In January 2012 Richard was motioned in to the position of president of the Treasure Coast Soccer League and held that position until January 2016. Richard’s drive and new energy helped to reinvigorate the youth participation in league’s events. Richard worked with Thomas Rungen to create and develop the Development Pathway League “DPL” strategey. Richard and his TCSL board of directors successfully implemented the DPL into the TCSL schedule and it has proven to be an excellent stepping stone for players showing potential to move from recreational soccer season to experience competitive soccer benchmarks without making the commitment too soon to a higher level. The TCSL’s DPL has since help to develop hundreds of confident, technical players from all member clubs within the TCSL. As president of the TCSL, Richard’s core focus was on education the participants. Not only the youth participants but also the junior and senior referees, volunteer coaches and most importantly, the spectators and the parents. The messages were simple to spectators, positive reinforcement only, no sideline coaching, no abusive remarks to officials. Model behavior from all was expected. Richard gave up much of his time attending event jamborees and tournaments to share this philosophy with all the spectators before each game. Scores and standings were removed so the goals were changed from executing to win to executing to develop. It proved that education works and all the players benefited from playing in an positive game day environment.

Richard has continued with his on personal education during this period and he currently holds a USSF National C license and also the USSF National Youth License.

Richard’s philosophy for Martin United is simple. It is to create an environment where mistakes are viewed as a learning opportunity for everyone by using guided discovery educational techniques. Richard see’s the game of soccer as a fun, problem solving game which challenges participants mental, physical, psychosocial, cognitive abilities and technical skill. Mastery off all is our goal. Participants are defined as players, officials, coaches and spectators / parents.

Martin United has since developed quickly under Richard’s leadership and within two years the club soon grew from just a recreational club to include a travel program. Today, after four years of sustained growth Martin United has over 400 active member families participating in Martin United 2017/18 soccer programs. What makes Richard proud is the fact that many of the competitive soccer teams at Martin United are populated by players who joined Martin United as grass roots recreational players and have developed within the safety of Martin United’s philosophy.

Richard coaches through-out the clubs programs and participates in all the grass roots micro player programs, the DPL season and the competitive program. His focus during the recreational program is more on the volunteer coaches rather than the individual players.

“Ideally, I’d like families that buy in to our club philosophy and agree to uphold it. I’d rather be a smaller club with like minded families to develop our youth athletes in a positive way, rather than being focused on the number of participants and wins like other clubs in the area.”

Please see an exert from the International Journal of Sports Science and Coaching, dated March 1st 2011 that inspired much of Richard’s philosophy.

“An effort-oriented philosophy of winning is one of the core principles underlying the creation of a mastery motivational climate—a learning environment that emphasizes skill development, personal and team success, maximum effort, and fun17-19. A large body of research indicates that in sports, as in other achievement settings, mastery achievement goals and a mastery motivational climate are associated with salutary effects on athletes. Compared with ego-oriented athletes, those high in mastery orientation report higher feelings of competence, greater enjoyment of the activity, and higher intrinsic motivation and effort. A mastery orientation (particularly in combination with a low ego orientation) is also related to lower levels of cognitive trait anxiety and pre-event state anxiety. Finally, a mastery goal orientation is related to a variety of adaptive achievement behaviors, such as exerting consistent effort, persistence in the face of setbacks, and sustained and improved performance. Although an ego orientation has at times been linked to high levels of achievement, it also has a number of less desirable correlates, such as inconsistent effort, higher levels of performance anxiety, reduced persistence or withdrawal in the face of failure, decreased intrinsic motivation for sport involvement, and a willingness to use deception and illegal methods in order to win”

Source :
Smoll, F.L., Cumming, S.P.,  Smith, R.E. (2011). Enhancing coach-parent relationships in youth sports: increasing harmony and minimizing hassle. International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching, 6, pp. 13 – 26. doi:10.1260/1747-9541.6.1.13
https://doi.org/10.1260/1747-9541.6.1.13