How one head coach works with her assistant coaches

I have been an assistant coach at the senior coaching level longer than I have been a head coach.

I know this helps me organize my thoughts when it comes to managing assistants.

At Minnesota Aurora FC, I am lucky to have three incredibly talented assistant coaches - Jenista ’Jennie’ Clark, Jen Larrick, and Cassie Ulrich.

As a former assistant coach, I have worked with many different head-coach leadership and management styles.

As I reflect on my own experiences, I know I felt most valued in my assistant roles when my skills were utilised and my abilities were pushed to allow me to grow.

I often think about this as a head coach. I want the coaches I work with to feel valued, to feel their talents are being utilized to the fullest. I want our players to know that everyone on our staff is knowledgeable and talented.

I believe you are at your best when you enjoy what you do - so I do my best to figure out what coaches are most passionate about and try to match that with their roles and responsibilities where possible.

If you can meet this passion requirement, you can maximize your staff output as people are always willing to go above and beyond when they enjoy what they do.

"I want the coaches I work with to feel their talents are being utilized to the fullest..."

At Minnesota Aurora FC, each coach has responsibilities within every training session and every game. This allows me to manage the entire performance environment and allows every member of the staff to continually grow and develop.

However, at the end of the day, I believe our failures will always be my failures alone.

As the head coach, I will always take sole responsibility for certain aspects of the team - player meetings, playing time, roster management, underperforming results and so on.

Although our assistants have input into every aspect of the program, it is important to me that players understand that I make the final decisions.

I believe this helps facilitate communication in our team environment and takes pressure off the assistant coaches to always say the right thing to the players.

Above everything, I think the most important skill you can have as a head coach is the ability to listen to your assistant coaches. 

Listening helps build trust. I tell the coaches I work with all the time that I do not have all the answers and I want to hear their opinions.

One of the best ways to show your respect to others is to listen and to really hear what they are telling you.