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Marchand savors 23 seasons as C.F.'s soccer coach |
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Tuesday, 13 October 2009 |
By TERRY NAU
Sports editor
CENTRAL FALLS – Bobby Marchand is enjoying the latter years of his stint as head soccer coach at Central Falls High School. The always optimistic veteran of 23 seasons still teaches the game with the same passion and humor that has marked his stint on the sidelines.
“I have mellowed over the years, as far as my coaching style goes,” Marchand was saying on Friday afternoon before sending his Division I-North leading Warriors out for a light practice in the rain. “I learned that winning is not everything, that there are many more important things that go along with coaching young kids.
“We want to win every time but we want to do it with sportsmanship, play fair and square, while teaching life lessons to our players,” said Marchand, who has won 182 games over the past 23 seasons. “It almost sounds funny to say that but it’s true. Coaches teach life lessons to their players all the time. We’ve had situations this year where we had to man up and face some things. You do that with kids: teach them what is right and wrong, on and off the field.
“One of the hidden joys of coaching is what the kids mature over the course of a season,” Marchand added.
The coach’s team is maturing on the field this month, having won four and tied one of its last five games, giving Central Falls an 8-4-4 record heading into this afternoon’s home game against Cumberland (6-7-1). A victory today would give the Warriors their third division title since moving up to Division I in 2006.
“Central Falls played in Division I when I first started coaching,” Marchand remembered. “We were getting pounded, 12-0 by La Salle, 10-0 by Portsmouth, so we moved down. I always felt soccer was the signature sport in our school, not so much by how many people attended our games, but because of the makeup of this (diverse) community. When we won the Division III championship in 2005, it was a realignment year. Portsmouth decided to drop out of Division I and we were accepted as their replacement.”
Marchand wanted to “Put my players against the best. At first, we wanted to be the best urban school in the division. Now we compare ourselves to the La Salles and the Hendrickens. We want to conduct ourselves with class and I’m proud to say we have done that over the past five years. We’ve only had one red card and one yellow card in the past 40 games. This year, we have none. Our kids do not talk back to the officials. They have bought into what we are selling. It’s a testament to them. In the past, CF was not always noted for good sportsmanship. We were good winners and horrible losers. But that has changed over time.”
Marchand freely admits he was not a good loser in the old days, too.
“When I was a young coach, I wanted to make a reputation for myself and you do that by winning,” he said. “You want to impose your desire on the kids. What I learned over the years is that good coaches allow the kids to develop their own desire for winning and for competing. This technique is better. Eventually the desire comes from the kids. That makes the end product so much better.”
The Warriors continue to play a style of soccer that Marchand calls “The Beautiful Game.”
“The Beautiful Game is about possessing the ball, keeping it on the ground, making short passes, hitting the open man,” he said, describing something that is more important to him than winning or losing. “LaSalle plays it and has won six straight state championships. All the elite teams play a short passing game. This is also known as the South American style of soccer, the Brazilian style. It suits our physical makeup, too, because we are one of the smallest teams in Division I. We don’t want to play a physical game.”
Marchand is always teaching his players, win or lose. After Friday’s 6-1 win over an outclassed Coventry squad, the veteran coach went through the handshake line, telling the Coventry players to keep their heads up. “You never quit,” he told them as he shook hands with player after player. “You never gave up. You’ve got a good team.”
Then he gathered his Warriors in a post-game huddle, quietly waiting until all the players stopped talking, admonishing one or two in the back of the formation. Then he talked to them about practicing the right way and taking their game on to the playing field. The players in the front row listened intently, smiling at their coach, kidding with him as they broke up.
“I’ve got a good group of kids here,” Marchand said as the players began to gather their equipment and head home.
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Last Updated ( Sunday, 08 November 2009 )
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