Youth coaches: License required

Saturday, March 11, 2006 | 7:29 a.m.

The 13-year-old female referee walked off the pitch, at halftime of a match between 8-year-olds, crying. Parents had badgered and berated her, breaking her spirit.

And their team led by six goals.

Eddie Henderson, the state's director of youth coaching, observed that scene about a year ago. He talked the ref into finishing the game, ensuring her that he would stand close by to monitor the situation.

The girl has not returned to soccer.

"It's stuff like that that burns me," Henderson said. "I'm sure, 20 minutes after that game, that those 8-year-olds couldn't have answered if you had asked them if they won. They'd be like, 'Coach, did we win?'

"But that little kid (referee) went home destroyed and will probably hate soccer forever. It's stuff like that that motivates me. This is why we're doing this."

That is why Henderson has demanded that every youth club coach in the state possess the required coaching license by Nov. 1, or he or she will be barred from the profession.

He knows who you are. He has 150 names on a list, and he expects to see every one on it when he conducts his license clinics over the next eight months.

The only weekend he won't be running the clinics is the one he set aside to take his 7-year-old daughter to Disneyland.

Although the licensing mandate has been on the books since 2001, it hasn't been enforced. Henderson has made it his top priority.

With those proper clinics comes education. So not only will certain coaches become enlightened about proper techniques and strategies, they will be better prepared to police their own sidelines.

Maybe more young players will have fun and keep playing. Henderson said Nevada has one of the worst drop-off rates, after age 8, in the country. And maybe fewer young referees won't leave, either.

"There's a lot of inherent things in the game that, if you're not educated, you lose them," Henderson said. "The common theme among kids who quit is, it isn't fun, the coach yelled too much and practice was boring.

"Kids coming off the field crying, with coaches yelling? Those kids are not under contract (as professionals). I want them to leave the field with a smile."

Standing tall

The game taught Henderson, 38, drive and discipline, and dared him to dream.

When he became a teenager in Seattle, he knew he wouldn't grow enough to compete in his first love, basketball. Today, he says he's "5-foot-something."

The youngest of Rosa Mae and Thomas Henderson's 18 children earned a soccer scholarship at the University of Washington, competed internationally on the U.S. Under-20 team and played professionally, indoors, in San Diego, Milwaukee and Wichita, Kan.

He thrived as a stockbroker, but the game pulled him back. He served as the Kansas director of youth coaching before taking over the same post in Las Vegas.

By the time Henderson left Kansas, the number of registered kids playing soccer had nearly doubled, to 37,000. Players identified as Olympic Development Program material had increased from one to 18, and Kansas youth teams had won four regional competitions and one national title.

Before him, no Kansas youth team had ever won anything of significance.

Henderson, whose Nevada contract contains an incentive that is tied to registration figures, vows to do the same for Las Vegas.

He proudly displays two trophies, for state boys teams that reached the finals of the recent Olympic Development regional tournament, in his office. No Nevada team had ever played in an Olympic Development title match.

He marvels that the greater Las Vegas population has exploded to more than 1.6 million since 1994, yet the number of kids playing soccer has only increased from 12,000 to about 14,000 over that span.

"I want to leave a legacy," he said. "Not for me, but for the good of the game. In the end, it'll make this country better."

He has been accused of being crazy or fanatical, but Henderson has plenty of patience and is often Easy-Going Eddie.

Push him - are you reading this, unlicensed youth coaches? - and Eddie the Enforcer surfaces. He said it's all about the game being fun for the players.

He once interrupted a meeting by asking if any of the presiding coaches knew the definition of insanity. Doing the same thing, he told them, and expecting different results.

"Like me, love me or hate me, that's who I am," he said. "The game made me that way. Everything I do is for the kids. A part of the environment is being educated. Anyone who wants to argue, I keep an open-door policy.

"I never get angry, till you push me to a point."

Corner kicks

League owner Tom Ficara also has plans for a training center in Henderson that will feature Futsal - played on a basketball-sized court without walls, and wildly popular in Brazil - and regular indoor courts.

Look for further dates and details, and history of Futsal, in this space in coming weeks.

Thanks to reader Daniel Sidoli, who correctly pointed out the gaffe.

Bilbao, a founding La Liga member in 1928, has never been relegated.

Cadiz (25 points) visits Bilbao, which has goal differential going for it, on Sunday. Real Betis and Real Sociedad also have 25 points, so three points for a victory over Cadiz is critical for Bilbao.

Match of the week

AC Milan at Juventus, Sunday

Fresh off dismissing Bayern Munich from the Champions League on Wednesday, AC Milan (63 points), second in the Italian Serie A, plays league-leading Juve at the Delle Alpi.

Milan beat Juve, 3-1, at the San Siro in October. Kaka scored in that one, and he scored Wednesday. Juve is 13-0-1 at home this season, having allowed only two goals. But we like Kaka and Andriy Shevchenko to break that spell in a Milan victory.