European Soccer School of Excellence - World Class Soccer Program - Roman Tulis - Greater Vancouver, BC, Canada

Kent O’Connor
(7 year Tulis player and 2004 School Boy Award winner) currently plays with 1860 Munich

Deep in the hearts of all competitive soccer players is the burning desire to stand out from the crowd. These players strive to be the player who will long be remembered for their contributions. Many of them dream of one day representing their country, or receiving a scholarship to study in a foreign land, or better yet, signing a contract with a professional soccer team. Yet only a handful of players are fortunate enough to see these dreams materialize. So what does it take to become a champion?

Many soccer players would say that it means finding the most competitive teams to play on, seeking out high caliber coaches, and finding top notch extra training programs to participate in. In their minds if they spend every spare moment training, show up to all their sessions and try to do their very best, a world championship cup should be reserved for them at some future date. In reality, it’s not quite that simple.

During a relatively “short speech” given by Roman at this year's Christmas party, he talked about players, past and present, who had won the school’s coveted School Boy / School Girl Award and what, in his mind, made them champions. Roman told his audience that although talent is “a very nice thing to have”, it isn’t something that you can depend on to take you the distance. He pointed out that many of the so called “gifted” soccer players are simply lucky to have been blessed with superior physical talents, but deep down many of them are not true competitors and sooner or later their bad habits will catch up to them. No one can ever achieve worthwhile success in anything by simply putting in the time.

He used two 2006 School Girl Award recipients as examples. Both Paige Adams and Carolyn Bell are passionate about soccer. They are continuously looking to do better, to go a little harder, to run a little faster, and to make that extra sacrifice to stand out in any group that they are a part of. They constantly push themselves to step outside of their comfort zone and while most players spend the majority of their training sessions perfecting what they already do well, these girls focus on their shortcomings and enthusiastically work on strengthening them. For them, it’s all about never being satisfied with “good enough”.

Kent O’Connor, Tulis’ 2004 School Boy award winner, is a great example of how far hard work and dedication can take a player. “You would be hard pressed to find anyone who has worked harder to get where he is than Kent,” says Tulis. Kent joined the Tulis school when he was 10 years old. There he spent the next 7 years honing his skills. What made him a truly special player, in Roman’s mind, was that he never gave up no matter what obstacles were placed in his path. Kent was not born with natural soccer ability; he was never the fastest player on the field, nor was he the one with the all the special moves. It was his intensity and drive that made him stand out. Yet despite all his hard work, he sometimes had to face the rejection of being passed over for the select teams. But Kent never wavered from his goal, and his amazing work ethic, belief in himself, and “never say die” attitude finally paid off. Kent O’Connor is currently playing with Germany’s 1860 Munich, and in the past year alone, he has had tremendous success with Canada’s Men’s National team.

Therefore, the great secret to success is really quite simple; the secret is first and foremost passion and enjoyment for the game, and top that off with WORK, lots of plain, old fashioned HARD WORK. It's all about the investment that you're willing to make. If you have a dream that is worth achieving, the fastest, most effective way to turn that dream into a reality is to work hard for it on a consistent basis. That means at every single practice and every single game you push yourself to do your very best even when you don’t really feel like it, when you are tired, or when there are more enjoyable things you’d rather being doing that day other than practicing. It takes a real champion to consistently pay his/her physical dues on a daily basis.

While this success secret is available to all, precious few players will really take advantage of it. Why? Because far too many soccer players view getting to their goal as just too much work. So if you really want to achieve your dreams; walk your talk! Don’t hope for success; work for it! Get in the habit of going the extra distance, and don't be satisfied with doing just enough.