Implementing Change

     From 1991-1995 the men’s soccer program grew significantly, but 1996 was the most critical year because it was the turning point in the program. The arrival of the 1996 team was the year Coach McGinlay really started implementing change. That year five players came to Trinity from the Olympic team, that Coach McGinlay coached. Coach McGinlay said “the implementation of their strategic planning is what has kept the program so successful and their plan has not changed much from year to year starting in 1996” (McGinlay, 2017).

     At the time, Coach McGinlay was on the Board of Directors of the National Soccer Coaches Association of America and they were doing a strategic plan for the whole organization so he figured it would work for his smaller soccer program, so he used the template. It is evident that the structure is similar between the two after looking at NSCAA’s strategic plan for 2007-2012. The main components of a vision statement, mission statement, core values, and goals are evident in Coach McGinlay’s strategic plan just like NSCAA’s. The use of NSCAA’s template for the men’s soccer program at Trinity allowed McGinlay to use his knowledge of the implication of the plan for a larger organization and focus on areas that would specifically allow Trinity’s program to achieve success.