The recent form of the team that I serve as chaplain has been difficult to say the least. Winning the league championship in 2010 and now fighting to stay out of the bottom of the league table are two diametrically opposed extremes - and it can be very difficult to travel between the two. What does a chaplain say to players walking off the field after losing several games in a row? How does a chaplain encourage others who cannot find their way onto the field or bench, even when the results still seem to go the wrong way? How does the chaplain encourage the coaching staff and front office staff who work very hard behind the scenes and become

Throughout the years, one of the questions people ask about my role as team chaplain for the Colorado Rapids is, “Do you ever kick around with the guys?” Back in the days when I served the Colorado Rapids as a Public Relations Assistant, we used to have an annual event called the “Media Cup.” Here, there were sometimes an opportunity to play small sided games with the Rapids players, coaches, and media members to help promote awareness and build interest back in a day when soccer was trying to come into its own amongst the other professional sports like the NFL, NHL, MLB, and NBA. There was a time, too, in team history, when the Rapids trained at a facility

The typical coaching contract for coaches in Major League Soccer is three years, though the average length of stay is somewhere closer to 2 years (2.3 according to one source). If those statistics are comparative (there is some question to how scientific) to other leagues, then MLS coaches are among the lowest in terms of average length of stay among professional sports leagues (NBA, NFL, NHL, MLB) as suggested by this New York Times article written in 2008. So what has to happen in that 2.3 years that an MLS coach takes the reins? There are several things that a new head coach must undertake, but before looking at a few important tasks, let's look at a few reasons for