An Interview with Jared Montz

Today we had the pleasure of interviewing Jared Montz. Jared is a former MLS player with the Chicago Fire, and now is the owner of the first Online Soccer Academy.

Jared, tell us a little bit about yourself – your playing and coaching background.

I played college soccer with Lynn University. The team was made up of a bunch of English players so it was a great environment for me. I played pro soccer with the Chicago Fire in 2005 and 2006, then the Puerto Rico Islanders in 2007. I retired from injury in March of 2009 after two surgeries and sitting out a year.

My coaching background consists of taking a lot of notes from all my different pro and college coaches as well as my teammates along the way. Studying what they did well and what they didn’t do well. I pride myself in teaching the techniques in the game and the little things that often get overlooked by most coaches. I have run about 30 camps, I coach a ton of private lessons, group sessions, and team practices. I also coach through video in my Online Soccer Academy.

Who’s been the biggest influence on your soccer career and why?

Tough to say who has been my biggest influence. As a youth player it was one of my youth coaches Anton McEwen. He played pro in South Africa and the way he approached the game was so different. He showed me the mental side of the game. As a pro it was Chris Armas. He was the captain of the Fire when I was there. He taught me a ton and I learned a lot just by watching him and how he handled himself on and off the field. When you earned a compliment from him you felt like you were two inches taller. There are not too many leaders that have that type of presence about them.

What gave you the idea of setting up an online soccer academy?

I got the idea to start my Online Soccer Academy in the summer of 2008. I was speaking with a friend and the idea just hit me. Camps were great but people always complained about it being a bad time. I still had a great turn out but you could never please everyone. The Online Soccer Academy allows players to work at their game on their own time. Plus the problem with most American soccer players is that they only train twice a week with their team for 1.5 hours. If you want to play college or pro soccer you have to train almost every day and in America for most kids they have to do that training on their own. I know I did. The Online Soccer Academy teaches players how to train on their own. It just seemed like a great idea, my market research agreed with me, so I decided to work non stop and make one!

Why should a young soccer player sign up for your online soccer academy?

Players that are serious about their game and looking to take it to the next level should join my Online Soccer Academy because it will motivate and educate them on how to train on their own. As I mentioned in the last question players in America that are trying to play at the next level need to train on their own but they don’t always know how too. My Online Soccer Academy can fix that problem. It is a great motivation source too. A player can come to my Online Soccer Academy, enjoy some soccer highlights on my blog, listen to an interview from a current pro on MontzTV or the Jared Montz Soccer Podcast and hear the pro’s advice for them, watch a training video from me and then go out in the backyard and train totally pumped that what they do that day matters and it does make a difference towards their dreams!

Training in the backyard can sometimes make you feel so far away from the pro game. I want my players to believe that if they “Believe in it” and back that up with hard work the pro game is not that far away.

As a former player yourself, you know how important practice is. Just how important is it that youth soccer players continue to practice away from their team training sessions?

It is very important. I don’t know any pro or college player that made it by only training twice a week with their team. There were kids growing up as good as me or some better than me but they never practiced on their own. I did, almost everyday. By the time I was a Senior I was miles ahead of them and getting ready for college soccer and they only had regrets about what they could have done if they only did this, or did that.

Can we be expecting any updates to the academy in 2010?

Good question! Yes, we have some exciting stuff happening in 2010! I am calling it the playmaker year because the Online Soccer Academy number is 10, which 10 is the considered the playmaker number in soccer and with it being 2010 I thought it sounded good! We are very excited for this year.

We have not announced it publicly yet but we will have it on my website and start marketing them soon. We now offer personal college recruiting websites and highlight DVD’s for high school players. You can check out http://www.davidcollege.com which is our example site. There are lots of competitors out there who build profile pages, but what we do is build a personal website for players and then teach them how to use that to network themselves to college coaches. The sites have some great features as well. We have already built a few of these and are very excited about them.

We plan on adding a lot more video in the Online Soccer Academy including 30 minute and 1 hour workout videos this year. Right now most of our videos are one specific trick, skill, move, technique or exercise. These workout videos will be a whole training plan that a player can do on their own to get a full soccer private work out in. The feedback for our test video has been excellent.

Our 1st Live MontzTV Interview went very well so we plan on doing more free special events like that for the soccer community this year.

There are a few other surprises up our sleeves too but I can’t let those out of the bag just yet!

Finally, who’s your tip for the World Cup?

I am a player and a coach at heart so I am always going to root for my team to win it! That would be the United States of America! Go on boys!! Believe in it!

Many thanks to Jared for taking time out of his busy schedule and we wish him all the best for his online soccer academy. If you wish to participate in a coaching interview, please email coach lee AT soccercoachingcentral.com