Rod has been involved with coaching since he was a player in high school. By the age of 21, he was already a varsity high school coach while coaching on several local club teams. At the age of 27, Rod took over as head coach of Occidental College (in Los Angeles), a position he still holds today. 

In addition to his collegiate coaching duties, Rod is the Elite Program Director for LA Surf (formerly known as LA Premier FC), the largest club in Los Angeles.

Coach

Rod Lafaurie: Elite Program Director at Los Angeles Surf and Head Men's Soccer Coach at Occidental College, located in Los Angeles, CA.

Topic 1: Journey Into Coaching 

We discussed how Rod became a coach (at age 17) prior to graduating high school when he was still a player. He always coached multiple teams at once and tried to gain as much experience as possible. Rod also mentioned that he has came into most of his current roles untraditionally, as he never really has spent time as an assistant coach.

Topic 2: DA Termination

Rod talked about how the expansion of the DA in recent years has made competition less competitive. He talks about the importance of regional competition, and how US Soccer needs to go back to its roots. Rod also mentions how we should not try and model our system off of other countries.

He also gives advice to athletes playing on DA clubs (that do not have MLS parent clubs), and how to not worry about trying to find the highest level of soccer. Having the right coach and right competition, should be all a player needs (as long as they put in the effort on and off the field).

Topic 3: Highlight Video Advice 

Rod talks about the importance of this time to maximize the connection piece, with video being the main focus. Some of the main takeaways are making sure the first clip is the best one, being easy to identify, and keeping it simple. Rod also mentioned how the level of competition is important and to differentiate the opponent throughout.

Topic 4: Staying in Shape Mentally

Rod gives advice on how we can stay in shape, from a mental standpoint. Watching games from a tactical standpoint, visualization, and asking questions are all ways we can become better players while we're at home. 

Topic 5: Staying in Shape Physically 

Players need to take advantage of this time, not just by staying fit, but getting fitter. There is going to be a big separator of players on how they come out of this, those that are taking a more relaxed approach may see themselves getting passed by.

Topic 6: Advice for Families

Rod states the best thing players and their families can do during this time is to stay connected virtually with coaches. Communication is the key to figuring out what those next steps are as a player, and with the internet at our finger tips, online videos help a lot with keeping a player in tact. Rod says that reaching out to your coach to let them help you is the best thing to do at this time.

With the pandemic going on, it can hard to be positive and optimistic. Coach Lafaurie gives us amazing advice on how to stay connected, determining the next steps as an athlete, and how to stay mentally and physically fit. 

Full Transcript:

CHRIS GORDON  

All right. Well, I will. Thanks for joining us today, longtime friend of the program. We appreciate you coming on so let's let's get started here by talking about your journey into coaching and what led you to your current roles as as a director of coaching and then also as a college coach.

ROD LAFAURIE  

Yeah, thanks for having me. I've always been a fan of exact have been there since almost the beginning. And it's been always a pleasure to work with you guys. So it's my pleasure to give back and I'm happy to help as many people as I can. So I probably had a unique journey in some respects. I mean, I started coaching when I was 17 years old, really a an 18 years old, just turning 18 years old. Basically, when I got to college, my first year, I was 17 still, and then in the winter time as I was turning 18 I got a high school assistant coaching job so the players were my age, basically. And that was at the time to start coaching because it was just making extra money in the wintertime. And and that's what it started. I mean, obviously, I love the game. So that's really how I got started into it. I'm 37 now and you know, I've been coaching for more than half my life. So there's been a lot of steps along the way, obviously, but but I don't think I started traditionally, because I don't think that many people started 18 years old while I was still playing while I still played my college career. I still tried to play professionally. I mean, I played until I was 26. And the whole time I was I was coaching during that time. So from the beginning, from the high school teams, to club teams, you know, 1819 years old, I was a varsity head coach at age 21. of a high school team. I was a club coach at that time. And it built on to just doing a good job with my teams, and making impacts and players and then I was hired as a head coach at Occidental at 27. Really based on working with players in the past, and I was lucky enough to have a player who I made enough of an impact on who had attended Occidental College and he spoke to the athletic director in his family did about me and That helped kind of get the foot in the door. And obviously other things had to happen. But, you know, I don't have the traditional experience of being really an assistant coach, and kind of working that side of the equation, you know, I have the experience of making decisions and falling on my sword or, or learning from them. And and it's been unique, I think, because a lot of guys kind of go to the assistant coach route. And I really had so so I think that's been part of it. And it's allowed me to work with players. And I mean, really, since, again, 18 years old, I basically been a coach of like three teams at a time. I've always been basically coaching to club teams, and a high school team or to club teams and a college team. So you know, in that 18 years of coaching or so 20 years of coaching, I mean, that's like 60 teams that, you know, coaching, I'm 60 years of experience, working with players from I've coached 11 year olds, 10 year olds, that's about the youngest to you know, obviously college man.

CHRIS GORDON  

Yeah, a lot of experience and still a long way to go. So it's it's It'll be here that, I guess rise to where you're at now. And it's, you know, it's obviously there's still a lot to be written. So that's cool to hear about. You know, obviously, you've coached a lot of teams and been involved a lot of different levels that the talk right now on the scene is obviously the development Academy what's going on with with that, and the rise of the new MLS League, so, you know, kind of, can you give your take on what's going on? And, you know, your initial thoughts on everything happening?

ROD LAFAURIE  

Yeah, yeah, that's that's definitely changed the landscape. You know, when, when I heard the rumor, I actually didn't think it was true. You know, I really didn't seem like us. Soccer would just sort of move on from the DA League, you know, so So initially, hearing that it could have happened seemed like it was not real. In respect to hearing all the things that really are happening, I can understand why. I mean, firstly, I think the DA started off is a really good idea. And to be fair, I think just Talking to the top players, you know, at some point, you know, when things were getting watered down between leagues and saying, Well, how do we kind of keep more or less the best players together and generally speaking, the idea was okay, and just trying to make these games competitive. The issues that sort of came as it went is that one some of the games didn't become competitive. And to basically you took people from playing local regional competition, whether it's in their high school, whether it's just local rivalries, and you almost created games that that were less competitive in some respects where players will leave a DA game and not really care either way if they want to last and, you know, to to remove that, I think is hard. It's not really almost unAmerican in some respects, and it kind of just just evolved to this game where they were just less competitive. So given that, obviously, there's other things I think the girls da you know, coming in, I don't think the girls needed the DA model. I think the ecml program had been working fine for girls were obviously At the top of the women's, you know, game so so I think then putting the DA model there with the girls side kind of made things a little tougher to I think when you when you put it all together that way as well. You know, there's other financial ramifications of the DA that came about but but I think we just need regionally so so in a sense I'm not overly surprised in some respects I am surprised that US Soccer just kind of gave up on it. But given the things that you hear, you know, makes a lot of sense. What we have to get back to you know, I'm from Southern California and so I played where there was really just one leak and I mean, you knew if you were in premier you were those kids were all going to play professional or top level in Southern California or even gold and things like that. So it was easier to have one place with regional competition and I think we have to go back to that in some respects I mean it you know, with MLS with MLS league starting. I mean, you hear so many things, you know, the the latest thing is that that basically just started at 1517 1920 threes and I'm That makes sense to some degree. But that's a lot of travel for the 15 year olds. And, you know, you really, the kids get better when they compete. And when they compete against local kids, I think is the best way. I don't think it makes sense to have to drive three hours to go play a game, if you can get really good competition close enough. Obviously, our country is huge. So that won't really work everywhere. But you know, I hope we get to talk about this later. But I think the US US Soccer, I don't think we should really try to model other countries. I think our country is unique. I think we need to establish own identity. And it's probably a different question down the road and, and how we build our program along along with other players. But I don't think we should model other countries and try to do what other countries do in some respects. I think we need to learn from other countries because they're better than us. But I also think that we need to create a model that works specifically for the American soccer player.

CHRIS GORDON  

Yeah, no, that's a good perspective. Now. I guess looking at it from a player side of things. If I'm a club that may not have an MLS team, you know, What What does that look like for me the next, you know, you know, the next next step for me? Where does Where do I fall in?

ROD LAFAURIE  

Yeah, I think players and parents need to be mindful that, you know, they've always been told, I think that will really only way to go is the DA You know, that's basically over the last 10 years what most parents have been told. And there are so many good players that don't get into the DA it's a closed league in some respects to some people, even if they financially tried to help people get in there just been so many kids that have been missed anyway. And and I think now, as a parents, and I am a parent, and what I would always what I always tell parents, is you need to be in an environment where your son or daughter is growing. And that doesn't have to be in the DEA. It I mean, the reality is, if you have a great coach, if you're playing if you're growing and your games are competitive, that is probably a good place for you regardless of whether it's a DA or not. Because it doesn't always make sense. So if there's not an MLS team around you and all the MLS Academy, things aren't around you. I don't think it's just as easy as to say okay, we'll find out The next highest level, that might not be true. You know, ecml on the boys side is trying to grow. So maybe there's that. But you know, to be honest, if you have a great coach, and you have great teammates, and you guys play competitive games, you'll probably be in the right place. And you'll just have to work a little bit harder on the college side in some respects. And, again, that's probably a different conversation. But the reality is, there's only a couple things to focus on. And that's just Are you improving consistently, is the most important part in wherever you are. I don't think there's one step place that you have to be so just continue to focus on that. And I think you'll be alright.

CHRIS GORDON  

Yeah, no, definitely now, I guess looking at it, you're a college coach, how does that change your perception on the whole recruiting process? And, and I guess, where you're trying to find Topsail

ROD LAFAURIE  

Yeah, as a college coach, you know, if I put that hat on, I mean, we don't know, you know, well, everybody was planning to go to the June da showcase, you know, right. In a month or two, two months. Obviously, it's not happening. So we really don't know. You know, and we The landscape isn't settled. I mean, we have an idea what Boise, you know, looks like we have an idea what this MLS league might look like, but they're not even sure. So actually, I'm not even sure I don't I don't know what it looks like, we just hear rumors on what it might look like, but they haven't established that. So, you know, we don't know, really, I think every coach is gonna have his own take on what or she's gonna have her own take on what she's going to do. But we're still always going to leverage the coaches that we know and the pipeline's that we have, you know, so if we found good players from certain places, from certain camps from certain locations, then we're gonna keep going to those, you know, I mean, that's for sure. The players that we know are good are still there. Right? And, and it may not just be as centralized as Academy, but I actually think it's really good to be honest for players. Now there's not some close delete, generally speaking, I think there's more access. And even during this quarantine period, I think it's sort of a game leveler, because I think now players can work on a lot of things. I know it's a later question. I will touch touch base on but It's not all bad and and it's coaches I think we're just waiting to see what's next to be fair.

CHRIS GORDON  

Yeah, that was actually my first thought when when I heard about it, it's like you always hear every all the college coaches are going to do a showcases and you know, those big events and sometimes those those players that don't have a chance to play for those teams, or they're not getting seen by the stat coaches, just as you know, they're not not able to attend those events. Right now, nobody's attending events. So it's kind of hard for us to get out there and you know, see coaches life coaches see us live. So I guess the next best thing is video. Right? You know, we're, we're all trying to put together the best video for coaches to at least get a sense of who we are as a player and then hopefully have them see us down the road. So looking at it from a club director and a college coach, can you give some advice to players on how to make their video stand out? 

ROD LAFAURIE  

Yeah, you know, we could probably do a whole interview on this. So I won't I won't keep you for long. But I think the video is important. And I think this is the time, you know, going to what we're talking about just a little bit ago, this is a really time to maximize that the video the the connection piece, you know, obviously recruiting in person, especially division one, Division Two is actually close right now, Division Three, you could still do it, but nobody's gonna do it. I mean, really, we're talking about in person recruiting as an happening right now. So So what can you do is you can highlight and polish a video in respect to what are the specifics of that? I mean, everybody has their their ideas of what a video looks like. And so for me, it's a little bit more of some things to avoid. And then a few things to highlight. You know, one obviously depends on the position you play, but you need to put the best thing that you do first, I think there's this misconception that a lot of people put film together, and it's like their last thing first, and they like expect that like, oh, we're building up to this great thing. And, and the reality is, you know, I'll tell players right now, the college coaches, they're going to watch the very first clip And if the first clip makes them want to watch the second clip, then they'll watch a second clip and then move on from there. If the first clip isn't what they like, then they're just gonna say that's great, you know, I have other things to do. So just make sure your first clip is your best clip your best thing for sure, you need to have highlights or like an arrow or circle in every single clip. Even if you tell us I'm number seven in the white jersey on all these clips, it honestly it's still hard to follow. So just make sure there's a circle so we know who it is an arrow something a lightning bolt, you know, it's okay. So something so so it's very clear who you are. You need to also make sure that that first clip is short and sharp, and it has to just be your best things that make you stand out. If you're a center midfielder. Maybe it's not just clips of passing the ball five yards this way in five years that way, you know, because I think most college coach can probably find that guy or girl, can you show us what is the best thing you do right away. You know if you're a defensive midfielder and you're breaking up playing can In the past great show that show something that shows you can do that and just your unique style to the game, you don't need to show us the same thing everybody else does. Do do what you do well, and make sure it's your very best ones. You also don't want highlight videos from the same game, like where your whole highlight videos from the same game if possible, you know, so if we see that you scored 17 goals against this one team that loses its luster, you know, maybe one, maybe two, and you have to have different games. And we noticed that stuff. Okay, this is all the same game so we had one or she had one really good game. That's that's easy to dismiss after a while. You also have to be mindful of the competition that the game is I mean, some of you can't really deal with that. But like there's nothing you can do. You know, those are the teams you played against. But it goes to play at a higher competition level. But if you we can tell and we don't know the area, but we can tell that the level is not that high. For a variety of ways we can tell you know, based on the other athletes on the field based on where you're playing the game and things like that. It's it's gonna work against you in some respects. So so you want to limit those clips if possible, right? So So what do you do if you play at a low level and you're in a place in the country that you don't have a lot of high level games, you just have to be creative with the specific clips that you have. And you have to be able to find a way to play at either high level showcase tournaments somehow or camp, and where you can get video against, you know, a different level player. So there's just ways to be creative. You also need to have a character reference from somebody who we trust and know. So for example, if a player sends me a highlight video, but I've never heard of anybody from that area, and I don't know the level, it's hard for me to say, really what the level and value of that video is. Whereas if there's a coach that can vouch for you, so if there's a local Division Three coach, if there's a local division one coach, who now is adding and saying this player can play at this level, that helps that helps a lot and changes the equation. So so you need That sort of reference if you're not in a part of the country, where it's very easy to see, you know, Southern California, I know what the level looks like so so I know we were playing against if you send me video, I mean, it still helps you still need your coach to vouch for you, but it's a little bit different. So I think just being mindful where you're in the country, you know, if you go to a big showcase a surf cup, Disney Dallas cup, that's easy, okay, the levels high, great, but if it's not those, you're going to need a little bit more help on that. Don't waste time with like juggling dribbling through cones. It's like we don't need to see chasing your dog, you know, it's just just, boom, just give us the great stuff. And then if you really have more stuff than no problem, just send us a longer link say coach, if you want to watch more, here you go. But just just give us a two minute link, more or less. So I think it's important. The email, just make it standard. I think To be honest, I know there's some places to tell you to make a crazy subject line. Just include your your grade, your grade point average your test score if you've taken it and position And then from there the letter? No, we're not talking about the letter, but there's specifics within within that, that I would suggest.

CHRIS GORDON  

Keeping it simple. That seems like the gist of it. Yeah, yeah, we've heard a lot of stories on on bad recruiting videos and highlight videos, those are ways not to stand out. So it seems like the simpler and more clear cut, I feel like that's gonna, that's gonna go a long way. And right now, obviously, there's a lot of unknowns. And I'm sure that a lot of players This is gonna, this is supposed to be a big, big summer for them to really figure out, you know, what coaches that you know, where they want to potentially play. And I guess my last question on the recruiting scene for your players or even as a college coach, for the players that are may may not get a chance to showcase themselves this summer. What advice Are you going to give them and you know, how should they view this summer or even the fall?

ROD LAFAURIE  

Yeah, so the two main things I think one, you know, camps become a big part of whenever we can go back out into the world and, and just being ready to jump on those camps. I think a lot of college coaches will be eager to go to those camps if we can do it in the summertime. That's a big if, you know, at this point but but that would be hopeful. But But I also think that you know, what players need to be doing right now is honestly I need to take advantage of this time. And you could do you know, a scenario where you just sit and watch Netflix and play video games and do that if you want but the reality is there's going to be players are going to pass you by so quickly. So what can players do right now I think in addition to getting ready for the camps and showcases his stay fit, obviously so now you're talking about not even stay fit, get fitter, you know, is if you can find a way to get out and and continue to run and work and explosion things if you don't have a lot of space, doing plyometric things, so you're explosive. If you have more space, then you know, of course doing running things, and it's a great time to work on technical ability. Just just being a coming a wizard with the ball I think would be important. If You can find a way if you have a brother or sister brothers and sisters to play like one v one v, one v two, even if they're not good enough, that would be amazing. You know, if you could find a place where you can do one of the one against, even if they're not great soccer players just put two of them, you know, so maybe it's your brother and sister who don't play soccer, maybe you can just put up one against two. And I think just being able to refine that skill, I think it's something that players got to be able to do to become better technically and make better decisions. You can also honestly find a wall and just hit balls and turns and dribbling, and, and all those things. So just make sure you're sharp. When you come out of this. I think a lot of players, there's going to be a big separator, there's gonna be players that come out sharp and on the first showcase event, the first camp event and they're gonna blow it out of the water, they're gonna be amazing. And then there's gonna be some players that, you know, coaches say, Well, I thought he would he or she was pretty good, but you know, they don't look like they've done the work. I think what you do as a player during this time, we'll see. And that will make us know if we can count on you. You know, just During the college offseason I mean, the college offseason is basically this time you're basically by yourself, we can't see you in the summertime generally. So what are you gonna do during this time? So it's actually a good indicator of future success. And, you know, I talked to our players a lot about if you want to know what your future looks like, look at what you did today. You know, if you want to know why today looks the way it does, look at what you did yesterday. So it's the same same boat going forward. You know, what, what are you going to do today to make sure in hopefully June, maybe July, maybe September maybe 2021. Whenever we can play again, that you'll you'll be amazing and special for those college coaches. So there's a lot you could be doing. That's just on the soccer side.

CHRIS GORDON  

I think physically it's easy for us to be motivated to go outside or go for a run and touch the ball. That's, that's what we look forward to doing. I think what makes it really difficult is mentally staying engaged, mentally staying passionate, because we're not doing what we love. We're not we're not on the field with our teams. We're not you know, with our teammates or coaches and mentally it can start to get a little bit dry because we're just physically just doing the same thing over and over again. I think mentally is where we really need to focus our energy on and that was going to be my next question mentally. What do you recommend players do to? To just keep that passion?

ROD LAFAURIE  

Yep. So there's a lot of things actually. I mean one It depends on their age and their maturity so you know if they're old enough I mean, I think you can read books I think you can you can listen to podcasts you can you can hear things you can watch old games that past this year now that you already know the score. You can just watch it from a from a technical standpoint and or tactical standpoint, say okay, what does that player do? So there's that but there's also just literally mental part mental coaching just in terms of understanding how to improve yourself in situations of adversity, you know, and again, that's that's where there's a lot of ways to do that, to be honest. Whether it's looking on YouTube and just some videos if that's your only access, if it's there are mental coaches that are working in a mental program. grams that you can do it through zoom and, and visualization components and meditation components that you can start building on that you start adding as a player. I mean, there's a lot of tools that players need. I mean, there's something that I heard yesterday that 98% of Olympic athletes use imagery and visualization. So if you know that those players are doing that, or if you know that 98% of Olympians are using visualization, and imagery, then you as a play young player should be using visualization imagery. So So learning about that, how do you set your mind, right for competition for games for practices, and learning about and asking people, you know, and if you have no idea how to get access to that, finding ways to ask the right questions, so you can't because there's a mental frontier that people are aware of, but we've just scratched the surface on for soccer players. So I would also massively spend time doing that also, because you can improve a lot in that respect.

CHRIS GORDON  

Absolutely, yeah. The visualization is a big component of the exact cancers you've probably come across over the years. So we definitely support that, you know, part of staying, you know, mentally engaged, so, so that's Yeah, that's great advice. I guess my last question, it kind of pertains to the club side. You know, there's obviously the surf does a great job of communicating with families and, and you guys do a great job of obviously keeping everybody involved, you know, advice for, I guess, a family that, you know, might be in a smaller club that is, you know, trying to get in touch with their coaches and maybe about playing time or a specific issue on the field. How would you recommend you know, a parent or a family kind of goes about communicating with a coach and to at least, you know, get their point of view across

ROD LAFAURIE  

well I mean, picking up the phone, you know, and seeing if that coach is accessible, I think is the always the important part. But I think there's a lot of good. I mean, I'm optimistic in this respect. I think there's a lot of good people in this world. I think there's a lot of good soccer people. I think there's people that aren't always that way. But I don't think it also has to just be your coach, you know, and again, it goes to the age and the level, but the reality is, is I think reaching out to people at this time. One, I think you should reach out to people, let's just, you know, talk about it truthfully, social distancing. Yes, physical distancing is really what it is. I think you should be reaching out to people anyway, right? Regardless of you know, if it's for soccer, not just figuring out you know, how are people doing? How, how's family members, our friends doing so? So I think just doing that, and then by virtue of communicating and figuring out what are those next steps of what you know, you should be doing with your coach and, and I hope that your coaches is helpful during this time. But your coach may not have the resources either. And, you know, we hope that we can encourage coaches to to be able to have enough about them humility maybe to get information so they can share it to their players but there's a lot of things coaches can be doing with players you know, and we, you know, at our club in addition to giving the players a multitude of online videos, we meet with them weekly, we're meeting with them consistently about their specific things that they need to do and that's important for us as a club but I hope that it's important for everybody else to help their players in every way possible. So reach out to reach out to a coach and hopefully your coach is willing to help you.

CHRIS GORDON  

Yeah, definitely. Right now it's there's a lot of obviously unknowns and we're all trying to stay through this together and you know, hopefully we'll be back on the field with our team soon and you know, we'll all be well learn something from this experience so well, those are the main questions I had I think we're gonna We'll end this interview with some fun questions get to know you a little bit better. So I'll put you on the spot and we'll see what he says All right. So this this thing so I know you've you've coached a variety teams, like you said, coached over 2020 years, three teams a year, I'm sure you've been involved in pretty, pretty intense game. So first question I have is the coolest atmosphere that you've ever coached or played in? You know, could be a cool game that you've personally you know, you've been coaching at or whatever venue. Talk about that.

ROD LAFAURIE  

Sure. One, this is funny because I don't think anybody would ever think this. So I play this is after the a long time after I played in a men's league game, and we played in a Croatian tournament or something. And, I mean, you would have thought it was the World Cup in terms of just the reaction of the fans on the sideline. A lot of Croatian guys and just like this, I every goal the day I because I was not an international is not a full International. That game felt like it was a full international game just with a passion and things like that. I mean, you've never seen so many but yelling at everything in my life. I've never seen so many angry people. Because we weren't and that was actually amazing, you know, to be honest, but I remember in college when we played and I imagine soccer is gonna look like this we played in an empty stadium against the, against the galaxy at the Rose Bowl. So the Rose was 100,000 seats empty. Yeah, we lost eight zero. But let me tell you, it you know that as a college kid, you know, and when you see some of your heroes and you know that I think that just for me was something that sticks with me because, you know, any anybody that you look up to and at that time, it certainly was those Galaxie guys you know, even though they kicked our butts, you know, just to play in this eerie stadium. I was glad that nobody saw it but you know, those are some of the cool environments that that I remember that are sort of off the cuff I mean, obviously I can go back to a lot of college games and games after that that you know, I can reach to but but those are sort of weird unique ones that that I think I like

CHRIS GORDON  

it doesn't doesn't get much bigger than the Rose Bowl. So yeah, the fact the list they're pretty awesome. Yeah. Alright, so I've been pretty good. I'm guessing what what the coach is going to say for this one, given where they're from. But the question is, so if you were to have to coach, would it would you rather be 105 degrees or 30 degrees?

ROD LAFAURIE  

Okay, I tell everybody this and it's

CHRIS GORDON  

not coaching not playing. I was playing, it's easy to get colder.

ROD LAFAURIE  

I get it. Okay, so I'm not so before I fully answer, and that's what qualifications on it. Am I allowed to like change my clothes, or am I in a T shirt? No matter what.

CHRIS GORDON  

No, you can put on layers.

ROD LAFAURIE  

Oh, that's fine. Oh, well, I mean, me personally. Okay, so I'm gonna go backwards. So me personally, I would always rather be hot. And I tell people this all the time my temperature gauge is above so for example, when it's like 65 degrees, I'm really cold. Like, I'm just like, wow, this is really cool. But when it's 95 degrees, I'm fine. Like, this is great. You know, I my dad's from Cuba. Maybe it's that so like, legitimately. I prefer For the hotter, but I know, I know the kids when I'm coaching a game, I know that their brains get fried. Like I know that if you ask any little soccer player like a little kid, or even extra for any professional, they radically ankle, and then I can just put on all the jackets, but I would say this if the question is do we have to stand somewhere, and it's 105 degrees or 30 degrees and we can't change our clothes. I'm going to be 105 degrees in a T shirt rather than 30 degrees in the T shirt. I'll tell you that all day long.

CHRIS GORDON  

So make sense. Yeah. I've been down in Atlanta and Dallas and even there's a summer we were down in San Bernardino when it was over 100 degrees and I'm Midwest Chicago guy. I can't do it, man. Hey. All right. Last question and why you know might cause you to think a little bit harder but been asking coaches there to give us the Mount Rushmore of soccer players could be players that you've played It's gonna be players that you idolize over the over the years. combination of the two. Give us your top for

ROD LAFAURIE  

sure all US players that everybody knows. I mean, it doesn't probably help to have a Mount Rushmore of players I've coached or, you know, really that people don't know. So it's probably a little bit more fun. Some of the best players that I ever saw well certainly, you know, you have to put currently you have to delete all messy in there. My favorite player growing up, believe it or not was Zenaida Enza, Don. I'm not sure why, you know, I made a few lists, maybe because I don't have any hair either. Maybe you know that that was probably part of it. You know, I x Okay, so I really started watching soccer like in the mid to late 90s. So you know, for me to say anybody before that, you know, is really not realistic, you know, to be honest. So then you go the top final top two, I think just Bye. Bye. The current Ronaldo and in the older I call him the Chevy Ronaldo. The other one both Renault I think just by virtue of how amazing the original Ronaldo was in his prime, and then how long this current Ronaldo has been in his prime. You know, I think those are two guys that you probably have to add there to

CHRIS GORDON  

pretty solid list. And maybe that might be the best one I've heard yet. Yeah. All right. I think those are the only questions I had, man. Any any closing thoughts? Any other advice you give for our athletes out there?

ROD LAFAURIE  

Yeah, I think just use the time wisely. Right. And the players that use this time wisely are the players that are going to jump ahead of the curve. And, and you can think about it in two ways. You know, and one thing that john Gordon says a lot is, is you know, it's not it's what happens for you instead, what happens to you and you know, we have to understand that this is there's some there's some reasons for this and use the positives, fine, the positive, assuming you can stay healthy and there's not a lot around the world sometimes. And this is obviously a pandemic that we don't wish on anybody. Hoping get through this soon. But if you're healthy, be grateful and and use the time to learn new things to become better because of this and, and I think that's important for all of us to remember and be grateful if we're healthy that we are indeed healthy. So blessings and be safe, everybody, for sure.

CHRIS GORDON  

Absolutely. Well, it's been fun ride, appreciate you coming on always good catching up and measure to see out on the field soon.

ROD LAFAURIE  

Sounds good. Thanks, Chris. Appreciate it. All right, take care of the other guys. I said hi. We'll do.

CHRIS GORDON  

That's all for our conversation today. Thanks again to Rod Laufurie for joining us, coming up on exact club experts. We'll be talking to more coaches and hopefully answering any of your questions as we are all waiting to get back on the field. again to see any of our interviews or if you'd like a specific question of yours answered, please visit and shout us out on our social media platforms Instagram and Twitter with the tag at exact sports, our Facebook page at exact soccer and then our blog exact sports calm so Last blog. We hope to catch you all again next time.