Sigi Schmid has been a tremendous role model for coaches to follow, both on and off the field. José Miguel Romero of the Seattle Times sheds some insight into the man behind the success in Seattle.
For Sigi Schmid, life has been a series of challenges.
The Sounders FC coach faced each hurdle like a soccer opponent to be studied, dissected and conquered. Learning English in a new country. Overcoming a stuttering problem. Finding his way from a dreary job as an accountant to follow his passion for soccer.
And, finally, becoming one of U.S. soccer's most successful coaches and trying to take an expansion team to the Major League Soccer playoffs.
"Challenges, yeah, have always been a big part of my life," Schmid says.
To understand Schmid's determination, go back to some of his early struggles. He moved from his native Germany to the U.S., and with German spoken at home, he began school without a command of English. Still, he overcame that hurdle to become a good student who struggled to overcome a stuttering problem through high school that made speaking in front of groups an uncomfortable experience.
Soccer was always his refuge. When his family returned to Germany on vacations, he loved hustling rides to watch top-level Bundesliga clubs play exhibitions in small neighboring towns.
Yet his working-class parents steered him a different career direction - business. His father worked for Pabst Brewing, and his mother ran a cafeteria in Germany and a German deli in the Los Angeles area where Sigi worked on weekends. Soccer wasn't considered a career option.
So he majored in economics while playing soccer at UCLA, got his master's in business administration and became a certified public accountant. Yet soccer was always there - waiting and beckoning.
From 1978 to 1984, Schmid worked eight months out of the year as a CPA and spent the other four - soccer season - as an assistant and later head coach at UCLA.
"For me the dream was always: 'I want to coach soccer,' " Schmid says.
http://m.apnews.com/ap/db_/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=ABBZRdS0
For Sigi Schmid, life has been a series of challenges.
The Sounders FC coach faced each hurdle like a soccer opponent to be studied, dissected and conquered. Learning English in a new country. Overcoming a stuttering problem. Finding his way from a dreary job as an accountant to follow his passion for soccer.
And, finally, becoming one of U.S. soccer's most successful coaches and trying to take an expansion team to the Major League Soccer playoffs.
"Challenges, yeah, have always been a big part of my life," Schmid says.
To understand Schmid's determination, go back to some of his early struggles. He moved from his native Germany to the U.S., and with German spoken at home, he began school without a command of English. Still, he overcame that hurdle to become a good student who struggled to overcome a stuttering problem through high school that made speaking in front of groups an uncomfortable experience.
Soccer was always his refuge. When his family returned to Germany on vacations, he loved hustling rides to watch top-level Bundesliga clubs play exhibitions in small neighboring towns.
Yet his working-class parents steered him a different career direction - business. His father worked for Pabst Brewing, and his mother ran a cafeteria in Germany and a German deli in the Los Angeles area where Sigi worked on weekends. Soccer wasn't considered a career option.
So he majored in economics while playing soccer at UCLA, got his master's in business administration and became a certified public accountant. Yet soccer was always there - waiting and beckoning.
From 1978 to 1984, Schmid worked eight months out of the year as a CPA and spent the other four - soccer season - as an assistant and later head coach at UCLA.
"For me the dream was always: 'I want to coach soccer,' " Schmid says.
http://m.apnews.com/ap/db_/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=ABBZRdS0
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