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Soccer coaches as CTE teachers

While at first glance it may seem different, one approach to enable more career and technical education (CTE) instructors is to use youth soccer coaches as CTE teachers.

If you are a soccer coach interested in becoming a CTE teacher please check out our program. Technology is increasingly important in our lives and work, which has driven many youth (and adults) to want technology careers. However, to deliver this next generation of talent you need skilled teachers at schools to teach them.

Why is there a shortage of CTE teachers?

The demand for more technology and related courses at schools, among other things has led to more demand for skilled tech teachers then are available.

In a 2023-24 National Teacher and Principal Survey, 28 states reported shortages of career and technical education teachers. In addition to demand there are also other reasons for the shortage.

The first is that in general, and this is not just limited teachers, but the overall teaching workforce is aging. So there are simply less available existing teachers to teach CTE.

Next, technical teachers are paid less then technical professionals. So at times many CTE teachers leave the teaching profession for higher paying industry jobs once they become skilled enough themselves.

Finally, there are few technical training programs available to adequately develop existing teachers into CTE teachers.

So how could soccer coaches work as CTE teachers?

There are many ways that soccer coaches could work as CTE teachers. While the soccer community and model, particularly in the United States is not perfect with problems such as pay for play, there are still many great aspects to it and even more opportunities for collaboration.

Further, the goal in this is not for soccer coaches to all become CTE teachers and leave their current coaching jobs. This would simply build the existing shortage of soccer coaches. Instead, it is for these talented individuals to do both. Before we get there though lets first look at some more specifics why this could work.

• Soccer and tech skill development have many similarities
• There are a lot of soccer coaches since it is the largest youth sport in the United States
• Coaches work schedules make them available to work as CTE teachers
• Soccer coaches can augment their pay as CTE teachers
• Soccer has a large communication and standards framework that could help with scale
• Soccer coaches are highly trained and certified in developing talent so they are used to credential requirements in academia

Soccer and tech skill development have many similarities

Well believe it or not the process for developing and coaching soccer players has many similarities with technical talent development.

• Both are team activities. Yes everything in tech is done in teams. Also, the team sizes are similar. Soccer has 11 players on the field, generally 18 on a team, while many in tech believe, such as Jeff Bezos for example, that 10 people, or two pizza teams is an optimal technical project team size. Also, from a class perspective, 10 to 20 is generally the right size for most CTE courses.
• The same overall development framework requirements. Soccer uses a best practice development framework that has the same four requirements as academia. The only difference is US soccer has implemented them better (in my opinion).

• Soccer and tech both take time to develop skills and proficiency. Soccer players generally start in their youth and train for years until they become proficient or stop playing. While many do not realize it, it also takes years to get tech skill proficiency.
• Coaches play a large role in both. In soccer as a team sport the coach is a central figure. However, as students transition to workers in CTE programs coaches also play a large role in technical skill development. However, it should be noted that many schools do not use coaches in this way today (though we think they should).

There are a lot of soccer coaches since it is the largest youth sport in the United States

According to US soccer, there are nearly 2.5 million youth soccer players, more than any other sport in the US. These players are coached by nearly 1 million administrators, coaches, and volunteers per US Youth Soccer.

Compare that to academia where according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics there are currently 223,600 CTE teachers. Further, even though there are way less teachers than soccer coaches, there are currently 12.5 million students enrolled in CTE programs today per AdvanceCTE.

So in a nutshell, soccer coaches make up the largest quantity of available talent to potentially pull talent from.

Coaches in soccer are available to work as CTE teachers

The way soccer coaches work has a couple advantages that help with availability. First, many soccer coaches work outside normal business hours.

This is because youth soccer players generally practice after school and play games on weekends. So this leaves regular business and school hours open, the holy grail of availability to be CTE teachers. But wait, it gets better.

Soccer coaches also generally work part-time because of the way team assignments work. So they can also work part-time as CTE teachers.

Part-time models to solve the CTE teacher gap is also something many school administrators are looking at as a potential solution for more teachers. This approach just builds on that.

Soccer coaches can augment their pay as CTE teachers

In the United States, according to Zip Recruiter, the average youth soccer coach salary in California is $41,791. At the same time it is $45,979 for CTE teachers.

So, in a perfect model coaches could also become proficient in a high tech skills and work part-time in the profession they are teaching. So in total this just creates a better economic model for the coaches and makes it a win-win for everyone involved.

Soccer has a large communication and standards framework that could help with scale when transitioning coaches as CTE teachers

Unlike public schools in the United States that are managed differently by state, US soccer has an organized national framework and philosophies. This framework discusses game standards, development levels and most importantly a communication framework across the entire system.

Now there is a lot of talk about issues in this system such as pay equality for the woman’s national team with their amazing performance and poor performance on the men’s side. Amongst other issues.

Even with the issues US soccer has done a better job at this then us in Academia. You think pay for play is bad in soccer, you would be blown away in career and tech training. Further, another problem is the framework in education is done by state.

This is problematic because the jobs we are training youth for in CTE programs do not vary by state. For example, we are not training cybersecurity professionals in New Jersey different then in Montana. Now there is work to change this and a lot of great educators doing it, but it is way behind what has been built in youth sports and soccer.

Soccer coaches are highly trained and certified in developing talent so they are used to credential requirements in academia

Globally, and in the United States, soccer coaches have an advanced coaching certification framework. This model in my opinion, as a credentialed CTE teacher, and former active licensed soccer coach, is more rigorous then for teachers. For example, to achieve an A youth coaching license it takes years of training experience and other requirements.

About the author and why I am doing this?

My goal in getting more sports coaches into teaching is threefold. While I don’t want to win a national career Tech Ed World Cup (doesn’t exist), I would like to scale technical talent development for those that want it. There are just not enough opportunities today and I would like to change this.

Second, I would like to help US soccer, and the coaches and players within it progress and meet their goals, on the field and off. Finally, I would like the US men’s team to win a world cup and the woman’s side to win more.

Repay my debt to the beautiful game

I have been lucky enough to be part of the “beautiful game” of soccer since I was a kid. Even luckier to play at the college level for an amazing coach and program who is a leader in player development and coaching.

And even luckier now again to have two boys that play. One in MLS Next and before that in ECNL as a goalkeeper. My youngest is a field player in EA2. The game has given me a ton, and I am trying to give back while doing something I think just makes sense.

Perspective for this concept

While in college I was able to start coaching during the off-season. Then again much later when my boys first started playing.

A big thing I learned in that journey is how hard the great men and woman work as coaches for our youth. Also, how strong the coaching framework was in United States, especially when compared to what I see in the world of tech. I gained a ton of respect for them and learned a lot that fed into the development of this program.

Further, to pay for all the soccer in my family, (kind of joking), I also work in tech. At CISOSHARE, we use a learning and teaching culture that was derived from many of the playing and coaching concepts I learned on the field.

From that we then also started a training academy. CyberForward Academy works directly with developing youth and adult talent and also schools. We run our organization just like a soccer academy based on academy best practice standards.

Because of our relationship with schools, many on our team are also credentialed teachers. I myself actively still teach high school and adult students in some of our courses. Again, applying many of these concepts.

It was from this experience where we started to see the relationship between the instructional methods as a CTE teacher and what is used as a coach.

It is from this perspective, and the help of many great experts in this space that gets us to where we are today.

Conclusion and Next Steps

We are looking for soccer coaches who are interested in potentially becoming CTE teachers. Please explore our coach pathway to sign up for our upcoming program.

Also let us know if you are a school administrator that wants to learn more about this program please contact us or check out our educator pathway.