'Fun, friends and health' is what youth soccer should be about (Q&A Shannon Higgins-Cirovski)

Interview by Olivia Ruiz

After starting for the USA when it won the inaugural Women’s World Cup on 1991, Shannon Higgins-Cirovski moved straight intocollege coaching. In May, after several years of coaching youth ball including at U.S. Soccer’s Maryland Training Centers, Higgins-Cirovski, was named the girls Director of Coaching at Maryland youthclub Bethesda SC.

SOCCER AMERICA: Let’s start with how you fell in love with the game.

SHANNON HIGGINS-CIROVSKI: I fell in love with the game as a 6-year-old. I’ll never forget how I just stood out in the middle of the field for the first season. But before mylast game, my brother taught me to dribble and I went out and had a great time, scored all these goals, and at that point, it was history.

SA: Did you have any coaching role models atthe time that you first started coaching [early 1990s]?

SHC: I played for Anson Dorrance [North Carolina and the USA] and he was a phenomenal coach.Probably my other biggest influence was Berhane Andeberhan, who was in the regional programs and assistant coach of national team as well.

SA: Any newones?

SHC: I respect all my colleagues but I guess the one I talk to most significantly is my husband.

SA: How has he [longtime University of Marylandmen’s coach Sasho Cirovski] influenced your philosophy on coaching?

SHC: We have a lot of the same values, in terms of how we want to impact the young people wecoach, even though we oversee different levels. Just helping them to realize they just have to be their best selves.

SHANNON HIGGINS-CIROVSKI
Director ofCoaching (Bethesda SC)
College Coaching: Maryland (1999-2006), U.S. U-18 national team (1998), George Washington (1991-97).
Playingcareer: USA (51 caps, 1987-1991), University of North Carolina (1986-1989).
Honors: National Soccer Hall of Fame, Soccer America College Team of the Century, HermannTrophy (1989), Soccer America College Player of the Year (1988, 1989).
Titles: Women’s World Cup (1991), NCAA Division I (1986, 1987, 1988, 1989).

SA: Whatare your duties in your new role as director of coaching?

SHC: I think my role as director of coaching is to give my coaches as many resources as I can so they canencourage their kids to be as good as they can be. Whether that be coaching education, information from governing boards, field space, or even being an ear to bounce an idea off of.

SA:What is your biggest challenge in your new position?

SHC: Overall, influencing the culture. Keeping our message consistent, that we care about these kids and we wantto help them be the best they can be. We want to create the best product but that comes with every individual enjoying themselves.

Mia Hamm and Shannon Higgins of the1991 Women’s World Cup-winning team.

SA: You were also interested in the psychological side of the game. Can you speak to that interest?

SHC:Soccer can influence us in so many ways and that the lessons that we learn through athletics help us throughout our lives. More importantly, I am interested in how we translate those lessons and makeourselves the best player and person going forward.

SA: If you had a magic wand, how would you change American youth soccer?

SHC: I look up collegescores sometimes, and I look at the rankings. Then, I saw this listing of all these kids. It happened to be the top U-14 players in the country. And I think, “Well this is why everyone isgetting so psycho”!

While everybody is so busy worrying about who is the best, they stop worrying about what’s really important.

Why do we start playing soccer? To havefun, to be healthy, and to make friends. Really, at the end of the day, that’s it. There will be some people who advance and go to the highest levels, but we hope at the end of the day thatwe’re healthy, we made a few friends, and that we’re having fun. I would like to erase everything else except those three things.

SA: On that note, what’s your advicefor parents who push too hard?

SHC: It’s just a game. Focus on what makes your kid happy. Hopefully that’s not just winning.

SA: Would youtell your coaches to communicate that?

SHC: That’s a tough message to deliver when the parents are caught up. It’s a message that needs to becommunicated, as a coach, in the way that you behave relative to every moment. It needs to be the general message of the club.

SA: Going back to your playing days, you left thenational team when you were 23. How did you make the decision to leave?

SHC: I had just graduated from college, I was living on the East Coast while I was anassistant coach at George Washington and it was a tough lifestyle. You didn’t make money from playing on the national team so I wasn’t making enough to make ends meet. I had acoach’s mind so I went in that direction because I knew that I couldn’t keep both balls in the air, so to speak.

SA: How did you feel about receiving such lowwages?

SHC: Certainly we wanted to make more money but it was one of those things; it was going to be a gradual process. It wasn’t until after the 1999 WorldCup that players started earning a living and that was eight years later. So it was a process.

SA: Have you received criticism for your decisions as a female athlete? Regardingstepping away from the national team, starting a family, etc.

SHC: Even if people wanted to criticize me, I wouldn’t take it as such. In ‘91, when we wonthe World Cup, I knew I was going to step away and focus on my coaching.

It wasn’t until after that I met my husband and started a family. There’s people like JoyFawcett who were able to have children and continue. I was a really good soccer player and, I’d say, an above-average athlete. Most of the women who are able to compete after havingkids were and are some of the best athletes; they were the fastest and most athletic players. So they could lose a half-step and still compete. If I were going to have children and stillcompete, that half-step would have made a difference.

SA: How did you feel when the USA won the 2015 World Cup?

SHC: It was an amazing feeling,watching. And so much easier to watch because the final was settled early! Somewhat disappointing in that way, but I saved myself some gray hairs!