118. Al Albert - Former College of William & Mary Men's Soccer Coach

In this episode I welcome a living legend, Al Albert. Al’s accomplishments in soccer over a 33 year career at the College of William and Mary are too numerous to list. To provide a glimpse into his success as a head men’s soccer coach, he had 29 consecutive winning seasons, 5 CAA tournament championships, 5 regular season CAA titles and several great runs in the NCAA tournament. The 4-time CAA coach of the year is in multiple halls of fame, coached several future pros, and published a book about the history of men’s soccer at William & Mary, with the forward written by Jon Stewart of the Daily Show, perhaps his most famous alum.

In further service to the game and his community, Al started the Community Partnership to provide elementary school students a place to play soccer no matter what their socio-economic status is. He rallied the Williamsburg, VA community to make donations, found funds through grants and encouraged people to volunteer. The program is now over 20 years old.

Finally, as a testament to his impact on American soccer as a whole over his career he was elected the 60th president of the National Soccer Coaches Association of America, which is the largest single sport coaching organization on Earth.

Many owe thanks to Coach Albert, my regret with this podcast is that I didn’t bring on a few of his former players to enrich the discussion. Next time.