Crow, who starred at San Diego State, played for the Ron Newman-coached San Diego Sockers during the NASL’s final twoseasons of 1983-84, and for the Major Indoor Soccer League Sockers through 1992, winning seven MISL titles. He spent the next decade of his career as a business manager outside of soccer beforebecoming general manager of the Women’s United Soccer Association’s San Diego Spirit and served as the WUSA’s COO until it folded in 2003. He returned to soccer and his hometown club as Technical Director in 2009.

SOCCER AMERICA: You’re technical director of Cal North, a USYSstate association. Your club also fields teams in NorCal, which is sanctioned by U.S. Club Soccer. And Ballistic’s academy teams have moved from the defunct DA to the MLS youth league. Thesegoverning bodies are often considered rival organizations in the midst of a turf war …

KEVIN CROW: I’m trying to do what’s right for kids andtheir soccer experience at all levels and ages. I’m not concerned with market share. We shouldn’t be trying to put each other out of business when you have kids at stake. We should be workingtogether for the benefit of the kids.

SA: How was Ballistic’s experience in the DA?

KEVIN CROW: Academiesin my view are meant to be like regional all-star teams. But instead of playing once a month together, you’re basically playing together daily. The intent to garner all the top players from ageographical area to play against other like-minded players and teams from other geographical areas is good. I think it’s good for development.

Mustang had been the DA team in our area, thenmoved to the San Jose Earthquakes. When that happened, I thought, the kids in the our region deserve to have that type of program available to them without having to go down to Santa Clara or San Joseor somewhere. I thought our club was the best one to provide it.

SA: How do you feel about moving from the DA to the MLS-run league?

KEVIN CROW: We heard rumblings for a couple years that MLS was looking to do their own thing. So, when MLS stepped in I wasn’t really that surprised.

I think it’s better that it’s under a private venture than a nonprofit. Because I think at the end of the day, a nonprofit like U.S. Soccer has a hard time justifying investing the kind of money they put into it.And I think some positives will come out of having a private venture, MLS, run the league. I think it’s going to be a better product and experience overall going forward.

SA: You don’t view MLS teams, in your case, the Earthquakes, as rivals that take away your players?

KEVIN CROW: Sometimes what you need to do is let players grow outside your program for their individual best interests. I’ve always believed our job is to look after the best interests of every player in the club asindividuals and never hold anybody back from anything. That could hurt your team in terms of results but that’s not why you should be in youth soccer.

I should be able to look at every parentand tell them I’m doing what’s best, in my opinion, for your son.

It’s been a long education process that we’re truly about player development over winning. If you want to win and that’syour ultimate thing – trophies – then we’re probably not the club you should be playing for.  

We have a relationship with Earthquakes. I’ve told them you can have ourplayers anytime you want, I just don’t want them sitting on your bench.

Your coaches can come and watch practices. I just I think there’s a right time and place to join programs. If theythink one of our players belongs in their program and he’s going to play meaningful minutes, then they can have him any time. That’s where he should be going. If he’s not quite ready, then let himstay with us. Go down there and train once a week, once a month, whatever it might be, until he is ready. Our job is to incubate and push on that type of player.

SA: Do you know how the switch from the DA to theMLS youth league will affect the costs to the clubs?

KEVIN CROW: Referees are going to be a push-down cost to the clubs. They did say they do want to try andminimize travel costs, but they don’t have the details yet. My read on it is that MLS was also a little bit surprised at how quickly U.S. Soccer made its decision to end the DA, so they tookover maybe sooner that they anticipated.

But they’re doing a great job in communicating and being inclusive in their decision-making process. They’re creating committees with regionalrepresentation, which is very good.

SA: Will, as in the case of the DA, players in the MLS league forego high school play?

KEVIN CROW: My understanding is high school play is not an option. I go back and forth with that. But I understand that when you’re running kind of a national league and the highschool seasons are not the same across the country — it gets problematic real quick just from a scheduling standpoint.

SA: And the elite players in yourclub are used to skipping high school ball because of the DA experience …

KEVIN CROW: It’s a sacrifice. We educate them. We talk to them. We tellthem, hey, you don’t have to get into it right away.

I’ve always said, if you’re a talented player, you don’t have to play six years of DA. If you want to have a high schoolexperience for a year or two and then pop into the DA, you’ll make that determination on your own.

We try to educate, inform and make sure that they know what you’re getting into.

Ballistic United, founded in 1968 with seventeams, fields more 150 teams with 1,600 registered players. It has recreational, competitive and futsal programs, and adult co-ed.

KEVIN CROW: You have toeducate the coaches. And I always try to hire coaches who are good people first and foremost. Even more so than their license or their playing background or anything. I want to be surrounded by goodpeople and I want the players to surrounded by good people. I always err on that side. And then I just talk to them about how communication is key and the customer is the parent. It’s not theplayer.

We ask for twice per month team e-mail updates and what have we call Ballistic “press conferenes.” Those are more impromptu. Like after a game, or after training, you talkto the parents about how the week went. Developing relationships is what we try to preach.

Some coaches do it better than others.  Some are afraid, thinking a parent conversation is goingto lead to a confrontation. I try to get them past that.  Parents are coming to you because they love their kids. Yes, parents think their kids are a little bit better than they are generally,but it’s coming from a place of love. You’ve just got to start with that.

It’s easier for coaches who are parents. And for the most part at Ballistic, we don’t have a lot of full-time coaches.Just a few out of 30. I believe there’s a better balance that comes with coaches who have jobs outside of the game. And if they’re parents, they’re more likely to see things from a parent’sperspective, which is very important. And if you’re a full-time coach living in the Tri-Valley area you’re going to struggle financially for the rest of your life.

SA: When you look back on youth soccer now compared to when you played, were there aspects that were better then?

KEVIN CROW: Gosh, that’s atough one. Everyone from time to time has those conversations like, can we just go back to the way it used to be? Which is lower cost, less stress, less parent involvement — all that kind of stuff.But you can’t.

When I grew up, the rules were written where you have to play for the club in your city. No open boundaries. You had to work out your differences, if you had them, withyour local club, because you couldn’t go anywhere. You couldn’t say, “You’re not playing my son, we’re going across the highway to another club.”

It was a lot more sane. There wasn’t so muchmoney running through where people’s jobs were at stake — because those people were volunteers. If you had a director of coaching, it was a volunteer.

So that was kind of neat. When you lookback, right? Clubs still have a large volunteer base that helps them do a lot of stuff, but a lot of people, like myself, are now getting paid for what people used to do as volunteers. It’s verydifficult to imagine being able to go back to that way.

Kevin Crow’s father, Wayne Crow, played quarterback at Caland running back and punter for the Oakland Raiders and Buffalo Bills.

SA: How did you get started in soccer in the beginning? Was there aparental influence?

KEVIN CROW: My dad didn’t know anything about soccer. He was an ex-NFL football player who played for the Oakland Raiders and the BuffaloBills. We were a traditional football family. He didn’t know anything about a crazy sport where you kicked and chased a ball. But I hung out with my older brother and his friends playing sports, andthey started playing soccer. I got into it.

I fell in love with soccer. I think because it’s the ultimate team sport. I love it from the standpoint of sharing responsibility. Everybody gets tobe the quarterback.

SA: When did realize you could reach the higher levels of soccer?

KEVIN CROW: I played allthe sports until I was 14, 15, and then I started focusing on soccer. I had people who came from other countries and would watch me play, say, “You have something if you want to stay with it.” Whichwas nice to hear.

When I jumped from U-14s to U-16s, I had a coach named Ian Lang, who was buddies with [Earthquakes star] Johnny Moore. He was the typeof guy who could still play with us and be the best one on the field. He stoked the passion in me. And we just played a lot. It was back when you learned by just playing.

But I didn’t decideuntil the summer between my sophomore and junior year at San Diego State that I’m going to go for this. I’m going to give it a hard two years to make a run at this.