ATLANTA, GA—In an exclusive interview with The Colon, Coach Lucas Scott reveals his deepest insights about what has led him to be the number one high school boys soccer coach in the region.
"It was not always easy," the 36-year-old with a career record of 346 wins and 120 losses revealed. "I really struggled to find my style when I first started out back [in 2005]. I tried focusing on getting the uniforms just right for about 3 years, figuring that getting the players looking confident and stylish was going to win games. Looking back, I realize just how silly it all was."
Coach Scott described the moment when he had the realization about what would eventually lead him to a near-perfect season in 2009. "I was out on the field after a miserable loss to a rival team. I couldn't think of what had gone wrong. All the uniforms looked great, the team had all shaved their heads in solidarity, and we'd even put a new water fountain in the locker room. But we lost again that day, and I just couldn't fathom it anymore.
"I sat on the field for a long time, staring at the goals, looking at the empty stands, and feeling the grass beneath me. Around the time the sun was setting, I had a moment of clarity. Like a metaphorical ton of bricks, the truth struck me. It was the goals. We had lost because we had scored fewer goals than the other team!"
Coach Scott said that he immediately ran to his office to find a piece of paper and a pen so that he would be sure to preserve the thought for the following day. He still keeps that little piece of paper folded up and in his pocket during all of the games. It says, "Score more goals than the other team!" triple underlined and written hurriedly.
"That has made all the difference," he shared.
Coach Scott said that he hardly slept the night after his big insight, and he came to practice the next day and changed everything. "Instead of starting off practice by practicing hand stands and balancing soccer balls on our heads like normal, I made the focus of the whole time on how to get the soccer ball past the opposing team's goalie and into the goal, thus awarding us an additional point."
At first, the players were confused and gave some resistance to the change, but Coach Scott asked for their trust. The players could sense his certainty, even if they didn't fully understand where he was going with the new strategy. But after their next game, it all became clear.
"On that day, we got the ball into the opposing team's goal 3 times, but they got the ball into our net only twice. Because three is more than two, that meant that we were the winners in the game!"
The players were ecstatic, and were now fully on board with Coach Scott's radical new method. He quickly expanded his aims to include ways to move the ball past opposing team members to get the ball in closer proximity to the goal, thus improving the chances of getting it into the goal. Then, one of the players had the idea of also trying to keep the opposing team from scoring goals of their own in the first place.
"I was very impressed by that. You see, basically the idea is that if you can keep the other team from scoring goals at the same time that you are trying to score more goals, you make it more likely that you end up with more points and they end up with fewer points. It's pretty simple math, actually."
Well, simple or not, it seems to be working out for this team. Coach Scott has had an increase in his team roster by 15 players in the last 10 years, and he's even attracting the attention of larger teams. He would not divulge the school, but he said that a large university in California had approached him about adopting his methods, or even making him head coach, but he declined.
"I think some day I may write a book about my method of trying to outscore the other team, but I've very happy where I am right now."
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