Wofford College Athletics

Head Men’s Soccer Coach Ralph Polson remembers the first time he had a soccer ball at his feet.
 
“If you have the ball at your feet, you’re in control — what you do next determines what happens next… I was four or five, and we lived in St. Louis where my dad was in chiropractic school,” says Polson. “At the time playing and coaching soccer wasn’t a lifelong dream. It was just fun.”

Now the ball’s back at his feet as he prepares to accept the presidency of the largest coaching organization in the world — the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) — with more than 30,000 members from every level of coaching… and for Polson, it’s still fun.

Polson describes the annual convention with the same enthusiasm that he might use to describe an all-expense paid trip to the World Cup finals. For the past three years, he has served as the vice president of Convention and Awards.

“There are lectures, coaching clinics, meetings and the largest gathering of soccer vendors in the world. The exhibit hall will be packed with tens of thousands of everything soccer. There will be two full-sized, indoor soccer fields for demonstrations. We will also present awards — All-America, scholar athletes, regional and national coaching awards and lifetime achievement awards,” says Polson. “It’s the most impressive gathering of coaches, administrators, athletes and vendors in the world.”

At the January 2012 convention, held this year in Kansas City, Mo., Polson will lead his first board of directors meeting and will announce his focus for the coming year. Polson’s presidency will end after he presides over the 2013 conference in Indianapolis, Ind. The event will mark Polson’s 30^th year as a member and his 30^th consecutive convention attended.

“Every president leaves a legacy, and I’ve thought long and hard about what I wanted to contribute to the organization,” says Polson.

According to Polson, recent NSCAA presidents have grown the membership, focused on diversity, added and restructured paid staff. As a member of the executive committee for the past four years, Polson has been a part of all of these initiatives and wants his legacy to be the next step.

“During my year as president, we will be completing a five-year strategic plan. It is very important for the NSCAA to have a new strategic plan in place prior to the completion of the present plan. I have come to realize that maybe five years, in an organization as large and diverse as ours, might be too long. Jack Huckel, vice president for Marketing and Communications, and I decided to spend the coming year evaluating the organization and creating a recurring three-year plan that will lay the groundwork for the future of NSCAA. That will be my legacy.”

Polson was elected to the NSCAA board of directors as secretary in January 2008. He has served the organization as vice president for Convention and Awards, NCAA Division I Men’s All-America committee chair, NCAA Division I South Region All-America committee chair and treasurer of the Walt Chyzowych Memorial Fund.

In his fourth season at Wofford, Polson applies to his coaching the same precision regarding assessment and planning that he uses with the NSCAA.

“Coaching requires constant evaluation,” he says. “You train, you play, you evaluate, you train and play again. You have a game plan, but you’re constantly reviewing and adjusting it.”
The same pertains to his personal life. Polson may have started the first soccer team at Greer High School in 1972, but he went to college to major in chemistry with a focus on becoming a doctor.

“I like to tell people I majored in chemistry but got my degree in soccer,” says Polson, a goalkeeper, who turned a walk-on position on the Erskine soccer team into a scholarship. At Erskine he fell in love with soccer and got his first taste of coaching. Still, he went to graduate school to earn a masters degree in analytical chemistry at University of North Carolina-Charlotte. While in Charlotte, Polson worked as a graduate assistant and played soccer for a well-sponsored men’s amateur club team. When a friend at Providence Day School offered him a job as JV soccer coach and varsity goalkeeper coach, Polson took a long look at the path he was on and decided to make a change.

“With a semester of classes and a year of research left, I walked away from graduate school to become a soccer coach,” says Polson. “The rest is history.”

After successful coaching assignments at Erskine, Presbyterian and College of Charleston, Polson accepted the Wofford job. The team won two games in the Southern Conference (a college record) in his first year.

“After that first year I knew we were moving the in right direction and eventually would be successful,” says Polson. “Still, I didn’t know that we’d do what we did in 2009, winning the conference and tournament championships and going to the NCAA tournament.”