Advocacy and Growing the High School Game
Howie Putterman & Greg Winkler
High School Advocacy Group Chairs
How often do you find yourself talking to your high school coaching peers, only to start listing all the reasons high school coaches believe that they are third-class citizens in the soccer community? High school soccer provides opportunities to many players that cannot afford to play at the club level and can expose many young players to the game. The majority of high school coaches promote sportsmanship and help develop the student-athlete. There is a higher standard of performance on and off the field for the high school player.
High school coaches need to realize the enormous amount of power we can have if we advocate for our game as one. As advocacy chairs for the high school group, we have seen the impact of advocacy within the soccer landscape. When you look at the four soccer tiers; youth, high school, college, and professional, it is the high school group with the largest membership numbers in our organization.
When we look at all of the advocacy groups within United Soccer Coaches, including the Women’s, Black Coaches, LGBTQ & Allies, Latino Coaches, and Disabilities Allies Group, just to name a few, each and every one crosses over into the high school world. We have the opportunity to work within all of these groups to become even stronger.
Therefore, we as high school coaches, need to take advantage of the vast network we have. We must channel our energy through the platform the United Soccer Coaches organization has provided for us. If we utilize the high school advocacy group to develop our everyday issues and concerns, our voice will become louder and more impactful. Non-soccer administrators and referees will no longer motivate the changes we as coaches want to see in our game.
We can use the influence and expertise of United Soccer Coaches to help us connect with the right sources to achieve the change we desire. They have a marketing team that can help us put out the messages we want coming from our game. High school athletics emphasize the student-athlete and sportsmanship. High school soccer provides opportunities to play for kids of all economic backgrounds. High school coaches have a more significant effect on character-building and the player’s growth as a valuable member of their schools and their communities.
Our team is going to help provide valuable content to this newsletter. As a member, you have the opportunity to get involved. You can submit content through our group, and you can help promote this organization. It is time for us to keep moving forward and quit looking in the rearview mirror.
We are looking to make the high school game even more significant in 2021.
For more information on the High School Advocacy Group, please contact Greg Winkler at gregwinkler10@gmail.com