Davis AYSO Boys U12 League

Team D7

Meet the Coach


Hi, my name is Daniel Cebra. This fall, I will be the coach for the D4 soccer team in the Boys U12 league of Davis AYSO. This will be my second season as a head coach for an AYSO team. My son has played in AYSO for three years. Because I have coached intramural teams at the university for many years, my son wanted me to volunteer to coach when I first signed him up a few years ago. I was a little reluctant to jump right in, so I instead volunteered to be the assistant coach - and that was a great experience. Last year I had even more fun as a head coach. This year I will probably train a referee to help the leagues out a bit more. Also, I think that this will help me hone my knowledge of the rules of the game.

This may not come as a great surprise to anyone, but I am not a professional soccer coach. During the day time, I am a physics professor at UC Davis. When I am not teaching, I study relativitic heavy-ion collisions - my research site these days is at Brookhaven National Lab on Long Island, New York (hence the seemingly endless trips to New York). If you want to learn more about smashing nuclei you can check out my research group's web site.

So... What experience do I have? I played soccer for two years at the high school level, but was never particularly talented as a player. As a graduate student at Michigan State University, I started organizing department sports teams. We played soccer in the fall, basketball in the winter and softball in the spring. I quickly learned that my biggest contribution to the team was as the coach and manager. I arrived at UCD in 1993, and I have continued to organize teams here every year.

Now... coaching at the AYSO level is a lot different that college IM sports, but I still think that the basic tenets are the same. I have learned that the most important aspect of coaching is communication. At the AYSO level this means communications both with the players about what is expected of them on the field AND with the parents about the logistics of keeping the team going. And that is where I am going to need your help!

I know that communicating with 10 and 11 year olds is very different from the 20-somethings with whom I am most familiar. In a lot of ways it is much easier. With my physics department soccer team, the best we can do is scrimmage at the practices. With the boys it is actually possible to work on skills and teach the game.

I find that my coaching philosophy actually fits in quite well with the AYSO mission. I have always played every person that comes to a game. And I have always used only positive coaching, whether I am deealing with adults or kids. These are recreational leagues - they should be fun.