Interview with the Director of Crossfire Select, Hugo Alcarez-Cuellar

19 Mar Interview with the Director of Crossfire Select, Hugo Alcarez-Cuellar

On Friday, March 1st, we had the chance to conduct an interview with Hugo Alacarez-Cuellar, the Director of Crossfire Select.

In this area, Hugo is mainly known for his two years with the Seattle Sounders in 2007 and 2008, as well as his current role as the Director of Crossfire Select. We had the chance to chat with him about his career, the situation of youth soccer in the United States, and the importance of having a local soccer store in the Seattle metro area.

Tell us about your personal background to start. What did you do before playing professionally?

I was born in Guadalajara, Mexico in 1977 and moved to Santa Barbara, CA when I was 3 years old. I played club and school soccer in Santa Barbara before making the step to play for the Santa Barbara Community College as a midfielder. After my time at SBCC I was fortunate enough to be able to continue playing collegiate soccer at Fresno State University, where I graduated in recreation and administrative studies. 

So how did the transition from college to pro work and how did you get into it?

After college, I went to an open tryout for the San Diego Flash. I just wanted to get out there and try to play. After that, they told me that I could get a spot on the team, not for a lot of money, but I got the chance to keep playing.

What happened after that?

I played for the Flash for one season in 2001 and after that I had the opportunity to go and play for the Portland Timbers (back then USL), where I spent 5 years of my career from 2002-2006. My wife lived in Seattle at the time, so when I got offered to play for the Seattle Sounders it was a no-brainer to me to make that switch for the 2007 season. After the 2008 season, I was 31 and I decided that it was time to hang up the boots and focus on other things in my life.

So what were your next steps after that?

I wanted to be a full-time coach while staying in the Seattle area with my family. I became a coach at FC Alliance (now Seattle Surf FC). I was a coach at Seattle Surf in the inaugural season, and then eventually moved to Crossfire Select, where I am the director of the program now. 

Do you still coach at all? What are your tasks in your current role?

I am not actively coaching anymore, since I run the operations of the club and am responsible for all the teams. Right now I am overseeing 54 teams with 48-50 head coaches, while almost every team has an assistant coach as well, which gets us to around 100 coaches. I also have to focus on our goalkeeper development program, which is why we have three goalkeeper coaches at the moment to ensure high quality training for them. 

I also run the operations for camps, clinics, tryouts, and our Crossfire tournament every summer at 60 acres. In that tournament, yearly, we have about 280 participating teams, so this takes a lot of planning and project management skills, which is entirely different to coaching.

What do you think prepared you for this role?

Well, I had two older and two younger brothers, so receiving that tough love from your brothers, as well as teaching the older brothers, has taught me responsibility early on.

I think that my college education has helped especially with the administrative part of this position, but particularly my playing experience has helped me to learn a lot about leadership and taking on challenges. I was a captain in High School and College, as well as later on in my career. Another important aspect of this role is that I have learned what it means to network and being involved in this soccer environment, which has made my job a lot easier. 

What would you recommend to any young player with the ambition of playing soccer professionally?

To any young player, I will recommend to find a mentor, someone that has gone through it and done it themselves. Use all the tools that this person gives you and outside tools that are given to you, the game is evolving so fast that it is very different than during my time. 

Every player has to set clear goals and objectives for themselves and the incentive needs to be the fact that you do what you love to do. The motivation cannot come from money, that just comes over time by making a name for yourself.

To everyone who tries and does not make, I can say that being in that position and bringing in that experience helps so much in the rest of the life of an individual and that you can always work a regular job. 

Just making connections and being involved gives you so many opportunities for the future to stay involved in the sport.

What would you say are the best things in US Youth Soccer at the moment? What needs improvement?

The best part about my job is to work with young people and see them develop as people and as players. I think having that opportunity to develop them and working with coaches, as well as seeing them become better while working closely with the coaches is great. The best thing probably is the daily work and seeing the sport grow in the US. 

I think the biggest improvement needed is the curriculum. Claudio Reyna put out a curriculum in 2010, but it is getting outdated and there needs to be more differentiation between the levels. 

Speaking of the levels, how do you think select soccer compares to Premier and is it easier to play select mentally than playing Premier soccer?

I think that particularly on the ECNL level, where you are expected to go to a good college afterwards, there is a lot of self-pressure that players put on themselves. The commitment level on the Select level is similar to the commitment level on the Premier level. Kids still come to train to get better and see their friends, and they come to win games, just like anywhere else. 

How do you think can soccer stay affordable in this time of rising cost of living? How does Crossfire approach this challenge?

It is true that due to the recent change to the cost of living, things are getting more expensive, including sports. Soccer though, compared to other sports, is on the lower side when it comes to equipment and to the cost of practices. Taking into consideration, the amount of practices and games that the kids get, we are probably below $10 for a training session at the moment, other sports are a lot higher. 

At Crossfire Select and Premier, as well as NSC, which we have a really good relationship with, we have a scholarship program to help afford the cost for a season, people just need to reach out to us and ask for support.

On the ECNL level, with the cost for traveling, there is a higher commitment behind that, which players and families need to be aware of. I compare that to my situation, back when I decided to sacrifice time and money to make my dream reality.

Obviously, since we are a soccer store we need to ask you: How does having a soccer store help this area and how does it make your work easier?

Well, we are really happy that there is a soccer store in the Seattle area again after a few years with nothing. Having the store up here in Woodinville has been really helpful. In Select, we have a lot of people who are new to the sport with no experience and not the right gear. At practice, we will have a bunch of people with American Football or baseball cleats, so we tell them to go to Soccer Post and get the right equipment. The experience and professional help by the employees helps a lot.

They have the right attire of gear that the kids should be wearing, which changes with every season. 

We did not have that previously, so we are thankful for the equipment and the knowledge of the employees. 

Thank you so much Hugo for taking your time and good luck with the organization for this year’s tournament. We hope to see you and some of your players at our 3v3 tournament in Woodinville in May.