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The crowd roars as the ball goes into the opposing team’s net sending the game into extra time. Masterman’s soccer players jump with excitement and mob the player who had just saved their chances of winning the game. Yet their coach, Tyler Weiss, dressed in a dark sports jacket and dress shirt, stands by the Masterman bench with a stern look on his face. The game wasn’t over yet. He yells at the players to bring it in for a huddle.
As the players run back onto the field, Weiss waits patiently on the sidelines. Now is their chance to upset Central High School. However, their dream of winning comes to an end after a game-sealing Central goal just a few minutes into the extra period. The Masterman players jog back to the bench with their heads down, but Weiss calls them in for a huddle to encourage them. Weiss understood how important this game was for the players despite the loss. “Going to extra time with a Central team they've never won against─ these are the right steps. And we are fortunate that we're going to see them again in the playoffs and we're going to go deep in states.”
Masterman’s Boys Soccer, which lost in the public league championship game last year,
has new leadership. Tyler Weiss, a 26-year-old, whose family is from Melbourne, Australia, became the team’s new coach.
As Weiss said goodbye to some of his players after the game, he spoke about his experience with soccer and his qualifications. “I played for elite club teams, played in high school, played for club in university,” said Weiss. “I watch soccer like all the time and I think, for me as a coach, it's really important that I watch games, because you can be a good athlete, you can be good with the skills. But [you need to] really understand the game and the only way to really understand the game fully is to watch it,” he added.
Weiss currently plays for Maccabi FC which is the Jewish soccer team in Philadelphia. He’s going to Israel next summer for the Maccabi Games where he’ll be managing the entire youth soccer program for the Jewish National Team. He also added that he’s coached Team Israel and he is U.S. Soccer Federation licensed.
During his childhood, Weiss travelled back and forth between Melbourne and central Pennsylvania, both places where soccer’s popularity is on the rise. Weiss explained, “Soccer's becoming very, very popular in Australia with the Socceroos, and central PA’s been one of the powerhouses of soccer, which, everyone knows Christian Pulisic’s from Hershey, which is like 30 minutes away from where I was living.” With a smile, he said he remembers doing the Soccer Shots program when he was young, maybe even 3 years old. He attended the University of Rochester after high school.
Weiss moved to Fishtown in January, so he’s still relatively new to the area. He works as a commercial appraiser nearby. He explained that because he just started his new job, he wants to focus on coaching just one team right now.
While walking toward the team bus, he discussed his current family life, “I'm very close with my family. I talk to my mom and dad at least once a day. My dad and I go on father-son vacations two or three times a year. I have a younger brother who I'm trying to get to move to Philadelphia.” He said although he is close with his family, at the moment, his social life isn’t perfect. “I have good friends, but my social life is a little bit less because between work and coaching, you don't always have extra minutes in the day. But I'm very fortunate that I have good friends who check up on me. I check up on them.”
He noted that especially with suicide prevention week during September, it’s important for everyone to value mental health. “I myself went to therapy this morning. It's important. It's important that even as a coach, that I'm mentally stable and mentally ready to handle the stresses of the game, stresses of work and stresses of just life.”
The majority of past Masterman coaches have been teachers, but Weiss isn’t a teacher. Nichole Geiger, the previous head coach, reached out to Weiss after getting an email from him. Weiss retold the story, “She was like, ‘can you meet for lunch?’
Photo courtesy of Noel Chacko
One hundred percent. I've been waiting for someone to email.” Looking at Coach Geiger, Weiss added, “We sat down for maybe three hours and then we just talked about what my vision is and what her vision is, what our aspirations were. And I said ‘I've looked at your results, I've watched videos, and I think this team can go the next step with someone who really gets the game.’ And that's no dig on Coach Geiger. … I've been on conferences all over the world for soccer. I really get this game.”
There have been a lot of changes to the program since Weiss has joined. 11 games have been added to the schedule, some on Saturdays. Practices are every day when there isn't a game. Some former starters have lost their spots. What does Weiss look for in a player? “It's truly just intensity. Who gives more. Who runs the most, who sacrifices the most.” In their game against Central, Lucas Jackson, a senior who doesn't get many minutes, scored the goal to tie the game. Weiss added about Jackson, “Every time he goes on, Lucas runs his heart out. Even though we didn't get the win, he got this huge extra goal to get us extra time.”
Weiss said about his substitutions, “I rather put a more skillful player on the bench than someone who works harder. You look at who we have on the field, we have two freshmen, five or six sophomores because they work their butts off every time一 they sprint.” Weiss emphasizes with his players that even if they don't get minutes during all of the games, each one of them are vital to the overall team’s success.
He began coaching in 10th grade. “I actually started my school district's youth soccer program. I was in a very rural area. They had a small middle school team and a small high school team, and that was about it. So I started the youth program.” He then talked about how his career progressed, “My first full time job was a middle school job at my old high school. Kids I coached when they were in first grade, five years later, when I was a graduate of the university, they were sixth and seventh graders on my team. We actually went undefeated; those players just knew who I was.”
Weiss attributes his love for soccer to his early coaches. “I was really fortunate that my first club travel coach, Dave Fitzgerald, really made me love the game. He was the first person to congratulate me when I got my first coaching job. I still reach out to him and I hope that I emulate what he does for me, I can do for these boys.” Weiss added, “I think a good coach is a coach who really has passion, who cares about the boys, but also wants the best for the team. And every day they know that this is my focus. My focus isn't teaching. My focus is making them a better team. And I think the boys really resonate with that.”
Weiss had high praise for all his coaches growing up. “I had a lot of good coaches, Dave Fitzgerald, Jim Mustard, my high school coach, Kenneth Klank, [who] was also my high school coach. You know, these coaches, they loved the game, but they also loved the kids. And they really made me feel that I can have a passion for something. And I really do have a passion for this sport.”
As he looked toward his players, Weiss said, “It's just important for the boys to know that they have a coach that can be really invested and really involved and realize how much I really felt that I chose this school. You know, my job is to coach them in soccer, but my real duty is to coach them to be better men.”
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