OU hires Mark Carr as new soccer coach

OU has had a series of duds as coaches in soccer basically since the program began. I went steadily the first few years and there just never was much top-level talent across the board on the team. I hold a coaching license and could coach college. Both my kids played through high school. One played on college scholarship. Several of the kids I coached did too.

It’s hard to start a program from scratch, especially when it’s not high on the scale of importance of OU Athletics.

It’s also hard to recruit to the Big 12 because this just isn’t where soccer is a important sport like it is primarily on both coasts.

We have tremendous facilities. We just need a Gasso or Riley and we need to pull every one else in the Big 12 up with us.

Baylor has three titles but they have faded somewhat.


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Oliver Hardy said:
OU has had a series of duds as coaches in soccer basically since the program began. I went steadily the first few years and there just never was much top-level talent across the board on the team. I hold a coaching license and could coach college. Both my kids played through high school. One played on college scholarship. Several of the kids I coached did too.

It’s hard to start a program from scratch, especially when it’s not high on the scale of importance of OU Athletics.

It’s also hard to recruit to the Big 12 because this just isn’t where soccer is a important sport like it is primarily on both coasts.

We have tremendous facilities. We just need a Gasso or Riley and we need to pull every one else in the Big 12 up with us.

Baylor has three titles but they have faded somewhat.


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I have never heard of a coaching license. How is that obtained and what exactly does it mean? I don't doubt you, just have never heard of it.
Does it apply to high school and junior high, as well as college?
Is it something needed to coach an aau team? Well, while I am asking questions, I know there are club teams for different sports but are they all AAU teams?

Realize you may not want to take your time to answer all of these questions or any. That's cool. I just don't have time to google now and thought I would inquire.
 
There are different levels of youth soccer coaching. It’s governed by the national soccer association and there are state associations that usually put on the coaching clinics.

Now, please take into account I started getting soccer coaching licenses 30+ years ago, so I’m sure a lot has changed.

Back then, you got basic youth level coaching licenses through your state soccer association by taking some course work and going through training and coaching clinics where you actually played games, practiced, learned and set up practice drills for the other coaches at the clinic and did some course work.

I also played soccer, indoor and outdoor, in my 30s on several local teams for about six years.

The licenses i received were recognized by the national soccer association.

You work your way up the ladder of coaching levels starting at E or F license levels, I can’t remember which.

I think the coaching levels were A through E back then.

You learned more about practice routines, formations etc. the higher you went up the coaching levels.

I worked my way up.

I had two daughters both who played club ball at very competitive levels, one of which went on to college on a soccer scholarship.

My license level ultimately was a C license.

I think they’ve increased the coaching requirements since I coached.

I always thought all youth sports organizations taught coaching, etc. basically this same way.

The ages of girls that I coached ranged over the years from 11 to 19.

Hope that answered your question.





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Last edited:
Oh, to answer another part of your question, I believe back then I could have coached high school if I had been a teacher.


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When you consider the solid youth programs in Norman, Edmond, Tulsa and, for the most part, Oklahoma City, it's surprising the Sooners don't do better in soccer. It's equally surprising that O-State has been the better of the programs lately.

I went to OU in the early 2000s and it seemed like they were slowly but surely climbing the hill. I'm not sure what went wrong.

Volleyball did the same thing there for a bit.
 
We just have not found the right coach and soccer isn't the hotbed it was in Oklahoma 25 years ago.

I doubt there's a bunch of attention being paid to it. It's a just a Title IX balancing sport, primarily everywhere, but particularly in the Big 12.
 
I have no idea if the new guy will be successful. But his resume has vast experience with player development with US Soccer at the lower levels.
You'd have to think he's picked up some skills with that tenure.
 
MsProudSooner said:
I wonder why it isn't as popular now. Are the girls playing other sports?
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Well, softball and basketball, I guess. Not sure how soon they start basketball, but it seems soccer and softball are popular at young ages.
 
Oliver Hardy said:
Oh, to answer another part of your question, I believe back then I could have coached high school if I had been a teacher.


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Thanks for the response. I was interested to hear how one received coaching credentials.
 
Going back to about 90-95, I got some sort of certification to be an official. As I remember, it was through Dallas County and only applied to the men's league games around Dallas. I was coaxed into it by a friend who was an official, and they needed officials. I don't remember whether it was for all sports or just basketball. I do remember that they had a similar thing for coaching, only applying to those leagues. I didn't have time to do it, and I soon found out that I no longer had the stamina to run up and down the court being over fifty at the time. There was some sort of test, but it was basic.
 
womenssports said:
Well, softball and basketball, I guess. Not sure how soon they start basketball, but it seems soccer and softball are popular at young ages.
Click to expand...

My grandkids live in Texas and you can play soccer at 3. I know there are basketball teams for 5-year-olds.

My grandsons played soccer on 'academy' teams for a while. To me, 'academy' was a euphemism for pay a lot of money to let soccer take over your life. They are playing rec basketball now and seem to be enjoying it more. I wonder how many kids start out in the hyper-competitive leagues and are burned out by 4th grade.
 
Too many. Personally I think kids should play in non-competitive leagues until they are at least 10 where every team mandatorily plays close to equal minute. The object just being play the game to have fun. Not a lot different than playing workup in baseball.

Once kids learn to play the game and show their competitive nature get them involved accordingly. Competitive circumstances drive too many kids away from athletics prematurely. Sad!!!
 
SoonerSpock said:
Too many. Personally I think kids should play in non-competitive leagues until they are at least 10 where every team mandatorily plays close to equal minute. The object just being play the game to have fun. Not a lot different than playing workup in baseball.

Once kids learn to play the game and show their competitive nature get them involved accordingly. Competitive circumstances drive too many kids away from athletics prematurely. Sad!!!
Click to expand...

The guy who was the head of their competitive soccer team quit his job and has taken his kids out of school so he can 'home school' them and they will have more time for soccer practice. He seems to think one of his kids is his ticket to coaching soccer in Europe.
 
It would be nice for the kid if he grew up and wanted to, could and did play rugby or cricket. :)
 
We were always very careful that our kids WANTED to play soccer, or do dance, gymnastics, cheer, cross country (all of which they did). We made a decision not to force them in any way.

We did insist that they give it their all if they played or performed.

It often was a balancing act because they would want to try stuff all the time.

I hated cheer with a white hot passion. Don't ever try to tell me that women cannot be more mean, nasty and conniving than men.
 
Oliver Hardy said:
We were always very careful that our kids WANTED to play soccer, or do dance, gymnastics, cheer, cross country (all of which they did). We made a decision not to force them in any way.

We did insist that they give it their all if they played or performed.

It often was a balancing act because they would want to try stuff all the time.

I hated cheer with a white hot passion. Don't ever try to tell me that women cannot be more mean, nasty and conniving than men.
Click to expand...

I was SO GLAD my daughters were never interested in being a cheerleader! Their basketball coach helped on that front. He always said, "Do you want to be the one who cheers or the one their are cheering for?"
 
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