gave their kid plenty of playing time and didn't make little Billy cry.

OP said "doing what it takes for YOUR son or daughter to become a great soccer player" I take this to mean meeting my expectations. Some parents may only want an active and social experience to keep their kids off their phones and video games.

My kids have played 5+ years at two clubs, and I've come to know the better and mediocre (awful) coaches over the years. I bet a lot of parents out here who have had kids in club soccer from wee littles to HS even know most of the best coaches at the big clubs in WA.

[Unregistered]

I'm not sure this is really possible. If you only have one kid, how many coaches do you really know? Also, A great coach for one kid may not be a good fit for another. Probably easier to make a list of people who should not be coaching, but...

Good coaches at Seattle United -- Ralph Black, David Griffiths. Probably many good ones I don't know, but my personal list of bad SU coaches would be much longer.

Hahaha, mine would be three times as long too! Nice to hear about the good for change.

[Unregistered]

Viet Nguyen - Pac
Dan Leeming - XF (great coach, but isn't a perfect fit for everyone)
Justi Baumgardt XF
Randall Birkwood EFC

Only 4 come to mind. Thought this would be easier, it is what it is.

[Unregistered]

OP said "I bet a lot of parents out here who have had kids in club soccer from wee littles to HS even know most of the best coaches at the big clubs in WA.

True, it really is a small community. Someone could take the other side of the coin and argue we have very few great coaches in this state. I'd ask compared to...?

[Unregistered]

Top 5

Here are my top 5 coaches in youth soccer in Washington State (have had DD and DS at various clubs, EPD, etc)

1. Viet Nguyen (PAC)
2. Matt Dorman (Reign)
3. Erin Vaughan (Gunners)
4. Andy Machin (Rush)
5. Ryan Dortch (PAC)

[Unregistered]

Here are my top 5 coaches in youth soccer in Washington State (have had DD and DS at various clubs, EPD, etc)

1. Viet Nguyen (PAC)
2. Matt Dorman (Reign)
3. Erin Vaughan (Gunners)
4. Andy Machin (Rush)
5. Ryan Dortch (PAC)

Seems like Viet Nguyen has popped up on this thread alot. Based on what I know of him (which isn't much), he seems really good.

[Unregistered]

Derek Robson, EFC - hands down one of the best, most hardworking coaches
Randall Birkwood, EFC
Andrew Dortch, EFC
Alex Silva, EFC
Ellis McLoughlin, EFC

[Unregistered]

Derek Robson, EFC - hands down one of the best, most hardworking coaches
Randall Birkwood, EFC
Andrew Dortch, EFC
Alex Silva, EFC
Ellis McLoughlin, EFC

Posted by the Eastside FC Board or an Eastside FC parent?? Some on this list are not close to being top level coaches or coaches who are training players in a modern style. There is another thread on this board about the backward, antiquated style of training and playing at Eastside FC. Hard to reconcile this post with that thread.

Instead of who would you keep, a better question would be who are the 5 coaches in Washington that are the most progressive and effective in their training and are moving the needle? How about, Aaron Byers at MIFC, Joe Campos at Eagleclaw FC, Scott Nelson at Nortac. Any other coaches like those guys?

[Unregistered]

Posted by the Eastside FC Board or an Eastside FC parent?? Some on this list are not close to being top level coaches or coaches who are training players in a modern style. There is another thread on this board about the backward, antiquated style of training and playing at Eastside FC. Hard to reconcile this post with that thread.

Instead of who would you keep, a better question would be who are the 5 coaches in Washington that are the most progressive and effective in their training and are moving the needle? How about, Aaron Byers at MIFC, Joe Campos at Eagleclaw FC, Scott Nelson at Nortac. Any other coaches like those guys?

This was the original question, which is being answered

"I know this is highly subjective, but I would like to ask users if you are willing to list the top 5 coaches at your son or daughter's club, who in your opinion, are doing what it takes for your son or daughter to become a great soccer player"

These are the coaches that I would be very happy with coaching my kids, this is my opinion