Okay. Pop quiz.
How many successful Canadian coaches are out there winning stuff in professional or international soccer?
I've got Frank Yallop.
How many are out there trying to win stuff?
Stephen Hart.
(Okay, Hart's from Trinidad, but he did all his coaching certifications after he came north to St. Mary's University in the Maritimes as a somewhat younger man.)
I'm sure I'm missing someone. Check that. I'm not sure I'm missing someone. And that begs a big, interesting, unanswered question.
Why are there next to zero Canadian-trained coaches tearing it up in the global game?
I have absolutely no blessed idea. But I'm going to find out.
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In the weeks and months to come, Canadian Soccer News will probe the entire issue of coaching development in Canada. The vital question -- where are all the Canadian coaches? -- is dwarfed by the bigger puzzle -- what are the obstacles standing in their way?
Are the opportunities not here? Are there bureaucratic boundaries that have not yet been addressed? Does the relative lack of professional soccer teams up here strangle the development of many? How has the Canadian Soccer Association's long wander in the wilderness hurt the prospects of any sharp young soccer minds this country has produced, but not been able to get over the top?
It can't be that we're not good enough. Canadians can do absolutely anything if they get a fair shot.
So -- why aren't our soccer coaches getting their fair shot?
I'm aiming to talk to everyone. Yallop, Hart, the best from the CSL, and anyone I can find who should have been a contender, and is now coaching out the string in obscurity with a local club, a college program, or Raging Jackass Falls Wanderers FC.
This is going to take some time to unravel, but the effort begins today.
As always, I approach this not knowing the answers. I have no pet theory I'm out to prove.
There is obviously a wall out there, and it's costing us -- and the world -- a useful supply of talented soccer minds.
It's time to find out why ... and what on earth can be done to tear the barrier down.
Onward!