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Dollard U-15 AA girls soccer team recently won the Lac St. Louis Tournament. Ashley Williams (back row, middle).
With The Coach: Ashley Williams
Soccer should be part of life, not your whole life: coach
John Meagher
The Gazette
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Dollard U-15 AA girls soccer team recently won the Lac St. Louis Tournament. Ashley Williams (back row, middle).
With the Coach is a weekly series featuring a conversation with a local coach.
Coach: Ashley Williams, 47-year-old ÃŽle Bizard resident and project consultant for IBM
Team: Dollard Dragons under-15 AA Dragons.
Years coached: Four, two with Dollard.
Playing experience: Under-21 junior soccer in Brampton, Ont.
Best coaching tip: Enjoy what you’re doing.
The Dollard Dragons under-15 girls AA soccer team has shown steady improvement since Ashley Williams took over the coaching reins last year.
The first-place Dragons captured their first tournament win at the recent Lac St. Louis event, defeating Fabrose 1-0 in the final.
How did you start coaching soccer in Dollard?
Williams: Actually, I’m from Ontario and coached out there for a number of years, in Ajax. I moved to Montreal four years ago. An opportunity came up last year and they wanted me to coach in Dollard.
What brought your family to Montreal?
Williams: The soccer. No. (Laughs.) My wife actually had an opportunity to come to Montreal for business and we thought it would be a great opportunity for our kids (15-year-old Sydney and 12-year-old Rylan). A different culture and a different language, everything that comes with moving.
How do your kids like Quebec?
Williams: Actually, they love it here. You don’t realize how large Toronto is till you go back. One of the things my wife and I noticed is that kids here can go to the park by themselves. It’s not like we were living in a rough neighbourhood (in Ajax), but you don’t do that.
How do you measure your team’s success?
Williams: I like to win, too, but I don’t try to gauge success by that. As I always say, soccer is part of someone’s life, but it shouldn’t be the whole part. But everybody’s got a different philosophy.
Why are Ontario soccer teams generally stronger than Quebec teams?
Williams: I think the training is more intense and there are more kids. I was from a small club in Ajax, but there was strong competition from another local club. Expectations of the parents are higher. If the expectations are higher, they want more soccer for their kids. When I was leaving Ajax (four years ago), they were starting to pay coaches; they were going in that direction. There were summer camps and training 365 days a year.
Should soccer training last 12 months a year?
Williams: I have a different philosophy. I believe in a break. What I would recommend is to take a break from soccer starting in September or October, and do different sports or activities, and then get back together in January or February. Start doing some indoor training, the odd tournament, and start a full practice plan in March.
Do kids need a break to develop a hunger for soccer?
Williams: I’m with you. My thought is by the time they get to 16, they’re burnt out. A friend I coached with in Ontario has two daughters who are 17 and 18. They were Triple-A calibre players, running from here and there to play games. One had 40 scholarship offers, but she didn’t take any because she was burnt out. The other daughter was invited to a provincial or national program, but she decided to go to Western to go to school and play intramural soccer instead.
How often does your team practice?
Williams: We play once a week and try to practice twice a week. It’s not too much. I’m a big fan of fitness, so in March we started doing fitness sessions twice a week at Centennial Park in Dollard. We started with aerobics and then more speed work. We may not win every game, but no one is going to run us out of the park.