TEAMPLAYR SPOTLIGHT: Adam Tourle, Steel United Texas

Welcome back to our TeamPlayr Spotlight series where we aim to connect you with interesting and inspiring stories of people and organizations looking to make a positive impact on the North Texas soccer community.

In our latest interview, we got to catch up with the Regional Director of Teams & Programming at Steel United in Texas – Adam Tourle. Originally from Mid Wales, Adam spent his youth career playing at the academy level in the UK, played in 3 National finals and ultimately leaving home at 16 to pursue an opportunity with a club in the Welsh Premier League.  

After a brief stint away from the game following the end of his playing career, he began his coaching journey volunteering at a local club. As he made his way obtaining his English FA Level 1 and 2 coaching licenses he began looking for opportunities to coach in the United States.

In 2016, he joined Glastonbury Hartwell Soccer Club in Connecticut. Following a successful year, Adam decided he wanted to take on new opportunities in Texas.

Since his arrival in the Lonestar state, he’s held director of coaching roles at McKinney Soccer Association and Steel United.

Now, let’s hear from Adam …

Note that the following interview was conducted in person and the following text has been edited for conciseness and clarity.

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Hey Adam, thanks so much for chatting with us today. Why don’t you get us started and introduce us to Steel United.

Sure, so we’re based out of McKinney, TX and are partnered with McKinney Soccer Association. We now have 22 teams. We’ve got 14 teams that are U11 and above with our oldest age group being 2008 and youngest being 2016.

Steel United Texas is part of a larger youth sports group called Steel Sports, based in New Jersey. We are a national, multisport organization. We have baseball and softball in several states, soccer in several more states, and we also operate multisport camps.

The big thing for us is the development of the kids. So we're a kids first club – and to us it's about inspiring youth to reach their full potential on and off the field.

Our core values are Teamwork, Respect, Integrity, and Commitment – each of which is fundamental to what we do. We are not just developing the player on the field, we’re going to develop them off the field as well.

We know that there’s a very limited number of players who will go on to play college, or even high levels at that, so for us these life lessons will take them through their roles in the future.

Steel Sports is actually part of a larger organization called Steel Partners which is brilliant for players who want to pursue careers in different industries.

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That’s very interesting, and the first time I’ve heard of that kind of set up.  It’d be great to see more integration between traditional businesses and youth sports organizations.

So clearly the organizational structure itself is unique, is there anything else that you feel is particularly unique to the way Steel United operates?

Yea, so as an organization our athletes development is fundamental, everything we do is aimed with them in mind - but also, we have lot of coach development as well.

We’re associated with the Football Association of Wales, so through that we’re able to provide our coaches the opportunity to gain the ‘FAW C Certificate’ here in America.

We currently have a couple of courses due to run this year, more to be added in the future.

This certificate creates a pathway for coaches to apply for the highly regarded UEFA licenses through the Welsh FA. I’ve recently obtained my UEFA B license through this pathway.

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We’ll talk about your on field development approach in a moment, but earlier you alluded to teaching players life lessons. Is that more informal, or does Steel Untied offer any “off field” development opportunities or programs?

Yeah, so we have a social impact target for every region – so, every month we have a different calendar of events and activities. As an example, all of our teams are pushed to do as much social impact work as possible. That is, helping the community and raising money for charities.

We actually have an “Athlete Leadership Council,” which is a little different than a lot of other places. We empower our players to push the direction of where we want to go with the club.

So currently, we have a group of around nine players who are in the 2008-2009 age group. They will sit in meetings with me and will give guidance as to what they love about the club, and what they want to see change.The Athlete Leadership Council will also create and run a social impact event to grow leaders in the community.

In addition we have our Leaders of Character Program which seeks to build character, teach life lessons and develop our athletes as leader. This program was developed with Peter Meindl Chair of Character and leadership at West Point.

So yea, across the country we have some amazing coaches and players that do a lot.

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Very cool. Ok, so let’s talk “on field” development. What kind of programming or opportunities does Steel United offer to help players on the pitch?

Well one really cool thing actually is that we were just in Las Vegas with our National Program.

Every year we take our top players from across the nation up to a 5-day residential camp – this past year it was in Pennsylvania.

The players get all new team gear, focused training, and accommodations. At the end of the camp we select the top 18 players and form a team to compete in the Mayor’s Cup in Las Vegas.

Not only does this give those player’s a great opportunity to showcase their talent, they get the opportunity to bond with athletes from different backgrounds and environments all over the country.

It’s really, really cool.

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That sounds like an awesome opportunity. What about your day-to-day training and development curriculum? What does that look like?

Yea, so we have a practice model and a game model, which looks at our “in possession” and “out of possession” play as well as our attacking and defensive transition – and then we have a full National Curriculum.

We’re very fortunate to have a lot very of experience in the club. Ian Hughes is our VP of Coach, Player and Curriculum Development. He’s a pro licensed coach and he puts together all our curriculum sessions.

Then all of our coaches share access to Sports Session Planner. So, when coaches upload new session plans, we all of access to those. The curriculum is a big thing for us being a nationwide club, we want to ensure we have a long term development plan.

Our coaches are asked to do their first session of the week as a National Curriculum session, and then with the second they can be more creative. That way we know that all of our players are understanding the principles of the game – switching play, defending the middle, attacking in the final third, whatever it may be.

All of our players are getting that development over the course of the season to get a better understanding of the game.

For our coaches, we do a lot of professional development. Every year they are asked to do a “Foundations of Positive Coaching” course – they’ve just gone through that.

When I saw you on the field the other day I was actually doing professional development for that coach. With that, it’s not about what they’re doing right or what they’re doing right. It’s giving feedback on what they’re doing well and asking them to consider areas which they could do differently, hopefully, if we develop as coaches the players will continue to develop as well. Part of this process is reflection which we ask all our coaches to actively take part in.

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Great. So, before we wrap up I have to ask … in browsing your website there seems to be a lot of really big name athletes supporting the club. Tell us about that.

Yea, so Tommy Lasorda, who is a Major League Baseball Hall of Famer, was a big impetus in creating Steel Sports. Everything we have is based around his philosophy “You’ve got to Believe.” On the baseball side, up in New York, we’ve got “Lasorda Legacy Park” named after him. His vision of empowering kids is the vision behind everything we do.

We also have an advisory board.

Dusty Baker, currently the head coach of the Astros.

Julie Foudy, we all know, is a National Soccer Hall of Famer, two-time FIFA Women’s World Cup and Olympic champion.

Eric Karros, was a Major League Baseball Player and now a commentator.

Nancy Lieberman, a National Basketball Hall of Famer, and first woman to play and coach in a men’s professional league.

Frank Catalanotto, a former Major League Baseball player and current college coach.

Tziarra King current plays for OL Reign in the NWSL

Jim Thompson, the founder and former CEO of the Positive Coaching Alliance.

Morgan Stickney is a two-gold medalist Paralympian swimmer.

Gabe Feldman is the Co-founder and Co-director of Tulane’s Center for Sport

And, Jerry Royster is a Former MLB player and manager

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Wow, that’s a stacked line up!

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Well, Adam thanks again for spending time with us today – I can’t wait to see what the future has in store for Steel United Texas, and I’m sure our readers will be keen to keep up as well. Where can they find you?

You can check us out on our website or on Instagram – and of course you can connect with us through our TeamPlayr profiles if you’re looking for a new team!

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