Oct29Written by:admin
10/29/2008 
Here is a man who has been an integral part of the national program that took over a decade to bear fruit. The youth development part was probably the key to the successes of FRANCE '98 and EURO 2000. We found gold but did not know it and we treated him as though he's just another foreign coach passing through. Here was a very special man with extra-special knowledge to share
MR. JACQUET COMES TO TOWN
By Graham Ramsay
What an amazing event the current World Cup winning coach, Aime Jacquet, coaching teenage girls in, of all places, a ballroom! Maybe he misread his hectic travel agenda and was told he was going to coach at the Riviera. They obviously didn't tell him about the "other" Riviera the one in Las Vegas. France’s loss is our gain. Aime was quite philosophical about the error and was last seen screaming “Ginola" at a one-armed bandit (slot machine). Apparently, it's the FFFway of relieving stress. Well those were some of the rumors that floated around the USYSA Workshop trying to explain his appearance. Whatever the reason, we were privileged to see a very talented man share his expertise. Watching this superb coach/teacher work with youngsters reinforced my admiration of Mr. Jacquet and the educational attitude of French Football. Just think of it, name a championship-winning coach in any major sport, retiring after taking the greatest prize, in his case the FIFA World Cup, and then returning to serve his Federation as their Technical Director. His example and the caring for long term excellence are lessons for us to absorb and adapt to our game. Are we smart and caring enough to think along those lines?
My other thought was how many of our top administrators were in attendance at either session? In fact, all the Presidents, Directors of Coaching, ODP and their ilk each should have had a special session with Aime. Where else can our political leaders learn from a top authority about creating success and real excellence? In his case, par excellence!
Too often we have no vision as we band-aid over the cracks and wait for the next crisis to strike. It seems like we have over 80 deck-chair attendants on the Titanic overlooking the sport. Peter Peterson's (an economist) statement about our economic woes could easily be applied to USYSA. He compared our shortsighted ways to Columbus's 1492 cruise. “He didn't know where he was going. He didn't know where he was when he got there; and he didn't know where he had been when he got back."
We need leaders to understand the long-term vision of the FFF and to identify people like Aime Jacquet who can help us find this elusive path to excellence. Here is a man who has been an integral part of the national program that took over a decade to bear fruit. The youth development part was probably the key to the successes of FRANCE '98 and EURO 2000. We found gold but did not know it and we treated him as though he's just another foreign coach passing through. Here was a very special man with extra-special knowledge to share. There were lessons and ideas in Mr. Jacquet that we desperately need to grasp.
Losing in the casino was nothing compared to the wealth of knowledge we let go through our fingers when Mr. Jacquet flew back to "his" Riviera at Clairfontaine near Paris, the FFF Technical Headquarters. We lost a great opportunity in Las Vegas because of our parochial heritage of survival management and a minimum understanding of the world game. Next time, let’s make the most of such talent and take some of it back to our states. Remember 10 % of his expertise is worth at least treble that back in your state. If we become smart enough perhaps one day when we earned the right to defeat France we can get Mr. Jacquet screaming" Ginola " to even" scare bleu!" "
FFF- French Football Federation / French Form of Ferapy. “Ginola" -defining a massive faux pass. His pass had so much faux on it that he has not played for France since and has become a term used to describe David Ginola's intercepted pass that put France out of qualifying for the FIFA World Cup, USA '94. This turnover happened in the dying seconds of the game. Think of it, in the 90th minute France had qualified for USA '94 and by the 92nd minute they were out.
Graham Ramsay, MSYSA © March 22, 2001.
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