A Coach's Diary

Anson Dorrance is a retired American soccer coach widely regarded as one of the most successful coaches in the history of athletics. He spent 47 years at the University of North Carolina (UNC), where he built an unparalleled dynasty in women's college soccer. In an interview on The Great Coaches” Leadership & Life podcast, Coach Dorrance said when he first started coaching, he identified 5 great coaches and selected the most prominent quality from each to add to his own coaching philosophy. In the interview, he said he learned how to exude class from Lynchburg College coach Bill Shellenberger, he studied the presence of European coach Bobby Gansler, and he wanted to have the humility of UNC men’s basketball coach Dean Smith. He wanted to be the best coach he could be, so he studied the best in different areas. Then, Coach Dorrance talked about how he was watching a political news show where the hostess was asked what she was an expert in. When the hostess replied, “Reading com...

“The vision of a champion is someone who is bent over, drenched in sweat, at the point of exhaustion when no one else is watching.” - Anson Dorrance Would you be willing to push yourself to exhaustion when no one else is watching to achieve your goals? Mia Hamm is one of the best female soccer players in the history of the sport. Her legendary soccer coach, Anson Dorrance, has told an inspiring story about Mia’s thirst for greatness several times. He said one cold, late winter morning while driving to work, he saw Mia doing a grueling conditioning workout all by herself where she ran cone drills, without a ball or teammates and coaches to push or celebrate her, to exhaustion. Coach Dorrance secretly pulled over to watch her, and he said in between each sprint, he saw her bent over with sweat flying off her and hot air shooting from her lungs. He said he was so impressed with what he saw that when he got to work, Coach Anson scribbled a note for Mia that said: “The vision of a cha...

Mia Hamm is one of the best soccer players to ever play, and she played for one of the best coaches and in one of the best college programs in the history of the sport when she played for coach Anson Dorrance at the University of North Carolina. When she was at North Carolina, they won four consecutive National Championships, and her team only lost one game of the 95 that she played on the team. You don't become the best without hard work. Coach Dorrance says, "The final measure of athletic greatness is not what you do in the training sessions with your peers and teammates - it's what you do on your own." In the video below, Coach Dorra nce shares his favorite story about Mia. He was driving to campus one day during Mia's senior year early on a cold, late winter morning. He said he stopped and saw Mia going through their grueling fitness exercise alone in a cold park. She was running through a cone drill where she had to sprint 5 yards and back, 10 yards, 15, 20, ...

Legendary coaches Geno Auriemma and Anson Dorrance talk about two of the most competitive and complete players that they have coached and some of the secret sauce that made them great.  Both athletes could be pushed as hard as they need to be pushed and they both wanted to be told 'there is another level.' Not everybody can be pushed as hard as Diana Taurasi and Michelle Akers; not everybody wants to be 'that' great.  But as coaches and as leaders, it is our job to find that line for each team and each individual and push our athletes past that line.  As Anson Dorrance said in closing, ' Usually if they don't achieve their potential, you were too soft on them.'    There's a big price to be paid if you want to play with the best Playing at Connecticut is nice, but there's a lot more that goes into it than just showing up in Storrs, putting your uniform on, and then running out of the tunnel in front of 16,000 people.  There is a big pric...