B&D: Team Structure and Organization
One team I had the pleasure of being a part of was my high school soccer team. We were the
Eagles - a single team split between junior varsity (JV) and varsity. The structure of a soccer
team more closely resembles the football team analogy given by Bolman and Deal. In soccer,
players perform in close proximity to one another with each play being a concerted group
effort. I started on the JV team my freshman year. The JV team was significantly larger than
the varsity team which made it much more difficult to manage. This loose structure, however,
allowed everyone who wanted a shot at playing soccer a fair enough chance. Hardly any cuts
were made on the JV team and everyone got playing time - even if they weren’t “ready” (I
remember one game I stupidly showed up for the last half to observe after a track meet - I was
thrown in anyway.). JV was not based on skill, but determination. Varsity, however, relied on
prowess.
Skilled JV players could play on both teams. At the beginning of the season, these JV players
had relatively definite positions in JV games; everyone else on JV was positioned nearly at
random. The JV team lacked structure so much that I pondered quitting after being “cast” to
be the goalie. I can very clearly recall Coach San T telling me that, “Someone’s gotta do it
when Christie graduates!” After many scrimmages, two lost games, severely bruised legs, and
overwhelming guilt - I kept trying. Coach San T decided enough was enough after a cleat
went into my right ankle. Being in the goal allowed me to see many things that were wrong
with the functionality of the team. Many times, defenders were parallel to midfielders, and
even forwards on the field. The latter case is absolutely not supposed to happen. Only centers
and forwards should be playing offensively. Defenders’ main goal is to block attempted goals
from the opposing team. I, like the majority of the team, believed that my rightful position
was a forward. Coach San T made me as midfielder for the rest of this season. Midfielders do
a great deal of running - something he knew I was used to be a cross country runner. I
remember constantly yelling, “Move back! Move back!” to my defenders who would
themselves just steps away from the opposing team’s goal. Losses were hard hits, and
sometimes teammates would not talk for days after the game. I will never forget our coach,
Coach Jesse, calling us a bunch of “whiny, a**holes crybabies”. There was no shared
accountability - if a game was lost, it was immediately blamed on the defenders and goalie.
There was no organization, no leadership, and no hope. The team sucked.
Throughout the first season, we eventually found our rightful positions based on expertise. We
started winning as we became bonded as a team, incorporating clear roles and communicating
more in practice and in games. In the next season, most remaining juniors and a handful of
sophomores officially earned varsity positions. A once disorganized JV team bloomed into a
well organized team of people who wanted to be there. Organizational issues hardly existed on
the varsity team. Ownership of roles was and communication was efficiently executed. Most
importantly, lasting informal relationships were born. Our varsity captains, Bossie and
Anairis, had positions that were similar to the surgeon analogy. Bossie, as our offensive
midfielder, was responsible for communicating to forwards and often playing the positions of
others (as midfielders are able to score goals). Anairis communicated with other midfielders
and defenders. There was also shared accountability. Most people can agree that the position
of the goalkeeper is the most important position in the game. However, losses were no longer
blamed on defenders and the goalie.
I think of soccer as being closer to basketball than to football in that there is a flow of the game that only stops when there is a penalty or an out of bounds. Football has plays that are discrete units, which is unlike the other two.
ReplyDeleteYour post was a bit too chatty for me, especially at the beginning. I got that anyone could be on the JV Team, but you identified two coaches - Sam T and Jesse - and their roles weren't made clear. Also, you said that you could play on both the JV and Varsity, but you didn't describe how a player gets selected for the varsity. It might not have occurred to you to make this connect but the analogy JV is to Varsity as internship is to permanent job might make sense. If so, the question is how the coaches could tell which JV players should move up, given the erratic teamwork on the JV team and the rotation in of so many players. I wish you had written about that particular question and indeed that you focused on it.
Alternatively, you could have written the entire piece on the Varsity, where then you could tie it to what Bolman and Deal say about effective teams. Ultimately the goals of this exercise was to connect your experience to what we are studying. You did that some in the last paragraph, but not earlier on in the piece.