“I remember being that young coach with my notepad out, and I’ll never
forget my first session with Anson Dorrance … and then going to the
women’s coaches breakfasts and socials — I felt like I was supported by a
network and a community, and they have guided me my entire career.”

— Emma Hayes on attending the 2002 United Soccer Coaches Convention.

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For many, the Coaches Convention is an annual reunion with soccer friends made years or decades ago at the event. For others, it could a first trip to “The world’s largest gathering of soccer coaches” and hearing Emma Hayes share locker room and practice field insight from her gold-medal coaching.

It has for decades taken place every January, hosted by the United Soccer Coaches, which launched back in 1941 as the NSCAA (National Soccer Coaches Association of America). It’s also long attracted administrators, soccer luminaries and marketeers, who manage scores of booths in the exhibit hall.

The 2025 Convention took place in Chicago last weekend, which marked the 36th gathering I’ve attended. My first came at age 24, when our Soccer America crew flew cross country to the nation’s capital for the 1988 event.

Shortly upon arrival, I found myself in the hotel lounge with 1974 World Cup winner Paul Breitner, one of that year’s presenters, N.C. State coach George Tarantini and Horst Bertl, the Dallas youth coach, a former Bundesliga champion and NASL player.

Breitner spoke to Tarantini about his brother, Alberto Tarantini, a defender on the Argentine team that beat the Ernst Happel-coached Netherlands in the 1978 World Cup final. Happel coached Bertl at Hamburg SV and the conversation turned to their famous coaches. I listened fascinated by their behind-the-scenes anecdotes.

I was also able to meet face-to-face important American soccer people who’d I only previously talked to by phone, others I hadn’t known, and grassroots coaches from parts of the nation I’d never been to.

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Over the decades, those hosting field sessions, classroom presentations or making celebrity appearances, besides the top American coaches from youth to pros and national teams, included Pele, Gerard Houllier and Carlos Alberto Parreira. The Convention also honors all-Americans and celebrates lifetime achievements, and enables meetings for various organizations and between them.

The Chicago gathering proved remarkable for the major presence of U.S. Soccer staff, led by President Cindy Parlow Cone and CEO/General Secretary JT Batson, and including leaders of its player ID, refereeing and sports medicine departments.

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‘The U.S. Way’

Matt Crocker, U.S. Soccer’s Sporting Director (overseeing the entire national team program) for the last 18 months, presented the Federation’s “The U.S. Way” strategy it mapped out after a year of research and feedback gathering.

“We want to celebrate and promote that 95% of player development happens with you guys in your clubs,” Crocker said. “You help not just develop national team players, but help children stay involved in the game forever, whether that be as a future referee, an administrator, a coach, a fan. … Our ambition at U.S. Soccer is to make sure we become the No. 1 support service for you as clubs, as coaches in player development.”

The Q&A part of the presentation ended with an audience member getting the mic and saying: