Interview with Coach Russ Plummer

This is an interview I did with Russ Plummer, the soccer coach at Hendersonville High School, for Tennessee Sports Magazine. For room’s sake, the magazine article was shortened — this the the full interview. Enjoy!

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Coach Russ Plummer has steered the Hendersonville soccer program for over two decades.

Russ Plummer has been the soccer coach at Hendersonville High School for 23 years, serving as caretaker for one of the signature programs in the state. During his tenure, his teams have gone to the state tournament 16 times, with three state titles on the boys’ side, including last year’s championship team.

High-profile program, lots of success … and yet Coach Plummer is one of the most reserved and humble coaches you’ll ever meet. Indiana born and bred, he took over at Hendersonville after working in the Indiana University men’s’ soccer program.——————————————————————————————–

JF: People who know the IU soccer program would say that you brought a lot of things from there to here. True?

RP: Obviously, if you’re around something that works, something that’s successful – most coaches will tell you that you beg, borrow, and steal anything you can, so yes, certain things that we do here came from Indiana University, but at the same time, a thing won’t become a tradition until people grasp it, take hold of it, and believe in it. That’s one of the great things about this place – people want to be successful in this program, and that helps with everything we do.

JF: In 1989, you win your first championship with the boys. What was that team and experience like?

RP: I was fortunate coming into this situation. The program had already enjoyed some success, winning the state titles in 1983 and 1986. The following year, TSSAA mandated that all coaches must be teachers, and so for one season, Nancy Hoover, a history teacher, said “I’ll step in so they can have a team.” When I came in, I was fortunate because the school, the parents, and the players really embraced what I was trying to do, and allowed me to be myself, and we just took off from there. After a year of transition, things really came together, and we won.

JF: So, now many of your former players are now coaching and leading youth soccer in the area … I would argue that your fingerprints are all over the local soccer community now. Is that something that you were aware of early on – the influence you would have on the game over time?

RP: Not really. My family and I, and the school, have always been involved with soccer in the area. I think that’s one of the keys to our success – the people here want to see the sport succeed. As the sport has grown in the area, with the club and recreational leagues gaining momentum, we’ve done anything we can to support it. I’ve served on boards and provided guidance, and for numerous years I was the garbage man at the local tournaments! It was a great job – they gave me a Gator to drive around, they fed me, and I got to watch all the games.

JF: You’re pretty close to the point where you’ll be coaching the sons and daughters of former players.

RP: Yes. (laughs)

JF: When you started, did you even envision yourself becoming an institution in the area like this?

RP: Well, I differ on the institution part … I think that once things are all said and done, then you might look back and see things in that light. We came here in 1987, got married and had a family, but always in the background was the chance that if the right opportunity arose, we’d return to Indiana. But now our daughter Kelsey has graduated and is going to college, Joey is in eighth grade … I’ve always believed that things happen for a purpose, and the community and school has been so supportive – this would be a very difficult situation to duplicate or replace. I’m not even sure you could – now we have alumni who come out and support us, who stop by and wish us good luck, and stay connected to the program. I don’t think you find that in very many places, a tradition that sustains like that.

JF: “Tradition never graduates” is the overarching theme of the program here. What are some things you do as a coach and team that support and sustain that theme?

How do you embed 'tradition?' Try dressing in a locker with the names and numbers of past players for four years, and then try to ignore tradition.

RP: Some things have changed and evolved over time, but I think that the tradition that ties things together is the culture that was established even before we were here. When players come to this program, they know already that they have to be organized. They have to be prepared for a game. They have to be prepared for a training session. They know that there is an expectation, not just for what they do on the field, but also for what they do off the field. They know that academics come first. Unfortunately over the years, we’ve had some good players who had to sit because their grades weren’t where they were supposed to be.

We firmly believe that if a player here learns more about the game of soccer than they do life lessons, then we haven’t done our job. This game should be a means to an end, not just the end in itself – through soccer, you should be better prepared to move into the next chapter of your life.

As far as the little things we do … the little soccer balls with the players’ names on them, that came from IU. The kids love that – little kids come up all the time and say, “hey, I caught so-and-so’s ball.” We wear a training jersey before games, then change into a game jersey. Our indoor tournament – when I came here, we played in the old gym with the walls (Ellis Middle School). I think we were the first tournament to change to Futsal rules, using boundary lines to make it more like a regular soccer game.

Before every tournament game, we have a spaghetti dinner, usually at one of the senior’s home. The seniors make the warm-up tape we play before games. In the locker room, we have the name, number, and graduating class of each player who used that locker before on the back. So now, a former player can bring their kid in and show them their name on the locker, and the players playing now get a sense of the history they’re becoming part of. I can remember my daughter, when she was younger, looking at all those names and wanting to be like those players.

These things help create expectations, but also help our players understand that we expect them to be role models, both on and off the field. That’s something that I think is sometimes overlooked in society today. It helps young players grow when they have someone to look up to.

JF: Fifteen years ago, if a kid was a quality soccer player growing up, he or she probably ended up at Hendersonville High School. Now, there are four or five solid programs in the area, all filled with kids who have club soccer experience. How has this impacted you as a coach?

RP: I think that since we’ve been here as long as we have, people know what to expect when they come here. I say this to our players and parents every single year – this program is not for everyone. Not everybody can meet the expectations we have here, or want to train and work as hard as we do in the preseason or in-season. I’m not saying that in a cocky or arrogant way. Everybody’s different, so I have no problem when a player decides to go somewhere else. I’m a soccer coach. I want the sport to flourish.

To me, competition is good. It makes everyone better, and so if the other schools in the area are better, then that in turn will make us better.

JF: It used to be, in order to find a quality game for your teams, you had to go to Williamson County (Brentwood, Franklin), or out to Knoxville (Bearden, Farragut) or the Memphis area. Now, you don’t have to leave the county to find tough competition.

RP: Yes, but not only that … because of the perception of Hendersonville soccer in the area, we always get everyone’s best shot, and that makes it a quality game. I mean, get Hendersonville and Beech together to play tic-tac-toe, it’s going to be a competitive rivalry game. I don’t care what game it is. That’s the great thing about rivalries – kids are going to remember those games, their games against their rivals.

JF: Well, that’s one of the big differences between club soccer and high school soccer, isn’t it? Club soccer will never replicate what it feels like to pull on that school jersey. Because of that, do you think you serve as caretaker not only of the tradition here, but also of the memory-making ‘machine’ that is high school sport, those big games and state tournament runs. Are there things that you do as a coach to help lock those memories away in the hearts of your players?

RP: I think that a lot of it is what you make out of it. Player A may be a player who plays all the time. He or she will have certain memories. Player B may not get a lot of playing time, so his memories may be different, but I think that the camaraderie with the team, those locker room experiences, everyone being together and going through the same things – those are the memories that stick. Some of their best memories may be team activities that happen off the field.

Everything I’ve ever read, and every expert I’ve ever heard, says that they want the player to have the most experience in the game – club, high school, individual training, whatever. As you said, there are things that come with playing for your school that don’t come anywhere else. The school can be more ‘hands-on’ as far as discipline, because we’re with them every day. It would be very difficult for me to coach and not be around them every day at school. You know the moods, what’s going on during the day, you can get involved in helping them from day to day. It would be difficult for me to be a club coach – I’d have to change a lot of how I operate.

JF: You’ve been here over twenty years. You’re helped grow a tradition that many coaches would envy. Say a young coach comes to you and asks, “I’ve just been hired at Joe Smith High School, and I want to build a program that leaves a lasting mark on the game like yours has. What should I do?” What are those first steps?

RP: There are several things. Number one, you have to be yourself. You can replicate some things, but you have to be true to yourself. There are coaches that I admire and look up to, but if I tried to do some of the same things they do, I’d be fired (laughs). You have to be yourself.

It’s important to have people in your life that you look up to. I was very fortunate to be with the Indiana program. I know that I can pick up the phone and call Coach (Jerry) Yeagley on any given day, and he’ll do whatever he can to help me. That’s something that Coach has fostered, a feeling of family – I never scored a goal for the man, but he’d do anything he could to help in a heartbeat.

Communication is huge. You have to have the support of the administration, and you have to communicate with the parents. If you don’t bring the parents in on what you’re trying to do, you’re going to run into a lot of obstacles. Most importantly, you have to build a rapport with your players. Kids are going to screw up, but they need to know that they can come to you. Sometimes you have to give a pat on the back, sometimes you have to give a kick in the rear, but they have to know that you’ll be there for them, no matter what.

If you ever feel like you’re growing stagnant, then it’s time to move on. I look back after every girls’ season, every boys’ season, and really think, “is it time for me to do something else?” Sometimes that reflection time is harder than others, but I don’t ever want to be in a place where someone else has to come to me and say, “it’s time for you to move on.” I want to be the one who makes that choice.

I think to avoid becoming stagnant, you have to keep yourself sharp. You’re always reading, always watching, attending coaching conferences and clinics – I think that if you’re constantly doing those things, then you’ll be moving in the right direction.

Hold true to your principles and values. There are no short-cuts to success … sometimes that is a difficult situation and sell to the players and parents, but in the long run the respect that is gained and earned is far more beneficial. At the same time, admit when you make a mistake – take responsibility, and do what you can to correct the error.

Realize that you will make decisions that not everyone will agree with. Not everyone will always be happy.   Communicate reasoning, and sometimes you may have to agree to disagree, but TEAM should always come first.

Last but not least – Enjoy every moment, life is too short -  enjoy what you do!