Uma série produzida por Richie Gray, CEO do Sol Sports Club
A few years ago, one of our players rode to practice with his dad and didn’t want to get out of the car.
After a difficult stretch of health issues and injuries, he wasn’t enjoying soccer anymore. He told his dad he wanted to quit.
His dad didn’t argue with him. He told him to take the day off and think about what he wanted. If college soccer wasn’t the goal, he didn’t have to keep playing at the highest level. He could change teams and play high school soccer with his friends.
That’s what he did and his senior year became one of his favorite experiences. That same year, his dad asked whether he’d be interested in coaching in our Futures Program.
The player was Giancarlo Santos
His dad is Eddie Santos, our Boys Academy Director. Today, Giancarlo coaches a U10 boys team, including players who have been with him since their first Futures sessions. This season, he also took on a young girls team.
“Everything that kind of led to where I am now started with that decision,” he told me.
He recognizes that same response in some of his players now and it shapes how he talks to them.
I knew Giancarlo as a coach. Until we talked, I hadn’t heard that part of his story.
If your child is in a season like that right now, the one where they don’t want to get out of the car, I think there’s something worth considering in Eddie’s response. He gave his son room to think about what he wanted and offered another way to stay involved. For Giancarlo, that made a difference.
He’s one of several former players coaching for us now. Recently, I spent time with him, Zeta Chevalier, Gabriel Ocaris, and Ethan Guillem because I wanted to understand what brought them back.
Em “Six Years Later,” I shared how Alfonzo Garwacki is helping younger coaches develop. These conversations gave me a chance to hear from some of those coaches themselves.
Zeta Chevalier
Zeta’s parents bought her the cheapest cleats and shin guards they could find.
She had tried soccer at the YMCA and quit. When her younger brother Chase started playing recreational soccer with us, she wanted to try again. Her parents weren’t convinced it would last.
She stayed, although there were difficult years along the way. During the transition from middle school into high school, teammates left and age groups changed. She considered stopping.
She remembers Coach Alvin Alexander helping her through that stretch. The relationships she had here were a big reason she stayed. The club felt like home.
Zeta began coaching while she was still playing in college. After four years of college soccer, she returned home and came back to coach here. Today her mother, Dawn, is a team manager again, this time for her daughter.
Zeta also teaches high school chemistry. At her parent meeting this season, she explained that she looks for effort and communication. She wants the girls to learn to communicate with her themselves, a responsibility they can carry beyond soccer.
She also made it clear that the parents have a role:
“You guys aren’t just there to get your kid from point A to point B. You’re part of the team too.”
Gabriel Ocaris
Gabriel joined us at 17 with a few friends and dreams of playing professionally. After meeting Coach Alfonzo at tryouts, he knew who he wanted to play for.
He described himself as a hardworking player who wanted to be someone his teammates could count on. He set his sights on becoming captain and earned that responsibility within a few games. Being benched at U18 was one of his hardest experiences here. He responded by putting in extra work outside training and getting stronger.
He went on to play college soccer, but an ACL injury changed his plans.
He turned to Alfonzo, unsure what came next. Alfonzo told him to finish school and start taking his coaching badges, then brought him along to help at his team sessions. Gabriel found that he enjoyed teaching children and he started working in our Futures program. He has his D license now and wants to keep going. Patience has been one of his biggest lessons. Knowing what to do as a player is different from helping a child understand it.
At 17, Gabriel pictured his future on the field as a player. Today, he’s building a future there as a coach. It looks different from what he imagined, but he’s found something he wants to pursue.
Ethan-Guillem
Ethan started coaching for reasons many college students would understand: the hours worked with his schedule and the pay was good.
After playing his senior year with our club, he talked with Giancarlo and other former players that he knew who were now coaching. It sounded like an opportunity worth trying. Then he found that he enjoyed it.
Ethan knows what it’s like to need encouragement. He started soccer later than many of his friends and remembers struggling to catch up. His coach, Raul Jara, worked with him on staying composed with the ball. When Ethan began improving, his coach sent him a five-minute voice message about his progress.
Years later, Ethan still remembers that message.
After coaching in our Mighty Mites and Futures programs, he now has a U9 team. Recently, a child he had coached in Mighty Mites recognized him at practice and told him he loved soccer.
Ethan is studying engineering, so he doesn’t yet know how coaching will fit into his future. But he knows what he hopes his players will say:
“In 10 years I hope my players talk about me to other people by saying I helped them fall in love with soccer.”
What Stayed With Me
I asked about their playing years, but much of what stayed with me was about the people around them.
Zeta talked about her college coach telling her she would remember the bus rides. Looking back, she said he was right. She remembers the long trips with teammates. From a trip to play Lipscomb, she remembers the beautiful field and a teammate’s dad bringing pumpkin rolls.
Those details made me smile. As parents, we put so much into getting our children to the next practice or game. We don’t always know which parts they’ll carry with them.
Now these former players are helping create that experience for someone else and they’re still learning themselves.
Alfonzo is mentoring younger coaches. The coaches are also helping one another, sharing ideas and showing up at each other’s games. That’s encouraging to hear as the person responsible for helping build the organization around them.
Our Futures program helped Gabriel, Giancarlo, and Ethan get started. Eddie oversees that program and what began as a bridge for young players has also become an opportunity for young coaches. That’s the story I want to share next.
In the first post of this series, I wrote that I hoped players would leave knowing an adult cared about them. These former players remember those adults. Now they have an opportunity to become one for someone else.
Long after the final whistle, that’s a part of the game worth carrying forward.
— Richie Gray
CEO, Clube Esportivo Sol
