Former College Park soccer coach writes a book on his experiences

Falling in love with a game – accidentally

Thursday, March 2, 2006

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by Dennis Carter

Staff Writer

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Christopher Anderson⁄The Gazette

Jim Haner (left) goes one-on-one with Roosevelt High School soccer player Mike Belshay, 14, during the College Park Boys and Girls Club soccer clinic Saturday at Hollywood Elementary School. Haner coached the club for 10 years and has written a book about his experiences.

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Haner talks to a parent Saturday during a College Park Boys and Girls Club soccer clinic at Hollywood Elementary School.

On a late summer evening in 2000, Jim Haner sat among a group of excited parents, slightly confused as to why he was listening to an impassioned pep talk about soccer in the College Park Boys and Girls Club.

Looking around, Haner said, he wondered why he was there, hearing about a sport he did not play and, furthermore, did not care about.

Six years later, Haner credits that motivational talk about the world’s most popular sport for igniting his passion for soccer, which culminated in his book, ‘‘Soccerhead: An Accidental Journey into the Heart of the American Game,” due out in April.

The memorable talk ended with organizers asking parents to coach the club’s soccer teams, a request Haner assumed – and hoped – was not directed toward him.

‘‘All these mothers turned and looked at me, and I thought, ‘No, I can’t possibly do this,’” said Haner, who lived in College Park from 1994 to 2004. ‘‘But they kept needling me, and by the time I left, I had a bag of balls and flags and not the first idea of what I was doing.”

For Haner, a former investigative reporter at ‘‘The Miami Herald” and ‘‘Baltimore Sun” and a three-time Pulitzer Prize finalist for spot news, coaching youth soccer was never a part of his grand plan. ‘‘I never envisioned myself as a coach,” he said. ‘‘It took a long time to get used to people even calling me coach. Of all the things I never expected to be called in my lifetime, it was right up there with ‘Mr. President’ and ‘Your Excellency.’”

‘‘Soccerhead” is set in the Washington suburbs – a haven for soccer fanatics – exploring the history of the College Park Hornets’ relentless quest for the perfect season. Haner, who said he read 25 soccer-related books in a three-year span, intertwines his coaching experience in College Park and Prince George’s County with subjects ranging from children’s psychology to the impact of the youth sports industry to the often tricky politics of children’s sports.

Coaching in an area where cultural and political cross sections endlessly collide, Haner always has been impressed by the ‘‘unifying quality” of soccer.

On his College Park team, Haner said ‘‘there were Latino kids, Hindu kids, Catholic kids, Protestant kids, black kids and white kids. You don’t see that in other games,” he said.

Despite his intense interest in soccer, Haner’s inexperience reared its head in his first seasons on the sidelines.

Instead of preaching strategy and proper technique, Haner said he simply let the kids play, knowing that they would learn more efficiently in informal practice sessions.

College Park City Councilman David Milligan (Dist. 1), who coached club’s girls’ teams when Haner lived in the city, said ‘‘Soccerhead” is a must-read for local soccer players, parents and fans.

‘‘To me, it’s different than any other [soccer] book,” said Milligan, who read a rough draft of Haner’s manuscript.

‘‘Jim is a good storyteller, and he intertwines the facts and history of soccer in the United States with experiences of people on his own team. It’s especially interesting for someone in this area to read.”