#616: Grassroots Pt. 2 — Jim Harte on how kids engage with organized soccer

Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America

Adam Belz

Sports, Usmnt, Men's National Team, American Soccer, Us Soccer, Soccer, Mls, U17 National Team, U20 National Team, Youth National Teams, Yanks Abroad

4.8 • 893 Ratings

🗓️ 7 August 2025

⏱️ 63 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

We're on to part 2 of our grassroots series, this one bridging the gap between Tom Byer's soccer starts at home message and some practical tips for rec soccer coachs. Our guest is Jim Harte, one of the people really fighting to grow soccer in America. He’s spent most of his life working working in the trenches of helping kids fall in love the game. He's a six-time high school soccer state champion in Florida as a coach, and was simultaneously an elementary physical education teacher and club soccer coach for decades in the Tampa area. He’s also the founder of the high school champions league, which we get an update on in the last part of the interview.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the scuff podcast where we talk about U.S. soccer.
0:16.8	Hello everyone. We're on to part two of this series of interviews on youth soccer.
0:20.7	We got to hear from Tom Beyer on Ball Mastery, its benefits for children as people and as soccer players,
0:25.9	how important those early years are for developing skill and how central the parent-child relationship is to learning.
0:32.3	For the second part, we're still going to be focused on what motivates little kids,
0:35.9	but we're going to move into structured play and even practice.
0:39.2	Get into some pedagogy with a guy who's been working with kids for about as long as I've
0:43.4	been alive.
0:44.4	And hopefully with this conversation lay the foundation for the final episode, which is going
0:48.2	to be a series of practical tips for rec soccer coaches.
0:52.0	Again, all three of these interviews are available to patrons right now.
0:55.7	Part three will come out next Thursday on the public feed.
0:58.9	If these conversations spark comment or question from you, please leave us a voicemail.
1:03.2	I will put a link to where you can do that in the show notes.
1:06.4	Now on to today's conversation.
1:09.2	Our guest today is one of the people really fighting to grow soccer
1:12.2	in America. He was an elementary school PE teacher, a high school soccer coach, and a club
1:17.2	academy director in the Tampa area, all kind of at the same time for the better part of 40
1:22.9	years. He's the founder of the high school champions league. He's passionate about making
1:27.4	soccer accessible and helping kids learn to love the game. He's the founder of the high school champions league. He's passionate about making soccer accessible and helping kids learn to love the game.
1:30.4	He's the perfect bridge between Tom Beyer and the third episode of this little series,
1:35.1	which is going to be focused on practical tips for rec soccer coaches.
	...

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