On a cold, blustery weekend, 34 area coaches braved winter-type weather conditions to take Len Oliver’s USSF E Course, with 10 coaches representing DC Stoddert.  The course attracted coaches from 10 different countries, bringing the total countries represented in the training over the years to 77!

Since he started training area coaches in 1989, Len has trained 4,011 coaches, with the Garcia girls, Angie and Chrissy, representing Len’s 3,999^th and 4,000^th coach trained in this period.   Coaches as young as 16 and as old as 70 have taken the courses, all conducted at the Jelleff Club.

Len sheepishly admits to keeping the name and address of every coach he has trained over the years, “so that when I am 95 I can send them postcard to see if they are still in the game!”   And even though he tries to master all the names of coaches in each course, he also admits to forgetting names after the courses, especially when a coach comes to his seats at RFK during a DC United game and says, “Hi, Len, remember me?  I took your course 10 years ago!”

In the December 5-7 'E' course, Craig Jones, DC Stoddert Travel Coach and VYSA staff member, assisted Len on the last day.  The course, geared for the U9 coach and above, combined classroom lecture/discussions on Methods, Tactics, Team Management, Laws, and Care and Prevention of Injuries with active, high-participation field sessions on all technical aspects of the game, attacking and defending principles, goalkeeping, small-sided games, restarts, coaching practice, and use of different types of warm-ups.  

As Len points out, “most of the coaches in this course will go on to obtain the USSF D License, some even going on to the USSF National C, B, and A License—the highest license to be awarded by the US Soccer Federation.”   Most gratifiying to Len were the coaches who have played the game, ranging from high school to the professional ranks, and who are “essential to making these courses work.”  

In this course, for example, one could find a test pilot, a physician, a lawyer, economists, DC United staff, government employees, businessmen, an architect, an engineer, teachers, a professor, a banker, members of the armed forces, students, and full-time soccer coaches.  “That’s been the mix over the years,” said Len, “and the only thing most have in common is a love of the game.  Soccer does that to you!”