ABOUT THE AUTHOR of The ULTIMATE SOCCER DICTIONARY of American Terms
John Harves (här-vəs) grew up in Arlington, Virginia, where he played organized soccer for the first time at Yorktown High School. He founded a member club of the Arlington Soccer Association and started coaching youth soccer before graduation. His first youth team was composed of both boys and girls ranging in age from 6- to 15-years old. He went on to Virginia Tech, where he played for four years. He was the student-athlete there who successfully led the initiative to get soccer changed from club to varsity status. He was then the Men’s Varsity Soccer Assistant Coach at Virginia Tech for one season.
During the summers and for three years after graduation from Tech, Coach Harves played for the Arlington Americans open team and helped found the Capital Soccer League of Washington, DC. In addition, he officiated for the Metropolitan Washington Soccer Referees Association and earned a United States Soccer Federation national coaching license. Also during this time, Coach Harves founded and directed the Arlington Soccer Association’s youth referee program and their youth coaching instructional school. He is an inductee of the Arlington Soccer Hall of Fame.
Coach Harves was subsequently appointed the Radford University (Virginia), Men’s Varsity Soccer Coach. He won his opening game after only six days with the team. This team finished their season with Radford’s first winning record at 8-7. In his second season, Coach Harves lead Radford to a 10-3-3 record, at one point going 13 straight games without a loss. In his third and final year, the team finished the season at 11-6-1 and enjoyed Radford’s first post-season play. Also in his third year, Coach Harves was President of the Virginia Intercollegiate Soccer Association (VISA). After Radford, he returned to the Washington area and resumed playing for, and then managing, the Arlington Americans.
Eight years later, he resumed coaching youth soccer with the Olney Boys and Girls Community Sports Association (OBGC) and then Montgomery Soccer Incorporated (MSI) of Maryland. With the end of coaching youth soccer, Coach Harves has been presenting the information and experiences from his soccer career on his website, CoachingAmericanSoccer.com. During this time, Coach Harves was honored by his former college players with the establishment of the John Harves Soccer Scholarship fund at Radford University. Coach Harves is a member of United Soccer Coaches (formerly the National Soccer Coaches Association of America – NSCAA.)
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