ISSUE 028: The first female head coach in an MLS Academy

IN THIS ISSUE

• 🤝 Introduction: An immediate connection

• 👨‍🎓 Soccer Thought Leaders: Erin Lycan Ridley of SJ Earthquakes

• 👥 Mentorship Opportunity: 1-on-1 with Erin

• ✨ Featured Jobs: Three open roles at Soccer.com

• ⚽️ Soccer Jobs: A small collection of new jobs in soccer

• 🫵 Do This Now: Get to know soccer apparel brands

INTRODUCTION

Ever left a conversation with someone you’ve just met, feeling like you’ve known that person your whole life?

That’s exactly how I felt after my chat with today’s featured guest, Erin Lycan Ridley. From the moment we began our conversation, it was clear she is authentic, has a contagious energy, and possesses an innate ability to connect with others in a meaningful way. It’s no wonder she’s excelled in every coaching environment she’s encountered throughout her career.

You can read more about Erin below - including her insights on transitioning from playing to coaching, overcoming challenges, and her experiences as the first female head coach to lead young men in a professional academy within MLS.

Be sure to scroll down past our conversation with Erin as she’s kindly offered to make herself available for a few 1-on-1 mentorship sessions. If you’re an aspiring coach, this is an incredible opportunity to speak directly with someone who’s done it at every level here in the United States.

Enjoy!

-John Bello, Co-Founder & COO

SOCCER THOUGHT LEADER: ERIN LYCAN RIDLEY OF SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES ACADEMY

“I think that there has to be an investment and a willingness to go away from what’s comfortable.”

Erin Lycan Ridley is the first-ever female head coach to lead an MLS Academy age group, recently guiding her team into the round of 16 in the 2024 Generation Adidas Cup - For those who have navigated this tournament before, you know this is no easy feat.

Erin began coaching in the college ranks directly out of her playing career (not by choice!) and has had various moves throughout her career, with stops at different colleges, high schools, youth national teams, and now within MLS at the San Jose Earthquakes. Each stop has been meaningful in her development as a coach and as a person. She’s learned the game from the ground up (literally) and overcome challenges in both her professional and personal life that have brought her to where she is today.

No matter where you in your coaching journey, if you’re passionate about working with players you need to read her story. I’m confident it will be an inspiration for you to keep pushing, no matter what circumstances you face.

We hope you enjoy the read!

John Bello, Co-Founder & COO

Questions and answers have been lightly edited for length and clarity (and any emphasis below is ours, fyi!)

PATHWAY: After your playing career at the University of Virginia you transitioned directly into coaching at the college level. Did you always know that you were going to get into coaching?

ERIN: I've said this before in interviews, and I laugh, because it's not at all what I wanted to do. In my mind, coaching meant that you weren't playing. So I had no desire to be coaching at that moment because I'd just been medically disqualified from playing. I'd had a number of concussions, I'd been wearing a helmet my senior year, and my whole career had been fraught with these injuries. And so coaching meant that the dream to play was over. 

I was really lucky that Steve Swanson, my coach at UVA, really guided me towards that and just planted those seeds. He was the first one who supported the idea that this is a profession that I think you would enjoy and I think you'd be good at it. 

I think the situation that made me think, you know what, this actually could be for me was in my senior year - As a goalkeeper you're competing with other goalkeepers at all times, right? And so the other goalkeeper (at UVA) and I had a very rocky relationship to start. We came together and talked through what was working for us and what was not. And I think that was a big moment. 

Peer-to-peer relationships, in situations where you're competing directly, can be challenging. And it's something I take a lot of pride in now with players that I coach, helping them have the tools and the words to be able to demand more of each other and get the best out of each other. We came together and figured out how to make things work. And I was really supportive of her. 

PATHWAY: Think back to when you were starting as a young coach. What were some immediate skill gaps that stood out to you right away that you had to focus on improving?

ERIN: I think the most important thing for me was that because I'd been medically disqualified (due to a concussion), I couldn't demonstrate (by diving). You take something that feels like breathing, that feels like the reason I'm put on this earth, is to fly and be a goalkeeper. And you take that away from me because I can no longer dive. I now had to think about how I could create and construct a learning environment for players who were at that time a year or a year and a half younger than me. So, that was a huge challenge. I think it shaped and informed my whole career from then because I had to think about how to teach early on in a way that wasn't about me. 

I think that's an early trap that coaches can fall into, especially when you're young and you've just finished playing. A lot of times coaches are like, ‘Just do it this way’ or ‘just watch me.’ And I couldn't do that. I tried and it went badly for me because I became symptomatic anytime I tried to demo just even a little bit. So, I had to focus on the idea of how people learn and how I can convey that in a way that meets them where they are. 

PATHWAY: You've navigated several coaching moves throughout your career at different levels. When presented with an opportunity, do you have a process for evaluating the role and has that changed for you over time as you've gone through different jobs?

ERIN: These process questions are so interesting for coaches because it would be so easy to say, well, you take this step and then you go here and then you go here and it's just not that easy. Coaching is a winding road and you take something from wherever you go. 

My guiding light has always been, is this something that's going to challenge me? Is this something where I feel like I can grow? I think there's a desire in me to keep growing and evolving as a coach and continuing to know myself better and understand what I'm about more so that I can transmit that more clearly to the players that I work with. And for me, that's always been the highest level of decision-making. 

I was a goalkeeper coach for a long time. So early on, the first few moves were really about just learning the craft, teaching, and having a desire to learn from the grass up. I think that going from the University of Virginia to a small division one school in Texas (Stephen F. Austin) was a gear change. And I knew it would be a completely different environment than I'd been in, and I wanted to learn from the ground up. So, I literally lined the fields at Stephen F. Austin. I had to figure out how to bury rebar and get square corners and do all the laundry, all the travel, like all the kind of from-the-ground-up things that make the program work. That was a big part of it - I didn't wanna go and not work and coach. I knew I was gonna have real responsibilities on the field, but I also wanted to kind of take in everything around me. 

When I went to Davidson, I worked with Head Coach Greg Ashton, and we were the only two coaches. So I had huge recruiting responsibilities. That was a big jump to take that on. It was my third year of college coaching at that point, and I was now responsible for all the recruiting that we did along with the coaching and some of the other pieces that I picked up. 

So each move along the way was sort of, how can I increase my experience and responsibilities and do things I haven't done before so that I can really broaden the base of what I have and then what's going to challenge me and almost scare me a little bit to do something. 

PATHWAY: In Pathway Issue #022, Sean Rubio, Technical Director at Toronto FC, gave practical advice to young professionals on having a willingness to move for opportunities if they want to work in sports. Do you feel if you hadn't made these career moves you wouldn’t have achieved where you're at today? 

ERIN: I think the game demands evolution and if you're in an environment that continues to evolve and you have all the resources to do that, you might be lucky enough to stay where you are, but I think that it's very rare. It's very rare for a journey of a player to grow up in one area and get everything that they need from that space and meet their highest potential. And I think it's very challenging for a coach.

I think that there has to be an investment and a willingness to go away from what's comfortable. And when you stay, it's something you get comfortable with. And so if you move and you change the reference of what you're used to, it will be uncomfortable and you will have to find different solutions for things and you will be exposed to different ideas. I think it’s been invaluable. Every single place that I've been at, I've learned something from and I think that you cannot evolve without that type of growth.

PATHWAY: In 2020, you became the first-ever female head coach to lead a boy’s age group at an MLS Academy. What were your immediate thoughts when you were presented with this opportunity?

ERIN: I think my first thought was that U13s is not an age group I'm very experienced with, I'd always coach older players. And so my first thought was, I'm gonna have to do a deep dive into the psychology of 12-year-olds because I really don't know that age group well. 

At the time, Jesse Fioranelli (former San Jose General Manager) and Chris Leitch (current San Jose General Manager) brought it to me and said, we think you bring value to our organization and that we want to be really clear that we've been thinking about you, we've been talking about you, and he kind of described the U13s as a soft landing. They knew that this hadn't been done before but it was really clear that it wasn't a token hire. And that was also really important that it was very intentional. It was very much, ‘You bring value to us and we think that this will help you in your career because we see you as somebody who can continue to grow and evolve and help our organization’. 

I was a little bit nervous in the sense that it was something new, but again, that's sort of the indicator that I should do this. That's always been, like I said, one of those things I think - Is this something I can grow from and develop with? And the answer was yes. 

PATHWAY: How has coaching young men changed your perspective on female coaches leading male players?

ERIN: I think something that's always been really clear to me is that when you work with players as a coach and you show confidence and you show an ability to connect with them, it becomes very normal for them that you're their coach. There's not a gendered aspect to it.

There are a few days, especially if there's sort of a yes, sir, yes, ma'am culture, where people respond with that. I will get yes-sir'd a few times in the first few days. But that quickly goes away. And I think that it's just normal for them. The players typically don't struggle with this.

Coaching 12 and 13-year-old boys (or girls) was new to me. Kids are just taking on abstract thoughts at that time. Like they're going from a very concrete sense of the world to now sort of starting to imagine abstract thoughts. So when you're talking about tactical ideas with them, you have to be aware that the language that you use has to resonate with where they are from a psychological standpoint. That was the most interesting thing - Learning how to use language that made sense to them and making sure that some of the language I used was defined and unpacked.

PATHWAY: What advice would you give to female coaches who want to follow in your footsteps?

ERIN: I think one of the things that I've seen most is that women sometimes may view situations where they don't see someone who looks like them as a signal that they either don't belong there or wouldn't do well there. And I would say that would not be correct. I think the first thing is to make sure that when women are looking at situations about where they want to take their career or where they want to feel like they also have a place, is that they should feel like they should belong on any sideline. And I think that the advice I would give is to recognize that if you have a passion for something - If you believe that you have the tools or the abilities to influence a player in any way, then you have the opportunity to do that with both male and female players. 

I think that sometimes women can sort of feel like if they don't check every box, or if they don't feel like they've gotten enough experience then they shouldn't put themselves out there. And I would just really urge them to reconsider that and to recognize that they do belong on a sideline for coaching male players or female players.

PATHWAY: If you were a young coach again, and you could dedicate a few hours a day to furthering your capacities as a coach, what would you spend time focusing on?

ERIN: There are two aspects I want to talk about. One is as a college coach, especially as you come in as an assistant coach, traditionally you're pulled in two directions, where you assist the team as an assistant coach and then you coach a club team on the side. And that can be hard because you're doing two jobs and there's different things that are going on. But I would just really emphasize the need to do that from a mastery standpoint. 

One of the things that's different about coaching in the professional academy or even at the club level is that you're on the field a lot more. There's only 132 competitive days in the Division I season. So you're not getting a hundred and something training sessions and meaningful training sessions. So I think using a club team as a lab, you really have to work your craft. I think that's the most important thing.

Second, is there's an eagerness for young coaches, including myself, to go in and prove that you have confidence and to do that by being successful (in terms of only wins and losses) and I think that just like we ask players to examine the process, coaches should focus on really broadening their definition of success. More so than results or titles or things like that when they're working with players and really thinking about how they can incorporate the time that they take on the field as a lab and push themselves to figure out how they are relating to players, how are they helping players improve, and what metrics can show that are more than just wins and losses.

PATHWAY: Lastly, what's your favorite thing about working in soccer?

ERIN: The idea of the game is that it's always about relationships. The game is heartbreaking and wonderful and transcendent and joyful all at the same time. So when you're working in an environment that has those elements, the experiences that you share help you forge relationships and help communicate values and identities in ways that you wouldn't outside of the game. I think that it's a really special place where you get to connect with people and shape and learn and grow in ways that you couldn't outside of the game. That idea of connecting to something bigger than yourself has always, always been, one of the things that has been an impetus for me to feel like this game has meaning beyond just the wins and losses. And when you see a player that connects with that idea, that's ignited by that, to me that's my favorite part of it, for sure.

Ed. Note: You can connect with or follow Erin on LinkedIn.

PATHWAY MENTORSHIP OPPORTUNITY: 1-ON-1 WITH ERIN LYCAN RIDLEY

Erin has generously offered to conduct two (2) 1-on-1 mentorship sessions next week. If you’re interested in speaking with Erin directly, click below to raise your hand for the opportunity. 🙋

• PATHWAY MENTORSHIP APPLICATION: Erin Lycan Ridley, San Jose Earthquakes

FEATURED JOBS: THREE OPEN ROLES AT SOCCER.COM

The Pathway team is working alongside Soccer.com to help source best-in-class talent for their three open roles. Click here or on each job title below to learn more about the company, the open roles, life in Hillsborough and the Triangle region, and more - all of which we hope will allow for a deeper understanding of the opportunities.

• Social Media Manager ($60,000-$75,000)

• Content Creator ($60,000-$70,000)

• Social Media Coordinator ($40,000-$60,000)

SOCCER JOBS: THE MOST INTERESTING NEW JOBS IN SOCCER

New week, new jobs! Here are a handful of the most interesting - and most recent - jobs that have been posted.

• Manager, Contracts - USL

• Head Women’s Coach - Bethany College

• Team Administrator - Chicago Red Stars

• Director, Production Management - MLS

• Manager, Ticket Sales & Operations - York United FC

• Head of Coaching & Individual Development - Columbus Crew

DO THIS NOW: GET TO KNOW SOCCER APPAREL BRANDS IN THE U.S.

We’re back with another awesome resource (If we do say so ourselves) for those who want to better understand our soccer ecosystem in the U.S. and A.

Last week, we shared a list of almost 40 companies working in soccer tech and, today, we’re taking a closer look at the companies - some big, some small - who are driving soccer culture forward through apparel and merchandise.

• PATHWAY RESOURCE: Soccer Apparel Brands in the U.S.

If you want to work in soccer, it’s incredibly important that you understand the full industry and ecosystem. Do your homework. Be prepared. And be ready to tap into others who are helping to grow the beautiful game in our big ol’ American soccer backyard.

We’ll tackle another topic next week (yes, it’s top secret) so stay tuned!

-Kyle Sheldon, Founder & CEO

When you’re ready, here are a few ways we can help you:

1. If this email was forwarded to you, you can sign up here to ensure you get every issue (sent on Wednesdays!) directly in your inbox.

2. You can subscribe to our Pathway Jobs Newsletter, which hits inboxes every Friday and lists as many new soccer jobs in North America as we can find (usually 80+ per issue!).

3. And, if you’re a club or brand looking to hire the most ambitious talent in soccer, drop us a line and we can tell you about our process, our growing talent pool, and the services we offer.

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^{See you next week, soccer friends!} 

• John Bello

• Kyle Sheldon

• Nolan Sheldon