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This week we spoke with Shannon McMillan, a San Diego native and soccer legend. During college, she played in Portland, Oregon, and then at the national level. Shannon was part of the women’s team that won Gold (’99) and Silver (’00) medals at the Olympics. In ’99, Shannon also played on the winning U.S. Women’s World Cup team. In 2016 she was inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame
Today, Shannon is back in San Diego, helping soccer grow in her hometown; she works as the Executive Director of the Del Mar Carmel Valley Sharks and the VP of Comms for San Diego Loyal. In this episode, we discussed some of the challenges that face soccer clubs, both when working with the players and with the coaches. At the heart of it all, it comes down to teaching kids tools that translate into life beyond the world of soccer. Shannon reflected on some of the skills she believes are most important. These included teaching kids to have confidence and to see different approaches to leadership.
When it comes to coach development, education, and hiring/firing—although licensing is important—we talked about how it’s really about establishing a connection with the players. As Shannon said, “That’s just as important as the X’s and the O’s. And that’s really hard to teach people because you either have that innate ability to connect with people and kids, or you don’t.” One of the barometers in play at the Sharks (for hiring and firing coaches) is to examine how the players are experiencing the game. Are they showing up excited to play? Are they improving? Are they having fun?
We talked about how at the heart of it, in order to instill these skills and values into the games for the kids, we have to look at our leadership and our egos. Shannon shared, “this is about giving back to the game and finding the right coaches, because it does trickle down on the fly. I don’t put the pressure on the coaches because I don’t want them to show up and put that pressure on them [the kids]. We don’t micromanage our coaches.”
To hear more of Shannon’s perspective on leadership, coaching, and the game of soccer, check out the episode on YouTube or wherever you find your podcasts.