Under-17s’ success in New Zealand catapults longtime teacher to coaching prominence
During his first 20 years in U.S. Soccer, John Ellinger always managed to remain in the background, even when his teams did well.
“I try to keep a low profile,” Ellinger said. “I try to listen and learn. I’ve always felt that whatever task is in front of you, put everything you have into it and things will work out in the end.”
That cover was blown in New Zealand last fall. Within a month after Ellinger coached the U-17 national team to a fourth-place finish at the World Championships, his name popped up among candidates for the New England Revolution opening and the U.S. women’s national team job.
For now, he will remain U-17 coach as a new wave of players begins residency in Florida, but his days of working outside the limelight are over.
Ellinger has taken a somewhat unconventional path to coaching prominence. He never coached a national college soccer power and he never played professionally. Less than four years ago, he was a high school athletic director. Reviewing his rTsumT chronologically is vexing because he has kept three or four titles at any given time.
Born and raised in Maryland, Ellinger was a four-year starter at Frostburg State University. As a junior, he played soccer, lacrosse and wrestled while earning 42 credits in two semesters. He graduated a semester early with a degree in education and spent a year as an assistant lacrosse coach at the school while he earned his master’s degree.
He began teaching at a junior high school in 1973 and moved on to Sherwood High School in Maryland. In 1979, he became an assistant to Tom Bichy at Montgomery College and earned his “A” license from the federation. Two years later, he was hired to be head coach of the Division II UMBC men’s team, but continued to teach high school.
Ellinger spent nine years at UMBC, led the program to Division I status in 1986 and four winning seasons at that level. But with less than three full scholarships at UMBC, Ellinger saw the program’s success hit a ceiling below his aspirations.
‘Not competing on an even field’
“Most successful coaches you run into are competitive by nature,” Ellinger said. “I felt I wasn’t competing on an even field and I guess I was frustrated.”
Ellinger returned to secondary education full time as an athletic director at Richard Montgomery High School. He also became director of coaching for the youth soccer association in Columbia, Md., one of the state’s top clubs.
In 1996, he agreed to coach Columbia City United, a talented U-17 team. United won youth national championships in 1996 and 1997.
To that point with U.S. Soccer, Ellinger had already served as coach of the U.S. national amateur team (later called the national “B” team), a Region I head coach, U-14 national director and led the East squad to a gold medal at the 1986 Olympic festival. But it was coaching a youth club team in his home state that set off a chain reaction of new opportunities.
In August 1996, Tom Fitzgerald took over for Timo Liekoski as coach of the Columbus Crew and called on Ellinger to be his assistant. Fitzgerald had been Ellinger’s assistant with the national “B” team.
“John is a guy who is difficult to dislike,” Fitzgerald said. “He is very knowledgeable about the game and he can portray that knowledge – not everybody can do that. He understands the learning process.”
After the MLS season, Ellinger decided to return to his family in Maryland, and soon Clive Charles asked him to be his assistant with the U-23 national team, a position he still holds. In 1997, he coached the U.S. squad to a third-place finish at the World University Games in Italy, the highest finish ever for a U.S. team in that event.
The Crew job forced Ellinger to finally choose coaching over education, but when he took over the U-17 team in 1998, his teaching experience proved essential.
“The teaching background was very important in the initial stages of residency,” said Ellinger. “I felt the parents were comfortable sending their kids into the situation knowing I had been a teacher used to dealing with that age group.”
‘Players want to know the truth’
Ellinger refers to his teenage players as “hormones with legs” and said today’s kids “have a lot more stuff buzzing around in their heads,” than the ones he taught in the 1970s, but that his basic method hasn’t changed much.
“Players want to know the truth,” Ellinger said. “They want you to get to the point and not muddle the issue. If it’s about playing time, they want to hear what they need to work on, not ‘keep working hard, it’ll come.’ I try to be truthful but positive.”
Ellinger loves watching his players compete and nearly every phase of his training sessions has a winner and a loser, sometimes with extra incentives.
“The best one is when the loser has to pick up the equipment because then the winners just drop their jerseys and walk off the field,” Ellinger said.
Midfielder Kyle Beckerman said Ellinger knew when to break the monotony during residency.
“Sometimes we’d get back from a long trip and he’d offer to take us to the movies,” Beckerman said. “He seemed to understand our mentality and when we needed a break.”
Defender Oguchi Onyewu said the players considered Ellinger a friend as well as a coach.
“He is an easygoing guy,” Onyewu said. “He doesn’t believe in forcing things down our throats. The one time he surprised us was at halftime against Argentina,” in a friendly before the World Championships. “He got pretty mad, but he had a right to be because we were down, 3-1. We came back to win, 4-3.”
That victory may have established the confidence the team needed to rally from several early deficits in New Zealand. But when Ellinger met the incoming group of U-17s in December, he set the record straight.
“I told them, ‘Don’t think you’re going to do what this last team did and fall behind in every game,'” Ellinger said. “I said if they saw any gray hairs in the room, they were caused by the last team and we don’t want any more.”
At 48, Ellinger is entitled to a few gray hairs, but he still feels young when he’s around the game.
“I’ve only really been a true full-time coach for two and a half years, so this is still a new career for me,” Ellinger said. “Coaching can be stressful at times, but I still want to have fun while I’m doing it.”
by Soccer America associate editor Will Kuhns