Sugar and stress..a coach's life
By IAIN KING, Toronto, December 28, 2019
“HE’S backed himself there and you’ve got to admire that.”
That’s the pundit’s new go-to sentence, the collection of words they reach for to describe a player having the belief to shoot from distance or attempt an audacious piece of skill.
It is also the phrase that should be applied to every Scottish coach who ever left my native land and had the bravery to work abroad.
From Neill Collins, who won a new long-term contract in North America’s USL with Tampa Bay Rowdies this week, to the spirit-soaring adventure of former Rangers midfielder Peter Leven who proved his class with Dynamo Brest in Belarus.
Behind each tale of a Scottish coach succeeding abroad there is a hidden story of the trials and tribulations, the tears and the triumphs they have come through on their journey.
And in my experience approaching three years as a full-time coach in Canada now ON the field is the EASY part.
Unlike Peter I haven’t had to conquer a new language, although sitting a six-week refresher course to once again become fluent in French - my adopted country’s second tongue - is high on the list for 2020.
Yet when you land that dream job of coaching full-time, as I did in June 2017 when I joined North Toronto Nitros, there is always a spectre lurking in the shadows until you can one day banish it.
The visa, the work permit, Permanent Residency, the Green Card. For every Scot who makes it in North America it’s the nagging fear no coach from home can fully understand until they follow in your footsteps.
STANDARD BEARER...Neill Collins is doing Scottish coaches proud at Tampa Bay Rowdies
You’ve won that post you craved, following your heart into a vocation in the game you love and deep down you live in dread that one day it might be snatched away from you.
Brett Molloy, a former player of mine at BSC Glasgow in Scotland’s Lowland League, is a much-loved coach with Mount Olive in New Jersey, USA.
He’s already had one spell back home fretting over documentation and wondering what his next step would be despite all the great work he has done establishing himself in the States.
Each Friday night here I ease into the weekend either learning a new recipe or mastering my Chicken Balti, coach’s cuisine and I need the right music to cook it.
My most prized possessions shipped from home as we moved from a four-bedroom house in East Kilbride to a one-bedroom apartment in Toronto’s Greektown?
My record player and my vinyl collection, from Lloyd Cole and The Commotions to Bruce Springsteen and Biffy Clyro. Soundtrack of my life.
In the 80s I lived for The Jam, The Beat, Madness, The Specials. I loved all that.
There’s a song on the soulful album Special Beat Service, the title of which perfectly sums up the point I’m trying to make here. It's called Sugar and Stress.
The sugar is the chance to earn a living coaching full-time, the stress is all the secret battles you face trying to keep a hold of your dreams.
Landing your visa or work permit or applying for Permanent Residency is a costly business on a coach’s wages. It’s the part that is never advertised when you see those mouthwatering opportunities on Twitter.
I smiled ruefully recently when Brett tweeted me wailing about spilling coffee on his laptop and wrecking it. I’d done the same thing two weeks before and as a coach in North America your whole LIFE is on there.
Your schedules, your session plans, your player evaluations, everything. Insurance will help you a little but then your mind is elsewhere and one stupid accident means you are down $1,000 and all of a sudden life ain’t so sweet.
A WORK IN PROGRESS...Nitros 06 Boys CSL squad will bounce back to develop in 2020
Every Scottish coach I know working in youth football abroad is on a tight budget.
Renting a one-bedroom apartment in Toronto sets you back almost 1,200 quid a month. There’s a price tag to living in what I will always treasure as one of the best cities in the world.
Right now my wife Lorna and I are in the throes of the complex Permanent Residency (PR) process, praying we get the nod to keep this exciting chapter alive.
If not PR it’s the hope of a new work permit to stay in The 6ix doing the job I have come to love so much. Sugar and stress.
Almost three years on I still get e-mails and DMs from coaches at home who want to follow the more than 250 Scots who are here in North America pursuing full-time careers in The Beautiful Game.
I always try to offer constructive advice, it’s getting harder to land a job in the USA and Canada but the superb grounding the SFA’s coaching system gives us is still a crucial and respected foundation.
Yesterday I was at The Ontario Cup - our top provincial tournament - with Nitros’ 06 CSL Boys, our second tier team in that age group, who I took over as part of my new remit as Manager of Coach Development.
We got battered. We were mismatched and outclassed.
We lost every game, the last one very heavily to a superb Bolton Wanderers Academy side. It was a sore day at the office.
That happens here and as a coach you have to learn to park your ego. This is not about UEFA A Licences, it’s about knowing what your job is working for a youth club in a developing “soccer” country.
Our first priority and most important battle is perfectly summed up in the words of coaching guru Mark O’Sullivan.
“As many as possible for as long as possible in the best environment possible.”
My job yesterday was to lift the spirits of those developing players and make sure that when we return to business in our own regional league on January 4 they are still smiling and ready to continue their fight at the top of the table.
Then on the lonely drive home I self-reflected and examined my own role in coaching them for three short months and wondered how I could have prepared them better for that brutal step up in tournament class.
The new year will dawn for so many of those of who have left Scotland with those same obstacles to clear.
To stay on the field teaching the next generation to love the REAL game here - 3,500 miles from home - more than ice hockey, basketball, baseball or NFL.
It’s an honourable profession peopled by brave coaches who fight those hidden little battles every day of their football lives to get here and stay here.
Every man and woman has backed themselves - and you’ve GOT to admire that.
