This week’s podcast guest, like last week’s, had experience on the field before segueing into a different role within the soccer community. Joe LaCasto, assistant head coach at UNC Asheville, shared with us his experience navigating the recruitment process as a high school student, playing on a Division 1 team, and pursuing his coaching license. It was a packed conversation!
If you’d like to listen to the whole episode, find the episode wherever you download your podcasts or watch the conversation on YouTube.
We asked LaCasto about the moment when he realized that playing as a professional wasn’t in his future. He answered, “I realized that it was just time to, to kind of hang up the boots…in the competitive way, and take that next step into coaching…I wasn’t going to be in the MLS… [or] a big league in Europe. It wasn’t worth a few more years of chasing contract to contract… and barely scraping by month to month rent.”Instead, he asked himself, “was it worth trying to start…early into my coaching career and take that next step down that path?”
And he decided it was.
Today, LaCasto is not only the assistant coach at UNC, but he also coaches at the club level: he has anO-8 team and an O-6 team. He’s pursuing his USSoccer C license, in part, through sponsorship through the youth club he works for. And he brings his experience as a player to his philosophy as a coach.
LaCasto draws not only on his playing experience but also on the different coaches he’s encountered over the years. We asked him if he could share the best and worst advice he’d heard with us. The worst advice? The idea that “if you’re naturally good enough, you’ll make it. If you’re not naturally good enough, you’re just never going to become a good player.” And the best advice? “Some of the best advice that resonated with me as a coach was that as a coach, your job is always to let a player know where they stand honestly, and how they can develop honestly, and what they need to do.” Clear communication is key, and the focus (and challenge) is the honesty aspect.
You won’t want to miss hearing the rest of our conversation! To dive in, find Episode 9 of the Soccer Geeks podcast wherever you listen to your podcasts.