Atlanta Soccer News

Atlanta Soccer Interview Feature

First in our new series of interviews, we sit down with Anton Sieber, League President at Dawson County United and frequent article contributor here at AtlantaSoccer.net

You can find out more about Dawson County United and the programs they offer the Dawson Soccer and Forsyth Soccer community at http://dawsoncountyunited.com

Q) What are your feelings about the current state of the youth soccer system in greater Atlanta and Georgia?

It’s competitive. Some areas are very strong. It is amazing how it is growing currently without the support of an MLS team. Every time I turn around it seems that there is a new tournement on the schedule or a new event going on. I would love to be able to know the numbers to see if all of these new tournaments are actually in demand or just a product of clubs wanting more revenue.

All in all, I like a lot of what I see as far as the quality of play, but I also fear that the young players that may be considered “casual” players in the rec systems risk getting lost or overlooked by the big clubs in thier battle to have the best elite programs and win the most accolaides. 

I understand that we want to identify players at a young age that have potential to go on to great things, but we also need offer encouragement to the rec kids who may bloom later into into real fans and supportors of the game. They may not end up playing pro one day, but they will be life long fans that help our sport grow in this country and bring more visability to the game.

Getting back to the majoy league team issue, Atlanta is a strange sports town. So much of our population is made up of transplants from nieghboring cities in the south, it seems that all of our pro teams have a difficult challenge developing vibrant fan bases. The Silverbacks have worked very hard to develop what they have and I aplaud them. They have done well to build what they have but it has been an uphill climb.

I was lucky enough to grow up in Tampa during the late 70’s when the NASL was going strong and the Tampa Bay Rowdies were very involved in our community. In turn, the local youth system in Tampa was light years ahead of any comparible city of it’s size. The players were very accessable and were role models to us in the local youth clubs. They inspired us to be better. Having local heroes in the sport is very important for the self-visualiztion process and it can really aid in your development as a player. In fact, that is one of the first things I tell my academy kids. Watch some soccer and find a favorite player or two. I will even give them homework questions about players and certain games that are on. 

Most of the overseas players on the Rowdies, expecially the South American ones, played the game with such joy and creativity. Everytime they had the ball at thier feet it was like Christmas morning to them. That pure love for playing the game is what it’s all about and it is what I try to teach my young players. Don’t get so caught up in playing a system and being just a piece of the puzzle. Get out there and experiment, create, flow, breathe in the game. Express yourself and live in the moment. Out on the pitch are the memories you will hold on to forever. Do what you can to make them magical.

Q)  What is the biggest change you would like to see?

That’s easy. The big money fees. Some of the fees at these monster clubs are through the roof. It really does harm to the sport as a whole and only further feeds the image that elte soccer in this country is a sport for the upper middle class only. I know that training with big name ex-pro players is not free and everyone deserves to be paid for thier time, that is not my issue. If you are a player on an elite team and you are getting elite training, traveling, going over seas, etc.., then yes, you will be paying a high price. That’s just simple economics.

Where my concern is the clubs that field multiple teams in each age group that are supposed to be elite, and all of them share the same high price tag. If player 1 is trully elite and pays $1700 a season to play on the “A” team in his age group and recieves all of the perks and one-on-one attention, but player B plays on the “D” team in that age group and only made the team because they had spots to fill and his parents are able to also pay the $1700 to play, then that is not good. For this reason, I would love to see Atlanta Soccer Academies limited to just two teams in each age group.

Further more, the alarming rate at which rec soccer fees are going up is verly alarming. Slowly, clubs have been adding fees to thier rec leagues to help cover the cost and overhead of all of thier elite program, which is disappointing. If the rec kids are not reaping the rewards of the club bringing in a former pro player to coach academy and select, then they should not have to foot any of the bill. I look at the rec soccer fees at some of the clubs and it makes me wonder when and where we all lost our way. 

I would also like to see more of an emphasis on teaching academy players to love the game, rather than just be really good at it. I think we should strongly encourage the young players to be creative and express themselves out on the field. Challenge players to find new ways to solve problems out on the field. They have their whole life to play cynical soccer where winning is everything. While they are young they need to learn to love the game. 

Q) What are the future plans for your club?

We are a new club, but for the most part, everyone in charge has been lucky enough have prior experience at some really good clubs in the Atlanta area, North Georgia, and Florida. We have the advantage of seeing first hand what programs work well and what ones not so well, or at least ones that don’t address the needs of our leagues players. We have also made a really big point of trying to get the long time park system coaches that were there before us educated, certified, and very involved in the club. They are good people that really care about the community and have their hearts in the right place and that’s what we want. We can teach them to be really good coaches, the important thing to us is the commitment to the kids.

Our clubs mission is “to provide high level training at affordable, family prices in order that everyone in the community has an equal opportunity to experience and learn to love the beautiful game.” To be able to pull that off, you have to surround yourself with people that are more concerned with the community and the club rather than their own resume. I think we’ve done a good job of that and we plan to press forward offering higher level of Academy and Rec soccer training than our community has ever seen, but at prices that do not lock families out. Our policy is definitely one of inclusion, rather than exclusion.

The demographics of our community are challenging. We have a wide gap between our high income levels and our low due to the state of economy right now. It has hit our area hard as many of in our community are blue collar, and a large amount of them work in some type of land development field, so times are difficult. We want make sure that their families are included in our programs, so we offer a lot of volunteer work to help them with their fees. The kids are really good and the parents by and large are very supportive, so I am very happy with how things are going and we are growing rapidly. In fact, we are about to break ground on additional field space and we could not be more excited about that.

Q)  What was the moment when you realized that you were hooked on soccer?

I guess the first moment of magic where I realized this game was special was when I was about 8 years old. My parents were season ticket holders for the Tampa Bay Rowdies and we were attending a playoff game that went to overtime between Tampa and Chicago. The game went to one of those crazy shootouts the NASL had where the player had 5 seconds to dribble from about 35 yards out and try to beat the keeper. Rodney Marsh was the Rowdies fifth shooter and his shot was the winner. The crowd was electric and I knew that night that I wanted to be that guy and I wanted to play that game.

Seeing the likes of Pele, George Best, Gerd Muller, Johan Cruyff, and Franz Beckenbauer play in person certainly helped make me become a fan also. They lived the game and it was amazing to see. You could not help but become a fan after watching them.

Q)  In your opinion, what makes soccer special?

The fluid nature of the sport. It is constantly moving and evolving and the creative players bring such life to the game. Personally as a player, every time I receive the ball it is magic. Very few things live up to those little moments of magic on the field where you do something dynamic and pull it off. Even if you fail 8 or 10 times, it’s those precious two that stick with you and keep you wanting more.

I also think the anticipation and the build up before a goal is like no other sport. An educated fan of the sport can often spot a goal 3 to 5 passes before the actual shot. Then there is that breathless silence before the shot is taken. Pure magic. Like nothing else. And a goal means so much. Pure ecstasy or total agony, depending on what side you are on.

Q)  What made you get involved in youth soccer?

It first started with having the desire to stay involved in the game after college. It then turned into much more. I learned first hand as a youth player the difference a good coach and bad coach can make in a child’s life. When I use the terms good coach and bad coach, I don’t mean good or bad in terms of knowing the game or being able to play it, I mean in terms of communicating with the kids and making it a positive experience for them.

I have had a lot of knowledgeable coaches and won my share of trophies thanks to them, but I have only had one that taught me the joy of the game. I grew up playing on strong teams that played a very strong Dutch system, we had great success, but is was like business on the field. We all knew our jobs in the system and we executed it. It was not until later in my youth soccer days that I switched to a new team that was starting up. It had a Brazilian coach that we heard great things about and he opened my eyes to so much more about the game. I will never forget that team. We were a collection of multiple ethnic backgrounds and we were like a family, tighter than any team I had ever been on. And it all started with the coach. It was inspirational. I want to have that effect on kids playing the game.

Q) What, if any, pro teams do you support?

Since 1978 I have been a Manchester United supporter. I enjoy watching so many teams. I absolutely love watching Barcelona, Athletico Madrid, and Arsenal, but my heart is with United. Funny story how it all came about. In 1978 I was at a game between the Tampa Bay Rowdies and the Los Angeles Aztecs. The Aztecs had a player that I had never seen play before and he tearing the home town Rowdies apart. I had never seen such skill and flair. I asked my dad who that was out there, and he told me “that’s George Best, the guy from Manchester”. I then asked my dad, “he’s from Manchester, like Rodney Marsh?”. He answered yes. Well, I then dug around about Manchester soccer and got a lot of information about United. So the love affair began. The funny thing is, of coarse, my home town hero Rodney Marsh was a player for Manchester City, not United. It was at least a year until I figured that out, and by that time it was too late. United for life.

I have to say I am very excited about the Rowdies coming back in the USL though. I will definitely be there for their first game with the whole family. Maybe my kids will witness a moment of magic and everything will come full circle. That would be poetic.