The Field is My Sanctuary

By: Greg Winkler

Published: Soccer Journal April 2024

A coaching colleague pulled his car up to the practice field after a tough day of teaching. We share our field for after-school practices. My team is loosening up, and I watch as he walks across the field to where his girls are starting to prepare for the afternoon session. There is a scowl on his face, and I feel and I see no joy coming from him. I observed this same behavior three more days in a row. I am concerned. He is a 1st-year varsity coach, and I have been his mentor as he navigates his first season at the helm.

Finally, on the fifth day, I stopped and hugged him. I ask him what is causing this negative aura around him. He should be joyful and excited; he has a great group of young women to work with, and that alone should make him smile. He explains that the burdens of teaching, the overcrowded classes, and the behaviors that he deals with daily suck the life out of him.

I tell him to remember out here on the pitch, we love him. His girls love him, and he needs to mirror that love by bringing out his best. We hug again, and he heads to the team with a lighter gait.

We talked later that evening, and I empathized with his struggle. I taught for 24 years in a large high school with unreasonable expectations and often micromanaging supervisors. My current position is at a small public charter school, and it’s like teaching heaven. I know what his day is like. My advice to him was to treat the opportunity to coach and the ability to come to the field every day as his sanctuary.

It is OK to be grumpy as you leave the school and get in your vehicle to drive to the fields, but once you shut that car door and step on the field, leave the baggage at the gate. Leave all that negativity and anger at the gate or in your car. These players want to be here; they love you as their coach, and they deserve nothing but your best. He said he never thought about it like that and did some mid-season reflection.

In the following weeks, I saw a new coach coming on the field for practice. Most days, we shared a smile and a hug on his way to his session. A transformation had taken place.

He told me that my advice about the field being his sanctuary changed his perception and the way he coached. He called me his Yoda, and I was happy to see this young Jedi feel the force.

I have shared that advice with my high school players for three decades. When I coach the little kickers, those elementary-aged players are always excited and happy to get to the fields. The joy that comes from them makes everyone around them smile. As they hit middle and high school, some players bring an invisible backpack of worry as they practice. They are moody, play angry, or sulk through the entire practice.

Those players always get extra “coach” time at the end of practice. Sometimes, they share the issue causing the excess weight that day, and sometimes, they don’t. We discuss what they must do with that “backpack” of burden. We talk about the sanctuary of the pitch. Once they cross that white line of the field or walk into the park, they will leave that backpack there. Nothing that will negatively affect their play is allowed on the field.

They are young men and women; they are struggling with life. These moments will return, and reminders may be needed. If they play for me, they learn the lesson that we keep our troubles away from the team. There can be a time and place for those conversations; some are above my pay grade. We can provide help for those as well.

The soccer solution can become a life solution. When things go sideways in my personal life, even with as many trips around the sun as I have made, those issues do not affect my classroom or practice sessions. A coach I had as a youth provided me with that strategy, and hopefully, I can continue to pass that on.

The field is your sanctuary; nothing should take that JOY away from you or your team.

Keep on Kick’in

Greg has been coaching club and/or high school soccer since 1984. He has authored, “The Transformational Coach” and “Coaching a Season of Significance.”