Alyssa and Kristin celebrate our 12th straight Big Ten title
I’ve been proud to be a member of the SoccerPlus family for almost 10 years now. During that time, I’ve heard Tony DiCicco espouse what I believe to be a principle tenet to his coaching methodology many times: “challenge [your players], and then guide them to success.” I’ve always appreciated this statement as the fundamental principle in coaching our players. This past Saturday, however, this statement took on a different meaning.
There I was standing at the front of a banquet room speaking to a room full of Penn State soccer players, their parents, booster club members, and our support staff. I was up there to give out our 2009 team-voted “Most Improved Player” award to one of our backup goalkeepers, Kristin Hartmann; I was totally psyched for her. Kristin is a sophomore this year and has been playing behind All-American Alyssa Naeher (see my last blog post: Who Impacts Who?) since she arrived on campus in August 2008. Now, that’s a challenge.
So, day in and day out for the past year-and-a-half, Kristin has trained with, competed with, and measured herself against one the of the best young goalkeepers in the country in Alyssa. And yet I have witnessed countless moments where Kristin has also been mentored, coached, and inspired by that very same training partner.
Shortly after I presented the “Most Improved Player” award to Kristin, I was back at the front of the room presenting the “Defensive MVP” award to Alyssa. While presenting this award, I looked over towards Kristin and saw her smiling slightly and nodding intently. And that’s when it dawned on me: sometimes the best challenges our players face have nothing to do with us and everything to do with the challenges they present each other and the guidance they receive from one another.
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