In 2004 Pinecrest Premier Soccer Club hired Director of Coaching, Nick Megaloudis, a former collegiate and professional soccer player with various ties to the soccer community. He currently holds a USSF "A" National License and was a former assistant coach for MLS club, the Miami Fusion. PSC Spotlight recently had the opportunity to chat with Nick about his life, career as well as his goals for the club. Here is Part 2 of our interview.
Part 2
PSC: How would you describe Pinecrest Premier’s player development philosophy?
NickM: Basic fundamental training at early ages is without a doubt the most important factor in our developing. Our club has achieved a great deal of success working from the bottom up and certainly one of the things that I talk to the coaches about is making sure we are working as much in the technical aspect of developing.
PSC: How important is “playing style” in soccer ?
NickM: Certainly the success of every team revolves around the style they play, unfortunately in our club; every team must establish their own style of play. The make up of a system is made up of a collection of good players that must be molded into a team concept. We have a collection of different nationalities that are used to playing different styles of soccer. That’s why it is important for each team to develop their own style of play.
PSC: How do you re-train your staff coaches?
NickM: I’m not sure I want to re-train my coaches. What I want to do is see my coaches get better at what they do. I like to have our coaches assessed, it gives us a better picture of how they are improving. I encourage all the coaches to be more assertive in their continuing education, the more knowledge they have, the better their players will be. And I also like to give them as much of the information and equipment that will also help them along the way.
PSC: What makes a successful coach?
NickM: Along my 25 year journey of coaching, I was always able to measure my success as a coach by all the players that I help develop and watch them grow into good players at every level. We should not measure development by the number of wins and loses; I measured it by the number of players as freshman’s who got to start on their high school and college teams. By the number of players that turned professional. This always took time, but everyone must remember that patience and time is what makes players successful.
PSC: Do you have any advice for younger coaches?
NickM: My advice to the younger coaches is never give less then 100%. Coaching is such a wonderful and rewarding job, and so are the many wonderful benefits that come with it. A younger coach should never feel like he or she has reached their maximum at learning the game. The game will be the teacher forever, and forever they will always learn. There is always something out there that they can continue to learn from.
PSC: What are the goals and ambitions for Pinecrest Premier Soccer Club?
NickM: Our goals will always be to be the number one premier club in the area. We will continue to pursue the highest quality standard of the game; this will include playing for regional and national championships. Placing players on the state, regional and national teams, and representing Pinecrest Premier in national leagues.
PSC: Where do you see the club in 5 year ?
NickM: Unfortunately there will be very little additional growth within the club; the demographics of our area will not allow it. That is fine. We will be looking in the next five years of bringing better qualified coaches in, we will be putting a better quality program together for the future, which means we will be looking at quality, not quantity. We will be looking to become a club that will definitely establish it’s credibility at the national level and also to watch some of our players represent the US and also play for some of the finest colleges and universities in the country.
