Congrats Coach Jackie!

Jackie Castro, Coach at Palo Alto Soccer Club Coach Wins Positive Coaching Alliance’s Double-Goal Coach® Award !

March 19, 2013, Stanford, CA – Jackie Castro, a coach for Palo Alto Soccer Club and Sacred Heart Preparatory School, has won Positive Coaching Alliance’s coveted Double-Goal Coach Award. She will accept her award at Positive Coaching Alliance’s National Youth Sports Awards Dinner and Auction sponsored by Deloitte, April 20 at Sharon Heights Country Club in Menlo Park.

“Jackie helps youth athletes win on and off the field,” said Jim Thompson, founder and CEO of Positive Coaching Alliance (PCA) and author of eight books on youth sports, including The Power of Double-Goal Coaching. “By creating a positive, character-building youth sports experience, and serving as a Double-Goal Coach, Jackie helps youth develop into better athletes and better people.”

Castro cited an example of her coaching techniques. “I have a player who reminds me a lot of myself when I was younger. She’s really hard-working but very stubborn and hard on herself to the point where she crumbles in games if she makes a mistake. She throws tantrums at herself. Over the last two years we’ve had lots of check-ins and talks.

“I shared with her things I did with my own coach to get over it quicker. I did this brush-your-shoulder-off thing…a physical thing. Take a quick breath. Brush it off. Get over it. You make a mistake, you learn from it, and move on. She had a hard time with that, but I told her she would have a thousand chances in a game to do things better and that’s what she should focus on. Every time she has one of those moments, and you can see in her eyes that she’s about to boil over, she looks over at me, and we brush our shoulders, and she refocuses.”