Interview with Coach Mark Karen                                 North Gwinnett High School Head Soccer Coach Proud Accomplishments: Named 2004 Boys and Girls Coach of the Year in Gwinnett County by Gwinnett County Goal Club Named 2004 Girls Coach of the Year for region 8AAAAA by the AJC/Gwinnett Extra Selected as a coach for the 2004 Girls’ All-Star Game. Received COY for all of AAAAA Girls for February and March of 2006 from DiVarsity.com. Selected as 2006 Girls COY in Gwinnett County by Gwinnett County Goal Club Selected as a coach for the 2006 Girls’ All-Star Game. 2006 All-Region Girls’ Coach of the Year. Made state playoffs 5 consecutive years. Question: What advice would you give to young players entering high school who want to play soccer for their high school team? I would recommend that no matter what level of soccer you play in club ball, to come into conditioning/tryouts with confidence and come in good shape.  Make sure you don’t waste you winter months as club is winding down…get out there and train and condition either with yourself or with friends and teammates.  High School soccer is a different atmosphere.  You are playing for your school and you should want to give your best effort for that reason (among others) because the high school soccer experience can be a lot of fun and rewarding. Question: What training would you recommend for a high school player who is dedicated to improving him or her self in the off season? (I guess I need to read these questions ahead of time).  Training would depend on what level your game is at.  However, EVERYONE could use conditioning in the winter months.  A lot of distance training mixed with speed and agility training so you work different muscles.   If you know you are lacking in certain soccer skills, get some 1 on 1 attention from soccer trainers or work with some dedicated friends that want to help you and themselves get better.  You want to be able to have endurance to play a whole game if necessary while not losing your touches during the course of that game Question: What advice can you give to those athletes who are not as talented as the top players in the state, but want to get better and compete on the high school level? High school soccer teams always seems to have a mixed range of talent.  Unlike club ball where you can choose to tryout and play wherever you would like, you can only play or tryout for the school that you attend.  Each school has a varsity and a junior varsity (and some have 9th grade teams) team, so that allows for approximately 40 players (there is not required number of players that a high school team must carry…it varies according to each school and coach).  There are very few schools that you will find top-notch players for all of these 40 or so spots, so everyone has a good chance to make it. Personally, I don’t bother with looking at what club team that my players are on, I give everyone a clean slate and an equal chance.  Whoever works the hardest and shows the best will make the team…regardless of club level.  Have confidence in yourself and play that way. Question: What special skills do you think a successful coach must possess to lead his or her team during the season? For high school soccer, I think the #1 goal that needs to be accomplished for most teams is getting them to play together as a unit right away.  You have a team after tryouts that consists of player from 4 or 5 or more different clubs that all run different formations and have different styles of play.  So, you might have a lot of strong, skilled players, but can they play as a unit.  I feel part of our success each year is because our girls understand this from day 1 and we try to instill this into each of them.  We have not always had the most talented teams each season but we often play better than teams that are more talented than us. Question: How has being a teacher helped you become a better coach? Being a teacher enables me to have contact with my players on a daily basis which allows me to get to know them in ways that I would not if I were coaching them in club.  If I know more about these players lives, then I have a better understanding of how to treat each one in different circumstances if they arise. Question: Do you have any players that graduated that are playing College Soccer? If so, who are they and where are they playing? Do you have any advice for them?   Yes, I have several players that have moved on to play at the college level.   Most recently, Tori Carroll is playing for UGA, Shannon Hackett and Paige Banham are playing for Berry College.  Tiffany Blackmons is playing at Georgia State.  Megan Kolts is playing at Southern Mississippi and there are several more over the last 4-5 years.  My advice to them is to be ready to work harder than you have before but make sure that you really love this game enough to want to play at the next level because it is more of a business at the college level and if your passion for the game is not strong, it will be hard to compete at that level consistently. Question: What advice would you give to student athletes who are struggling academically in school?   Take care of academics first.  I don’t mess around with academics in my program.  Grades are first.  If you love this game enough, then love it enough to make the proper grades to be able to play.  Don’t just “get by” with grades, really work hard to do well. Question:  To whom or what do you attribute your ability to be a successful high school coach?   I would start off with Coach Karl Bostick at Parkview (current AD and former soccer and cross country coach)who had me in his classroom, on the cross country team, and on the soccer team (1 year).  Coach Bostick is the main reason I am in education and coaching.  There were many people that influenced me along the way, but he is #1.  I have had a lot of great help and support from Mike Coulter (former soccer coach at Brookwood) when I was his assistant coach for my first 3 years of teaching and coaching.  He gave me my freedom but was always there to answer any questions I had about practices, games, etc… What do you love about the game of soccer?   The endurance and skill needed to be good at the game.  The way you have to see the whole field and recognize what is going to happen before it does.  It is a thinking game combined with its physical attributes. What do you love about coaching high school soccer? I love to watch my teams play in front of their peers.  They get very excited and seem to play above themselves because of it.  I love being able to train girls that are at different skill levels to see if they will work hard with each other to become that unit that is necessary to be successful.   Who is your favorite professional soccer team?   I don’t really have one. Who is your favorite professional soccer player?   Josh Wolff (Friend of mine.) Who is your favorite college soccer team?   Any team that my players are playing for! Who taught you the game of soccer? Several club coaches growing up over the years.  Too many to name. We salute Mark Karen for his contributions to Georgia High School Soccer and wish            his North Gwinnett Bulldogs all the best in the their upcoming 2007 season !!!!