17 minute read
Play to win, but enjoy the clover
“I wanted to be the parent that dropped my kid off, showed up on match day, and then complained after the game about all the mistakes the coach made,” said Fletcher Corbin. That was never going to happen. All it took was one rainy day on a soccer field “helping out” another volunteer coach for a recreaction department soccer team of four- and five-year-old kids to remind him of why he loved the game. I stopped and reread that last line. A day spent in the rain on a soccer field with four and five-year-olds would definitely not inspire me to go back for more. Who was this guy? To find out, I began with the line that follows every good Southern introduction. “Where are you from?” Home for Fletcher, I learned, was Savannah, Georgia. Growing up, he played everything from baseball and basketball to football and soccer at Windsor Forest High School. He also played soccer with the Windsor Forest Athletic Association. “This was in the mid 1980s,” said Fletcher. “It was like what we call club soccer today. My coach was from England. He didn’t want us to call him coach, so we called him by his name, Mr. Moon. He took us to play in tournaments throughout the Southeast coastal region from South Carolina to Hinesville and into Florida. He was really the one who helped develop in me a love for the game.” In 1989, Fletcher went to Brewton-Parker College (BPC) on a soccer scholarship and played on the school’s first soccer team. While there, Fletcher met his future wife, Paula Sharpe, at the college pool. “I started talking to her, and things progressed from there,” he said, his eyes
smiling. After graduating from BPC in 1994 with a degree in psychology, Fletcher and Paula married and moved to Dalton, Georgia. (He would later further his education with a master’s degree in administration and leadership.)
Fletcher worked as an investigator in child abuse investigations and foster care. “I was the ‘termination of parental rights guy.’ When a child had been lingering in foster care, I would do the background to take it to court to have the parental rights terminated so that the child could be adopted and have a permanent home rather than linger in the state welfare system.”
When jobs for both Fletcher and Paula became available in Jesup, they took the opportunity to make their way south again. Fletcher’s job involved “heavier investigations of child abuse.” He said, “I did all the forensic interviews with law enforcement on child molestation cases.”
During that time, Fletcher said, “We were hitting the right age with our kids to start participating in rec department sports.” As is often the case, there was a shortage of volunteer coaches at the rec department. But Fletcher had no intention of getting involved. He just wanted to be the parent on the sidelines and enjoy watching his children play.
“Somehow, this lady named Martha found out that I had played soccer in college,” said Fletcher. “She started calling and called my house every single night for two weeks to ask me to coach soccer. I kept telling her, ‘I don’t think I can make that commitment.’ The last time she called, she said, ‘I found someone, but they don’t know anything about soccer. Would you just help out?’ I said, ‘Yes, Martha. I can commit to that.’”
At the first game, the young mother who had volunteered said, “I don’t know anything, but if you tell me how to set things up, I’ll do my best.” Standing in the rain on that soccer field with a bunch of four- and five-year-old kids, Fletcher stepped into a role that came to him naturally.
In 2001, Paula took a teaching position in Baxley, which brought them even closer to her parents, Ed and Frances Sharpe, in Montgomery County. The move was also an opportunity for Fletcher to take a break from his work with law enforcement. “It was difficult to do day in and day out,” he said.
For a year, Fletcher taught special education in Pierce County. Then, at the suggestion of a friend, he took a position with Satilla Counseling Services out of Waycross, Georgia. In 2003, he was offered a regional position as an investigator with the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities. “My wife decided to home school the kids, which made it easy to move our family to Toombs County.”
Fletcher had always encouraged his children to participate in sports, but which sport they would play was always left up to them. “I didn’t ever want to push my preference on them,” he said. “My ultimate goal was that when they left home, they would have learned to be their own person and become productive adults.” The first year they were in Toombs County, his oldest child, David, decided to play both football and soccer at the Vidalia Recreation Department, and Fletcher
supported him all the way. “After that season, he came to me and said, ‘Dad, I like all the sports, but I like soccer the best.’”
Fletcher began to explore options available in the area that would give his son more focused training in soccer. He went to watch a Vidalia High School soccer game and noticed that the coach, Tim Quigley, was coaching both the girls and the boys by himself. “I asked if he could use some help,” said Fletcher. His offer was readily accepted.
Tim introduced Fletcher to Jeremy Moore. “At the time, Jeremy was a college student playing soccer and working as a referee. My kids were in grade school, and I wanted to start a team with younger kids. Jeremy wanted to get a team together for the high school age kids. I called my friend in Jesup, John Benner. He recommended that we start playing through Georgia Soccer. He said, ‘You’re going to see a lot more competition in the kids that play there because they’re specifically focused and devoted to playing soccer.’ I didn’t realize how big Georgia Soccer was at the time.”
Community support and good relations were important to Fletcher. Even though his schedule would not conflict with the rec department, he said, “I went to both Tommy Sasser and Gary Adams at the Vidalia Rec Department and Coach (Anson) Callaway at the Lyons Rec Department and told them my plans. They didn’t have All-Star soccer at the time, and all wished me the best.”
According to their website, “Georgia Soccer is the authorized state youth and adult association for Georgia within the United States Adult Soccer Association, United States Youth Soccer Association, and through them is part of the United States Soccer Federation (USSF)…. In turn, the United States Soccer Federation is the recognized national soccer association within the Federation International de Football Association (FIFA), the worldwide governing body for soccer.”
Jeremy Moore contacted parents from Vidalia and Lyons that he knew would be interested, and Tim Quigley facilitated a meeting. “We all had the same mission,” said Fletcher. “To promote the sport of soccer in Toombs County and surrounding areas. Our strategy was to provide soccer players the appropriate level of play and training where technical and tactical skills, as well as life skills, are developed.”
Next on the agenda was to name their club soccer association. “It was important to everyone for the name to be inclusive for families from both Vidalia and Lyons,” said Fletcher. With that in mind, they agreed on Toombs County Soccer Association. At the same time, they formed a board, and Jeremy served as their first president. From that gathering in the spring of 2004, TCSA formed a 19U boys’ team and a 12U co-ed team. Not being a soccer mom, he explained to me that 19U, for example, meant ages 19 and under.
“Since we weren’t big enough to be recognized on our own, yet, Jesup helped facilitate us. We started playing out of a league run by Chatham County Parks and Recreation that was affiliated with Georgia Soccer.” Fletcher coached the younger teams where his two older children, David and Elizabeth, were playing at the time. Opponents were teams from places like Effingham County, Savannah, Hinesville, and Statesboro. They played five games at home and five games away.
The older group was in the “Select” program of Georgia Soccer and coached by Jeremy. At this level, potential players were required to try out. Most games in that competitive league were played in a Metro Atlanta area and were for those who wanted to play at higher levels in hopes of a college scholarship or even playing professionally. “At the time, I had no idea when we started that playing professional soccer was a real possibility,” said Fletcher.
That first year was a real learning curve. “We took our beatings, but we had fun doing it. Most importantly, kids were gaining a love for the game and gaining all these skills. Then, when they went back to school, they were having a better school soccer season.”
The following school year, Jeremy became the head soccer coach at Toombs County High School (TCHS), and GHSA rules prohibited him from coaching outside the school season. Thankfully, an engineer at Plant Hatch named Chris Rogers volunteered to help with the older youth teams. By the end of that first year, TCSA had doubled in size. “We had kids playing together from Vidalia, Lyons, Metter, and Jesup. We realized early on that we had something special.”
In 2007, Robert Toombs Christian Academy (RTCA) approached Fletcher about starting a soccer program. Since GISA rules differed from GHSA and would not prohibit him from coaching school and club soccer, he agreed. Fletcher began with a middle school girls’ team, and the program quickly grew to include both middle school and high school boys’ and girls’ teams.
In 2010, which was also Fletcher’s last year coaching at RTCA, he had a group of about eight or nine boys that were “diehard” soccer guys. “We were playing Frederica Academy in a league match,” he said. “They were known throughout the state as one of the premier teams. Before the game, I showed the boys a Cuban cigar I had in my coaching bag, and I told them, ‘If you beat Frederica, I’ll smoke this cigar.’” When the boys beat the GISA powerhouse in kicks, he kept his promise, but walked off
campus to do so, of course. Not being a smoker, he said, “I nearly threw up.”
The victory was made complete by the incredible support that came from the stands. Since neither Toombs nor Vidalia soccer teams had games that night, all the boys that played club soccer with the RTCA boys were at the game. “When we won, they all came down on the field and celebrated together. Even though they were from different schools, there was that level of friendship, cooperation, and respect because of their relationships on the club team. It was really, really amazing.”
The year 2017 was an especially memorable year for Fletcher. It all began several years earlier with a group of young girls. Rather than putting them on a co-ed team, as he sometimes did, Fletcher decided to keep them together that first year. The all-girls team finished their first season 5-4 against all boys 12U teams.
“We had a lot of Alpha girls on the team,” said Fletcher. “Sometimes with girls, especially when there are strong personalities, you will have divisions and cliques. I remember when something would happen on the field between two girls in my first generation of girls. It might happen in November, and when I would ask, ‘What’s going on?’ I would learn that it was retaliation for something that happened back in August. All I could say was, ‘I'm sorry, you've held on to that for so long.’”
TCSA currently has about fifty players and seven coaches/support staff with two competitive teams playing in Georgia Soccer leagues and tournaments.
But this group of eight- and nine-year-old girls was different than any group Fletcher had ever coached. “There was none of that with these girls. There was no competition between them. No, ‘I’m better than you.’ Every girl on the team knew their role and did it.”
The team of girls won some and lost some through the years. But the culmination of their determination and bond with one another came together in 2017 like the perfect storm against their opponents. When Vinny Gill, the head soccer coach from Middle Georgia, finished pre-season camp with the girls, he said, “Fletcher, you don't understand what you’ve got here and how many games you're going to win this year.”
He was right. Those girls could not be beaten. They won their way all the way to the girl's Division 2 State/ President’s Cup. “Two girls were ineligible to play since the age for their division was 17U,” said Fletcher. “That meant we were down to thirteen players. These were homegrown girls from Soperton, Vidalia, Lyons, and Reidsville. The team they went up against was from Metro Atlanta. “We were up against players where hundreds, potentially thousands of girls had to try out to make it on the team.” The girls not only won their game, but nine of the thirteen would also receive college scholarships to play college soccer.
But the girls weren’t the only winners that year in TCSA. “We had a group of 19U boys at the same time that were winning,” said Fletcher. “When I wasn’t coaching the girls, I would go watch their games. It was almost boring. It wasn't if they were going to win; it was how much they would win by. I remember one game where they had three red cards against them, which put us three players short. We still won the game six to nothing. When we played against Atlanta Fire, the oldest soccer club in the state of Georgia, our boys beat them, too.”
As a coach, Fletcher determined to remain teachable himself. “I’ve learned as much from the kids I’ve coached as they’ve learned from me. I can tell you that as I’ve matured in age and experiences, my approach to coaching has changed through the years. We all know communication is key. But I’ve learned there may be differences in the way I need to communicate. Girls tend to hold things in more than boys. When something is going on with one of the girls on the field, I pull that player aside and talk to her as an individual. First, I find out if she is hurt. Then, I will ask, ‘How are you feeling? Or, how did school go today?’ I make a point to ask about the people who are important in her life. ‘How’s your mama or grandmother?’ I make a point to learn each girl’s personality. If I hear one of them has a boyfriend, I say, ‘I’m going to go ahead and tell you, I don’t like him.’ They think I’m joking, but I’m not.”
Of course, boys have issues just like girls, he added.
“But, generally speaking, they tend to deal with issues differently. They see soccer as their time to escape and have fun. I tell them, ‘Boys, this is what we’re going to do today.’ And they can just put all the other stuff aside and focus on playing the game. If they have a problem with each other, they take care of it immediately. By the end of the practice session, they are buddies again.”
Ultimately, both groups need people in their lives willing to listen and care. “We don’t know what these kids experienced before they got to our practice,” said Fletcher. “They’ve got so much pressure on them these days to make good grades, get good scores on the SAT, make honors, and have a certain sash at graduation. Soccer is a game. It’s an outlet. Our goal is not to get anybody a college scholarship. Our ultimate mission is to help them be a good person through the life lessons of the sport. Soccer is just a game. Maybe the top one percent will play professionally. I tell these kids all the time, ‘Find a college that has the degree you want to pursue. Then, if they have a team, play soccer while you’re there.’”
TCSA currently has about fifty players with two competitive teams playing in Georgia Soccer leagues and tournaments. “Our 18U girls were 2021 President’s Cup Finalist, which means they qualified for Regional play in Dallas, Texas, the summer of 2022,” said Fletcher. Practices for all groups are held weekly beside Paul Thigpen Chevrolet Buick GMC dealership and/or Tabernacle Baptist Church, both great supporters of TCSA, according to Fletcher.
“We’ve prided ourselves on keeping the costs as low as possible,” he said. “From time to time, we have people in the community who offer to help with fees when there’s a need. We try and figure out a way for any child who wants to play. If they're willing to make some kind of commitment, we’re willing to help. We offer fundraising programs. For example, we've sold Krispy Kreme donuts, held car washes, and recently held a raffle for a shotgun to help cover those costs.”
One of Fletcher’s favorite age groups to watch play are the six-year-olds. “If you ever get the chance to watch a three v. three game, it will do your heart good,” he said. Seeing my blank expression, he explained that six-year-olds play three against three in a smaller area of the field. “When one side scores, both teams celebrate,” he smiled. “I was coaching these girls, and there was a patch of clovers in the field. A girl on my team went to school with a girl on the other team. In the middle of the game, they just sat down in those clovers and started picking flowers. In the past, I might have wanted them to focus on the game. But what I want even more now is for them to look back on that moment on a soccer field as a time they enjoyed being kids.” If kids enjoy it, that enjoyment will give them a love for the game. That’s what makes Fletcher Corbin so good at what he does. Unfortunately, many of us have witnessed the coach who believes that criticism and negativity will motivate players to play harder and better. It doesn’t. Ever. Just to be clear, I’m not one of those parents who believes every child should get a participation trophy so their self-esteem remains in tack. Building healthy self-esteem is not about inflating a child’s ego or preventing the experience of losing a game to a better team. There’s no question that kids who play with TCSA will gain better playing skills. But if the choice comes down to picking clovers or making a goal on Fletcher’s six-year-old soccer team, he’ll choose clovers every time.
Fletcher Corbin's Coaching Achievements
2021 Head Coach of 19U boys Rose City
Invitational Finalist 2018 Head Coach of 19U boys Rose City
Invitational Champions 2017 Head Coach of Division 2 State/President’s
Cup Champions 17U girls 2017 Head Coach Classic II Boys 19U league champions 2017 Head Coach of Athena B 19U Girls league champions 2013 Head Coach 19U Boys League Champions 2012 Head Coach 19U Boys Adidas Savannah Cup
College Showcase Champions 2012 Head Coach 19U Boys Rose City Soccer
Challenge Finalist 2012 Head Coach 19U Boys League Runner Up 2011 Head Coach 19U Boys League Champions 2011 Head Coach 18U Girls League Champions 2010 Head Coach Robert Toombs Christian
Academy Boys Semi-Finals appearance 2010 Head Coach Robert Toombs Christian
Academy Girls playoff appearance 2009 Head Coach Robert Toombs Christian
Academy Boys/Girls playoff appearances 2008 Head Coach 14U Girls Toombs County Soccer
Association, District Finalist State Cup For more information about TCSA, contact Fletcher Corbin at 912-253-0342 or email fdcletch71@gmail.com
