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Just For Kicks
THE 60th anniversary of the founding of the National Soccer Coaches Association of America is being observed this year. Barry pitches
benefits of NSCAAThe association has 14,582 members and close to 10,000 of them are youth or high school coaches.
Ninety-four Hawaii coaches are members, better than most other states in Region Eight which is led by California with over 800 members.
Bob Barry, a long-time Interscholastic League of Honolulu boys coach and most recently the head men's coach at Brigham Young-Hawaii, has been active in the NSCAA at the national level for years.
One responsibility he surrendered because of NCAA regulations when he took the BYUH job was making sure Hawaii's deserving high school players received national recognition.
"Hawaii is entitled to a certain number of high school regional All-Americans. We have not been getting them. This is something I want to address," said Barry, now concentrating on his duties as Mililani Soccer Club's director of coaching.
Barry attended the annual convention in Indianapolis last week. He said one of the biggest concerns was what the NSCAA could do to help improve attendance at the NCAA men's final four.
The experience in Charlotte, N.C., in recent years didn't approach what organizers had promised.
That event has been moved to Columbus, Ohio, for the next two years and will use the 22,500-seat stadium in which Major League Soccer's Crew plays its matches.
Barry listed a number of reasons why a coach should consider joining the NSCAA.
"The major benefit is the fact you are a member of an association that has it's own coaching school program," he said.
"Second is each coach automatically has a million dollar liability coverage.
"NSCAA publishes Soccer Journal six times a year and they are talking about eight to 10 times a year. The journal has coaching tips and other useful information. When the national staff does a training program, the articles in Soccer Journal break down each session."
And, advertisers tout everything from equipment to uniforms to training tapes in the publication.
Barry also said the NSCAA made $5,000 donations to the Soccer in the Street program and to Special Olympics at the convention.
Anyone interested in joining can find membership information on the NSCAA Web site at www.nscaa.com or call Barry at 236-4515.
You can also email him at: rbarry@iolani.honolulu.hi.us
The dues are reasonable.
The United States national men's team begins preparation for the final round of World Cup qualifying with a match against China on Saturday in the Oakland Coliseum.
The Americans will host Columbia in Miami on Feb. 3.
U.S. coach Bruce Arena will take a youth-dominated team to Oakland. Only three European-based players --strikers Brian McBride (Preston North End in England) and Landon Donovan (Bayer Leverkusen in Germany) and midfielder Ben Olsen (Nottingham Forest in England) --have been recalled for the match.
Eleven of the American players have less than five matches of international experience.
China is coached by Bora Milutinovic. He coached the U.S. in 1994 when the Americans reached the quarterfinal round of the World Cup before losing to Brazil, 1-0, in the Rose Bowl.
Brazil returns to the Rose Bowl March 3 for an international on friendly against the U.S.
It will be the 10th meeting between the countries with Brazil holding a 9-1 advantage. However, the last five matches have been won by 1-0 scores.
