ANOTHER BRITISH INVASION
They patrol the sidelines as if every game is for the Southern Section boys’ soccer championship, every 50-50 ball a matter of life and death and every bad call a punch to their gut.
They call everyone ‘Mate,’ they use funny words like knackered and bloody and they like to top off sentences with questions like ‘Isn’t it? or ‘Don’t you?’ just in case you thought about disagreeing with them.
Needless to say, Martin Stringer, Barry Turner and Andy Thomas aren’t from around here. Stringer grew up in Blackpool, England, Turner in Kingston-upon-Thames, England, and Thomas on the Isle of Man--all places where soccer is not only the No. 1 sport, but possibly the No. 1 religion.
They came to a land where soccer isn’t among some people’s top 10 sports, much less a recognized religion. But with infectious enthusiasm and passion for their sport, Stringer, Turner and Thomas have not only found a home 5,000 miles from their native land, they’ve also created a positive environment for soccer in their communities and passed on loads of knowledge to hundreds of kids.
While doing so, they’ve also managed to win a few games.
In nine seasons as the Mater Dei boys’ soccer coach, Stringer, 36, has reached the playoffs seven times and won section titles in 1994 and ’97.
In nine seasons as the Foothill boys’ coach, Turner, 34, has had four playoff appearances, including last year’s run to the Division III semifinals. Thomas, 29, is the most recent to arrive in the county but has had the most immediate success. In two seasons at Laguna Beach, he has won two Division IV soccer titles.
Stringer, Turner and Thomas didn’t come here looking for section championships. They were looking for work. None of them would have minded staying in England, but the market for educators who also wanted to coach soccer wasn’t too promising.
“There’s a million of us over there,” Stringer said.
Stringer and Turner were classmates and teammates at St. Mary’s physical education college in London and were recruited by Derek Lawther of the Golden West Soccer Club in 1985. Once they arrived in Southern California, they found it hard to leave.
“We liked the lifestyle and we saw a great interest for the game at the youth level,” Stringer said. “We saw that potential and we found a niche.”
Stringer, 36, started at Foothill, coaching the junior varsity for a season then the varsity for a season. In 1989, he was hired by Mater Dei to teach U.S. history and coach varsity soccer. Turner, who had been Foothill’s junior varsity coach, took Stringer’s old job.
In the beginning, Stringer and Turner had a difficult time adjusting to the level of play in high school soccer.
“When I first came to Mater Dei, if you put 11 kids on the field in the right position to have a clue, you were ahead of the game,” Stringer said.
Foothill made the playoffs in Turner’s first two seasons, but never made it past the second round.
“I don’t think I knew what I had,” said Turner, who teaches at a continuation school in Tustin and also coaches two club teams. “It’s the old saying, I wish I knew then what I know now.”
What Turner and Stringer knew was a physical, “direct” style of play and a no-nonsense approach.
Turner said the direct or “long ball” style was a necessity in England because of the conditions.
“The professional fields used to be mud bowls,” Turner said. “The philosophy was just to get it forward and go.”
All three British coaches play a version of the direct style, but they all say they have adjusted their approach based on their players’ strengths and weaknesses. Turner’s teams probably play less of a traditional English style than Mater Dei or Laguna Beach.
“I like to knock the ball around a bit,” Turner said. “I like players who can keep possession and make passes. Glen Hoddle [who starred for Tottenham Hotspur] was my favorite player as a kid and he was called a pansy. But he was a great, skilled player.”
Turner’s comment drew a chuckle from Stringer, who grew up in Northern England, where the physical, long-ball game was the norm. Turner came from South England, where the kind of finesse soccer Hoddle excelled at is more accepted.
“I respect Hoddle more now than I did then,” Stringer admitted.
Earning Respect
Zodiac forward Steve Patterson, who played at Foothill from 1992 to 1994, said Turner gained his respect almost immediately.
“When he stepped on the practice field, he had this presence,” Patterson said. “You could tell his soccer knowledge was deep. He pushed us to become better players.
“I think as time has gone on, Barry has changed his ways to fit the American style of soccer. He’s taken a more relaxed attitude and he’s let his players have more freedom. He used to push the players too hard and burn them out. Now, he’s letting them peak later in the season.”
Turner said he has simply matured as a coach.
“As a player, it’s all spontaneous,” he said. “It’s taken me 10 years to break down the things that are important. But I’m starting to figure it out.”
Senior Nick Adams, a three-year starting goalkeeper at Foothill and the Knights’ captain, said he’s “privileged” to have Turner as his coach.
“Some of my friends who play high school have a PE teacher or a football coach who says, ‘Run and put it in the goal,’ ” Adams said. “We have a coach who loves the game and has played it at a high level.”
Stringer is probably more intense than Turner or Thomas, and that intensity has pushed some players out the door at Mater Dei. Bret Corbin, a starter on Stringer’s 1997 Division II championship team and now a freshman midfielder at Southern Methodist, said Stringer’s style never bothered him.
“I played for him in club soccer and I’ve learned almost everything I know about the game from him,” Corbin said. “He’s a great coach. He’ll get on you, but he’s doing it for your own good. He’s got a love of the game like nobody else I’ve ever seen and he’s given me that love. He makes you a stronger player. The people that don’t stay can’t take criticism.”
Sometimes Stringer’s criticism extends to referees.
“I’ll always fight for my players,” he said.
Turner and Thomas are less animated on the sideline, but neither is exactly relaxed. And none of them has ever been known to actually sit on the bench during a game.
“You head every ball when you’re a coach,” Thomas said. “I’m better on the sidelines than I was as a player.”
Capistrano Valley Coach Ron Willms said he respects the Britons’ knowledge and “hard-nosed style,” but he wonders if referees sometimes give them a little too much respect.
“The referees hear that accent and they figure, ‘These guys know a lot more about the game than I do,’ ” Willms said. “So maybe they’ll give them a call or two.”
Turner said he believes the calls have a way of evening out.
“I think it goes both ways,” he said. “Sometimes, we’ll get calls, but some refs will hear you talking and think, ‘There goes another one of those English guys again, thinks he knows it all.’ ”
Laguna Beach’s Thomas probably does know more than most referees, but he has learned to keep fairly quiet during games.
“Referees have bigger egos than coaches, so they’ll only take so much,” Thomas said.
Soccer’s His Life
Like Stringer and Turner, Thomas was recruited to the United States by an American soccer club, Brittania, which is based in Virginia. Unlike Stringer and Turner, Thomas does not teach at a high school. His world revolves almost entirely around soccer. He runs the All-England Soccer Academy, which stages clinics at various Southland fields during the summer, and coaches three club teams.
Thomas might have been the best player of the three. He played for Leeds University for four years and he’s the only one who had a tryout with a professional team. Fortunately for Laguna Beach’s soccer program, Thomas didn’t make the cut.
Chris Whitworth, the star of Thomas’ 1997 championship team, said before Thomas came along he and two other players were considering sitting out the season or transferring.
“We were lucky to get him,” said Whitworth, who played professionally in Switzerland and is hoping to sign soon with the Sioux City Breeze of the A-League. “He turned the program around by turning the players on to soccer.”
Thomas said that was a tough trick.
“Laguna Beach is full of very successful people,” he said. “Everyone has a beautiful home by the ocean, so soccer is not in their top 10. So convincing the kids that soccer is meaningful and making it fun is my job.”
Said Stringer: “He probably had the hardest sell of all of us.”
But one thing that can’t be sold is desire.
“English kids are more willing to roll up their sleeves and soldier through than American kids,” Stringer said. “But as far as technique and skills are concerned, I think the kids over here have an advantage.”
Said Turner: “It’s different coaching American kids and English kids. I’ve had to adapt. The one thing American kids don’t have over the English players is that internal love of the game, that to-die-for passion. But there are more players coming through that have that now. That’s what you need to go to the next level.”
Which one of the Britons will coach on the next level?
Thomas is the only one with such ambition and already is an assistant at Irvine Valley College. Stringer and Turner are content to stay at the high school level.
“I’m a teacher first and foremost,” Turner said. “It enables me to coach soccer too, which is great.”
Stringer was recently named dean of students at Mater Dei and he doesn’t appear to be going anywhere. But sometimes he wonders what life would be like if he had stayed in England.
“I’d have 2.2 kids and a coffee table,” Stringer said. “Everything is so rigid, structured and limited back home. There’s very little opportunity. I knew from the first six months I was here that this was a wonderful place.
“And the weather helps because it allows you to do more. I can go out with my wife and play a round of golf if I want to. It’s nice to be able to do what you love in a place that you love.”