Scott Arnold

Scott Arnold_Headshot

Hotspurs Role: Youth Development Phase Coach


Coaching Qualifications:

  • USSF National C License

Relevant Experience

  • Century United 01/02Gs Head Coach: 2012-2014 (U10-U12)
  • Century United 99/00Gs Assistant Coach: 2012-2014 (U12-U14)
  • Century United Academy: 2011-2012 (up to U11)
  • Premier Football Academy Head Coach: 2011 (U8)
  • QuickSkills Soccer Training: 2011
  • Norwin Soccer Club Travel Head Coach: 1997-2001 (U12, U14)

Start in soccer:

I grew up in Cincinnati until I was 13 years old. Like many players, I got started when my parents signed me up as a little kid. Soccer was much more popular in Cincinnati than western Pennsylvania at the time. When we moved to PA there wasn't soccer in Latrobe where we lived, so I had to play for Hempfield where I was lucky to have knowledgeable coaches from England and Italy. 

There wasn't a high school team at Latrobe, so my parents worked really hard to start one. They organized other parents, formed the boosters, raised money, and petitioned the school board for a team. The first season for Latrobe HS varsity boys soccer was my junior year. That first year we weren't very good, but my senior year we had a 9-4-2 record!

Inspiration to coach:

To be honest I always thought of myself as a player rather than a coach. In fact I still play adult soccer, and I'll keep playing as long as I'm healthy enough to keep going! 

I got into coaching after college and working as an electrical engineer for a few years. While playing coed soccer, one of my teammates happened to be the Norwin Soccer Club Travel Coordinator. Norwin needed coaches, so he recruited a couple of us to coach travel and rec teams. That was the spark for me. I couldn't believe how much fun and rewarding it was to work with young soccer players and coach a team in the sport I loved to play!

I coached for a few years before having 2 daughters and re-starting my coaching with them as Tiny Kickers, rec, travel, and club soccer.

Since my first season coaching I've been driven to never stop improving as a soccer coach, both by learning more myself and also by becoming better at teaching/leading players. 

Favorite part of coaching soccer:

My favorite part is the training ground where it's just the coaches and players doing their best to improve while having fun. I always try to arrive early to appreciate the quiet time before we begin. My intention is to finish setting up in time to greet and talk with players as they arrive. This is one of the best times to get to know the individual players as human beings, see how they're doing, listen, and help them in any way you can.

As a competitive person I love the difficult challenge of training a team over several seasons to play a developmentally appropriate game model (benefiting the players' long term development) while testing ourselves against increasingly strong and varied competition to find out how well we can play the game in any circumstances.

It is so satisfying to see the players and the team improve to the point where we are able to dictate the style and tempo of the game and (mostly) get the results on the field!

Favorite player/team:

Liverpool is my favorite club, but I don't have a single favorite player. However, the type of player I appreciate brings passion, cleverness, and beauty to the game regardless of the level they play. Some of my favorite players are youth or former youth players.

At the pro level, I like players such as Luka Modric, Xavi, Marta, Mohamed Salah, Marcelo, Ronaldo (Brazil), Vero Boquete...

When not coaching soccer:

I like historical fiction and sci-fi & fantasy, both novels, TV, and movies. Things like Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead, books by Brandon Sanderson, The Last Kingdom, Star Wars (other than episodes I, II, III), Westworld, etc.!