SAN JOSE, Calif. - We sat down with new Earthquakes Academy coach Paul Holocher to discuss how it feels to be back in the Bay Area, what he hopes to accomplish with the academy and more.
sjearthquakes.com:
Welcome back to the South Bay! After playing collegiately at Santa Clara and professionally with the Clash and the Blackhawks, how does it feel to be back in the area?
Paul Holocher: "Thank you! It is great to be back in the Bay Area. I went to college at Santa Clara University, played here in San Jose, and coached at UC Santa Cruz, so it feels like home for me for sure. To be living here and coaching for the Quakes is a dream job for me."
SJEQ: For those who may not know, tell us what your official role will be with the Earthquakes Academy.
PH: "My official role is as the Academy Head Coach for the U-16 and U-18 academy teams. It is a wonderful position that I feel well prepared for. I work closely with our Technical Director, Chris Leitch, who has been fantastic in his support and insight, and also with our other academy staff. We all help and support each other throughout."
SJEQ: In your last two head coaching jobs, you’ve transformed the Santa Cruz and Cal Poly Men’s Soccer teams into nationally recognized programs. Talk about your time at both universities.
PH: "Living and coaching in Santa Cruz was perfect for me as a young coach because it allowed me to work not just with the college age players, but also as the Director of Coaching for Santa Cruz County and over 5,000 youth players. I think I may have coached as much as any man alive over that seven-year period, with the college players in the morning and with the youth players all afternoon. It was great for my development as a coach. At UC Santa Cruz, we developed a terrific program and reached the NCAA Championship and Elite Eight and also developed a handful of players that earned MLS contracts. The years at UC Santa Cruz allowed me to gain a lot of experience in what it means to run a program from top to bottom and also a platform for me to really appreciate youth development and also to develop my coaching ideas and philosophy.
At Cal Poly I came into a program that needed new energy and some belief in what was possible. I feel very proud of what we did there over those eight years, both on the field and in the community. We developed Cal Poly into a "soccer school" and the home games became really special. We had over 11,000 fans at several of our games at Alex G. Spanos Stadium, which made for a very special college sports environment. I also took some special trips to Europe during my years coaching at Cal Poly and it allowed me to refine my coaching ideas even more. Those were enlightening and invigorating coaching education trips, because I learned many new things that I began to apply when I returned. I also performed a lot of youth coaching and educational clinics for the local community in the Central Coast which was very rewarding. I like helping young and new coaches in their path and sharing what I have learned. Both of these college experiences and also my time as the Director of Development for Maui United Soccer have given me a lot of amazing memories as a coach."
SJEQ:
You’ve played alongside both John and Dominic with the Blackhawks in the late 80s and early 90s. Talk about your relationship with those two and how it feels to be working with them once again.
PH: "John and Dominic are special to me both as friends and as former teammates. We all played together through the early days of soccer in the Bay Area - even before the MLS launch in 1996 - with the San Francisco Blackhawks. That was an excellent team with a lot of top talent. John and Dom were terrific players and leaders back then and they are great leaders now. Their influence and success is no surprise to me at all, and I am excited to be back and working with them. More importantly, what I can say about John and Dom is that they are good people who truly care. I couldn’t be happier to be near these guys working for this great club."
SJEQ: The academy teams performed well last season, highlighted by the U-18s third place finish in the academy finals. How excited are you to be a big part of this academy’s future?
PH: "I am very excited and look forward to all the great competition ahead. Each and every game is a challenge and a learning experience. Over the 10-month season the main thing is to teach the game in a way that builds on our knowledge and style over the course of the season. From a stylistic view I not only enjoy teaching possession and positional, but attacking soccer as well. From those ideas, our goals as a academy are to implement specialized training methods that develop the individual player within the collective team. I do not speak a lot about winning or losing. My focus is on the process of learning and developing."
SJEQ: You were a member of the Clash team that played the first game in MLS history at Spartan Stadium and now you come full circle with the opening of Avaya Stadium. What are your first impressions of the playing facilities?
PH: "Avaya Stadium is amazing. I have been to stadiums all over the world in my soccer travels and I have never seen a stadium as cool as Avaya. When people out of the area ask me about Avaya I just tell them it is thoughtful in its design; it is incredibly open, clean, modern, and intimate. There literally isn't a bad seat in the stadium and in each one you feel like you can almost touch the grass on the field from your seats. It's awesome because there is also a lot of good energy before, during and after the games to make a great fan experience. We are all really lucky to have a stadium like Avaya to call our home."
SJEQ:
What are you goals here as the Earthquakes Academy coach?
PH: "The goals are to develop, teach and mentor the players well and help them reach the next levels of their game. Though winning is a part of developing, it cannot be winning at the cost of development, especially at these ages. We want to the Quakes players to have a clear playing identity and style that develops player to be confident and composed in possession, while also being intelligent and competitive as we look to regain possession. Winning is a byproduct of playing well and when we win or lose a game, we will look to learn from it and improve. This is not an area to get too high or too low, but one to learn and develop consistency. Essentially we want to prepare each young player in the Academy to make a successful jump to their next level.
On a broader academy level, Chris and I often speak about the Quakes Academy over the next five to 10 year period. There are great steps already happening now that are very exciting. We all feel we can develop an academy that can become a positive and tangible launching pad for the area’s most motivated and talented players. Much like they do in top European or South American clubs and leagues, MLS is seeing the value and importance of committing resource to overall youth development sectors. It is a big part of building for a strong future for American soccer."
SJEQ: Talk about the coaching staff that will be joining you with the academy moving forward.
PH: "We have a great staff which I am very pleased with. Luis Trejo is a young coach who I've known for several years. He is very much a student of the game like me. He understands how I teach soccer and is also enjoys the game played in this way. We spend several hours together each day planning training sessions or watching film to prepare. It's good to have a person that you can work with so closely.
I am also very pleased to have Shane Carew (SJSU) and Henry Foulk (Cal) on our staff. Shane will work primarily with the players on position-specific and functional trainings. He is especially good with the defenders and in those defensive moments of the game. Henry is our goalkeeper coach and we're so pleased to have our young academy keepers training with him on a weekly basis. He is without a doubt one of the most insightful and best goalkeeper coaches in the country and has produced several top MLS professional keepers, including our very own David Bingham."
