Schellas Hyndman, SMU’s men’s head soccer coach, continues to add to his already stellar resume. As of Friday, coach Hyndman took over as president of the National Soccer Coaches Association of America. The position is the highest that can be held in the non-profit organization, and the distinguished title will be Hyndman’s for the next year.
The NSCAA, established in 1941, is an organization consisting of soccer coaches at any level and any other person who would like to be associated with the organization’s mission. That mission is simply to educate coaches, encourage excellence and serve the entire soccer community. Consisting of 18,000 members, male and female, the NSCAA is now the world’s largest coaching association.
In order to be president of the NSCAA, you have to be a part of the process for six total years. Although this is just the beginning of Hyndman’s presidency, he has already been involved the past four years. His most recent position was the vice president of education, where he was very much hands on in teaching the game of soccer to other coaches and members of the organization. Now he will serve his one-year term as president, and then stay on the Board of Directors one final year as the immediate past president.
Among many other things, the NSCAA also puts out polls for both the collegiate level and the high school level at each state. Those polls are considered by the majority to be the primary poll in judging who the best teams in the nation are. As well as polls, the NSCAA also gives out All-American awards to both college and high school levels, as well as many different other types of awards and honors.
In the past, Hyndman has also served on the NCAA selection committee for six years, which is part of the Division I committee that chooses teams to go to the playoffs. After that, he was approached by the NSCAA, and at first was a bit hesitant in becoming a part of it. Hyndman spoke a bit about his decision to finally join the organization.
“The more I gave thought to it, the more I recognized that if you don’t get involved, then you have no right to complain. If you get involved, then you have a better understanding of the political aspect of the game,” he said.
As far as SMU is concerned, the soccer program here still remains Hyndman’s number one priority. The NSCAA demands unbelievable commitment and energy, but in the end, it only does good things for SMU. Hyndman believes that SMU soccer will benefit from his recent promotion.
“SMU will benefit by getting a bit more recognition throughout the country. Even though I am representing the NSCAA, the title of SMU’s head coach will always be there at the same time,” he said. “It also helps SMU recruitment because of the 18,000 members out there; they all recognize that the president of the organization is also the head coach of a very good soccer team.”
With all the accolades and recognition aside, Hyndman still stays grounded in his goals and passion for the game.
“I talked to my team the other day, and I told them the thing that I enjoy most about my life is training with my players in practice and playing the games,” he said. “That is what I enjoy most. The rest of my job is office work and politics. Training and being with the team is fun.”
No matter what goes on outside of the playing field, Hyndman still has the same goal of being the best team in the nation. Whether Hyndman is president of the NSCAA, or the United States of America, first and foremost, he is SMU’s soccer coach.
