Interview by Charley Nordin
Last year marked the first time a club from Tennessee won a U.S. Youth Soccer national championship. Coached by Ronnie Woodard,Tennessee SC’s U-18 girls lifted the Francis J. Kelly Cup and Woodard was named the 2016 NSCAA National Coach of the Year.
Woodard (née Coveleskie) started coaching after playinggoalkeeper at Duke (1988-91), where she captained the Blue Devils and was the program’s first scholarship player. After serving as assistant coach at Charlotte and goalkeeper coach at NorthCarolina State, Woodard was the head coach at Vanderbilt for nearly a decade, before arriving at Tennessee SC.
Ronnie Woodard on…
Coaching start
I walked into my coach Billy Hempen’s office after my last exam in my senior year at Duke University. I wasunsure about my future plans. He said something that struck close to the heart: “Ronnie, soccer has given you so many opportunities and shown you so many different places of the world. Nowit’s time for you to give back to the sport. A great way to give back to the sport is to start to coach.” I was 22 years old, my first team was a U-11 boys team.
Mostenjoyable thing about coaching
I love having the opportunity to empower young girls to become strong women. It’s really important to me, being part of that Title IX generation,that we help grow the sport and that we help create strong female leaders in our communities. I think sport does a lot for a girls’ confidence and teaches them great leadership abilities.
Least enjoyable thing about coaching
Being away from my family when I’m on the road with my team.
Your influential coaches
The firstwould be Eric Vaughter, he was my goalkeeper coach in ODP and he was my college goalkeeper coach at Duke. He taught me an awful lot about persevering and a work ethic and mentaltoughness in general. He taught me a lot of the intangible qualities that I still hold today and teach my team. Of course, Billy Hempen, who inspired me to give back to the sport. Finally, there isRobbie Church, who hired me for my very first assistant coaching job and I’ve been blessed to have him as a great mentor, leader and one of my best friends as I’ve gonethrough my entire development as a young aspiring coach to the dinosaur that I am today.
Biggest mistake youth coaches make
Please stop yelling. Please stop getting veryemotional on the sidelines making the events of the game into personal attacks.
Your advice for youth coaches
Try to solve the tactical and technical situations that arecausing the problem on the field — instead of only addressing the effort of the players.
I think that we’ve all been really guilty of getting caught up in the emotion of the game, butit’s really important that we ground ourselves and force ourselves away and have the ability to sort through the happenings of what’s going on on the field at that time, what your teamneeds to do better, and then how you can fix that at halftime and address the situation moving forward.
Start teaching and stop yelling. That’s the biggest thing that I try to implementin how I coach, how can I be a leader and teacher without being a dominating force on the sideline. How can I make sure that my players hear my message instead of dread my message.
Soccer movies
“The 99ers,” which is the story of the 1999Women’s World Cup team and the follow up is “Dare to Dream: The Story of the U.S. Women’sSoccer Team,” another documentary about our women’s national team. Every time I watch that I get chills and tear up. I can remember watching it first hand and experiencing every partof it.
Soccer books
“What Drives Winning” by Brett Ledbetter. I love theleadership model that they teach through that book and I try to implement that with my team as often as I can. It makes me realize that soccer is more than Xs and Os. It’s leadership andcharacteristics that are important for champions to possess.
And “Rookie: Surviving Your Freshman Year of College Soccer” byDan Blank. It’s really insightful and every young woman that is about to start her freshman year of college should get a copy of that book. I actually give that book to all ofmy graduating seniors.
If you had a magic wand
Instead of running off children because of the high cost of youth soccer and travel demands, implement opportunities forour younger players and our socioeconomically challenged athletes to be able to afford soccer at a young age. I want to see more young kids from all backgrounds coming together and having a morebalanced approach to their development. Specifically, young girls. I would like to see more young girls running around in our rec programs, and then going into our select programs and going throughthe process. I want more and more of our female athletes kicking soccer balls than what we see now.
Special memory
The team that just graduated and went off to college,I had them for four years, and so we started our journey when they started their journey in high school. Watching them grow from these 14-year-old girls into young women who are moving on to college.Those girls have brought me so many memories that I still smile whenever I think of them.
Why do so many goalkeepers make good coaches?
Keepers are similar to a catcher in baseball. They are the only player on the field that can observe the entire field of play. Gives them a better perspective of the game.
Ususally they manage from more of a defensive perspective.they see the game from the back to the front.
Well said guys.