Who Impacts Who?

Alyssa Naeher

It’s 9:55 am on Friday, January 15^th at the Philadelphia Convention Center. I enter a dimly lit room and take note of the unique convergence of so many people from all over the country. Some people are hard at work, some people are beaming with pride, and some people are nervously smiling and anxiously finding their seats. I’m at the 2010 NSCAA Convention and I’ve just walked into the Women’s Professional Soccer Draft room; I’m there because the goalkeeper that I’ve coached for the past three years has been projected to be drafted and I couldn’t be happier to be in the room to witness her realizing her dreams and celebrating her future.

But for me, this event was also the culmination of a three-year snapshot of my professional career. The three years that concluded on January 15^th have forever changed me in many ways. However, there is one reason in particular that I am far better off today than I was three years ago; I have learned that while we (coaches) often think (or want to believe) that its we who affect our players lives, we can be dramatically impacted by our players, as well.

Let me explain. To do so, we need to go back in time. It’s March 2007 and the head coach that I’m working for at Harvard University, Erica Walsh, has decided to take the job as the next head coach Penn State University; she’s asked me to make the move with her. I’m 22 and I realize that I’m going to be the goalkeeper coach for the 2-time NSCAA Youth All-American and, according to some, highest-rated freshman goalkeeper in the country, Alyssa Naeher. “Cool,” I think.

I had no idea how cool it would be.

Alyssa was a freshman when I moved in State College. She was injured during the end of her freshman fall season, and she was just getting back into the swing of things when I arrived on campus. For the next three years, I have had the absolute privilege of working with her nearly day-in and day-out.

When I first arrived at Penn State, Alyssa was 18. Only four years her senior, I felt the need to talk at her as much as possible in order to “impart my wisdom” (ha) so that I could prove my worth as her goalkeeper coach. This methodology lasted about a year until I realized (OK, the truth: she helped a bit with the self-realization process) I was treating her like a kid. That was one of the first days that I learned something truly significant from her. Lesson #1: listening trumps talking for the sake of talking every single time.

During the spring of her junior year, I was in my first year of the MBA program here at Penn State. Because of my class schedule, I had the goalkeepers training at 6:30 am. They (Alyssa and two freshmen) were absolute pros in handling the less-than-ideal circumstances; I give all the credit in the world to the fact that I never heard or saw Alyssa be disgruntled for one second before, during, or after the training. Here, I had one of the best goalkeepers in the world (she was just coming off receiving the Golden Glove award at the U.S. U20 World Championships) leading by example before the rest of the team even awoke. And that wasn’t the end of it. One of the freshman goalkeepers was doing extra sessions with me at 6:30 am on different mornings, and Alyssa woke up early, unsolicited by me, to come help serve balls and to support her. Alyssa was voted the team’s lone captain that same spring. Lesson #2: being the best shouldn’t change who you are.

There have been countless moments and many other lessons that I will keep with me for a very long time. However, the series of events that occurred during her last eight months as a Penn State student-athlete will always leave an indelible impression on me.

Let me set the stage: in her junior spring, Alyssa was a two-time 1^st team All-American, Big Ten Defensive Player-of-the-Year, U20 World Champion, and Gold Glove winner (among other things). She was called into a U.S. U23 Women’s National Team camp in Portland and she went. In the team’s final game against Portland, Alyssa was involved in a collision and injured her knee. She flew back to State College and the next day found out that she tore her PCL. It was April 20^th; she had about three months until the start of her senior campaign, and no one could promise that she’d be back to full strength in time.

What I witnessed was one of the most impressive displays of commitment, resilience, and dedication to making a hope of getting back on the field for the fall season into a reality. For the entire summer, she woke up early and spent every possible minute in the training room with our amazing trainer, Andra. Andra and Alyssa admit spending up to eight hours a day together with each other during the summer rehabbing her knee. My true appreciation of her hard work came from first hand experience: I started out doing the pool workouts with her towards the end of May when she was finally cleared to do so. After about a week in the pool with her, I hit the road for camps. When I returned from the camp circuit six weeks later, she totally blew me out of the water.

At the start of August, we finally got back on the field and it wasn’t always easy. There were the good days when her athleticism and technical ability shone through and there were the days when the brace wouldn’t even allow her to get up off the ground. But she never complained and she never doubted that she would make it back. When we opened our season against the University of Virginia on August 21^st, Alyssa was in goal; we won 1-0 and she earned Big Ten Defensive Player-of-the-Week honors for her efforts. Lesson #3: if you want something, don’t make excuses. Just make it happen.

And so, when Alyssa was drafted 11^th overall in the 1^st round of the 2010 WPS Draft on January 15^th by the Boston Breakers, I couldn’t help but feel a tremendous sense of gratitude for the past three years that I’ve spent coaching her at Penn State. That emotion in particular really struck me; it seems that more often than not, it’s the player who exhibits the gratitude for what the coach has done. For many of us, me included, that player appreciation is at the heart of why we coach: we chose to do what we do in order to positively affect the play and the lives of our players.

But the fact of the matter is, if we pay attention, our players can significantly and positively impact not only our coaching but also our lives, as well.

Tagged as: Alyssa Naeher, Draft, Goal Keeper, Mariel Wilner, NSCAA, Penn State, WPS