Josh Green, a founding member of North State Soccer, was able to connect with us here at the California Soccer Park so that we could share with you all what he has been up to and some of his favorite memories in his 17 years of coaching and officiating! Josh started coaching with his wife, Rita Allmeyer-Green, when their son, Cole Green, started playing U6. Their daughter, Laney Green (a Linfield College Women’s Soccer player), started playing two years later when they began coaching two teams in the fall and spring for the next four years. The following 11 years of coaching were dedicated to year-round competitive soccer. Josh says he was motivated to become a referee when he had an unpleasant experience with a referee in a tournament, about 7 years ago. One of his personal philosophies is, “before you complain about something, offer up a solution.” In this case, his solution was to offer quality officiating skills for players by learning the rules of the game himself. Green says that becoming a referee has improved his coaching skills as well.
Josh’s most memorable accomplishment as a coach/referee was working with other soccer families to start the North State Soccer Academy. It all began around 8 years ago, when he saw the need to expand his U14B team, “especially for players that wanted to play year-round,” so they began inviting players to train. It is important to offer kids an environment where they can reach their full potential, and that is exactly what was intended in the creation of NSSA. Starting with 16 players, by the end of spring they had 50 players showing up to the trainings. One year later, they had expanded the number of coaches and started training the girls. When about 100 players showed up, it became obvious that the participants needed the proper level organization to get the most out of the program. Josh says he is incredibly grateful to have so many coaches take on vital roles in the academy that led it to its success. The program was turned over to Steve Hofferber (NSS Director of Coaching) as Josh’s children “aged out” of the program. Now, it makes Josh smile every time he sees a player wearing a NSSA shirt.
With a little bit of extra time on his hands, in being away from soccer and with physical distancing, Green has “resumed a previous passion” of his: bicycling. He fixed up his 24-
30-year-old road and mountain bikes and started riding to work! As many of you know exercise is incredibly beneficial to the mind and body. Josh says that biking has been “a great release” for him and it has kept his stress level down. While stuck at home, it is a great time for players to work on soccer skills. Here is some advice from Coach Green:
“One of the best things a player can do is work on juggling a ball daily, emphasizing the use of BOTH feet. This is an easy way to work on ball control, foot-eye coordination, and body control. Going on to You-tube a player can find many activities to work on ball control via dribbling, passing and receiving against a wall, and other fun games. There are also coordination and agility drills that could be worked on as well. In my opinion they should keep it fun, challenging, and always have a ball at their foot when running.”
Players will be out on those new fields before we know it! Josh brought to our attention that getting teams to travel to Redding and compete has been a major challenge for competitive players. What made this process even harder was the condition of the fields at the California Soccer Park. The entirely new and organic fields will not only help with making the trip to Redding worth-while, but also with reducing injuries created by the rubber infill and the field surface temperatures.
It is easy to see the tremendous impact that Josh Green has had on the North State’s soccer community. Thank you, Josh, Rita, and the entire Green family, for your many years of contributions to the game of soccer, the North State Soccer Family, and the Redding Soccer community.