February 3, 2025
By IAIN KING Electrician, skydiver, lifelong Craigmark Burntonians fan, Tennessee youth soccer legend. At the age of 69 Sandy Pollock has lived a life less ordinary. Few sum up our native land’s adventurous spirit, that refusal to stay in your comfort zone more. That’s one of the telling reasons why Sandy was voted the inaugural North American Scottish Coaches Association (NASCA) Coach of the Year. Ayrshireman Sandy was revealed as our winner at the United Soccer Coaches Convention in Chicago where he was presented with a signed jersey from Scotland skipper Andy Robertson by NASCA President Eric McAleer. It was fitting that a group of his coaching colleagues from Tennessee Soccer Club cheered loudly from the back of the room. Sandy smiled ruefully, “I was more than surprised to win this honour, you know when I first joined this group I felt so intimidated. There are so many big-time coaches and accomplished people. It has taken me a while to feel comfortable in this company.” Sandy was brought up in the Ayrshire coal-mining village of Dalmellington, the home of the wonderfully named Burntonians who now play in the West of Scotland League Second Division. His dad played for Troon Juniors and Stranraer, his grandfather moved the family to Ayrshire in the 1930s from Dalkeith after he landed the job as physio at Ayr United. Sandy grew up steeped in football. “I always had a ball tied to my foot, every minute of every day,” he recalls. “When I was going to school ADHD had not been diagnosed but I am certain I had it. I would be in class not hearing a word the teacher was saying because all I could think about was my game that night. I was an ardent Rangers fan but I’ll never forget that after Celtic won the European Cup in Lisbon in 1967 I was watching the game as an 11-year-old kid. As soon as the game was finished I ran across the street to bang on my mate Jim Douglas’ door shouting: 'Come on Peem, let’s get a game going!' I was never a great player but I always loved the game. I was working class and poor but I didn’t know because I always had football. Where I came from gave me my work ethic and my optimism, I deal with problems and get on with life.” Sandy is an electrician to trade, he left school when he was 16 and did an electrician’s apprenticeship at Ayr Tech. It was an inspired decision. He earned a chance to join General Motors in the States as a skilled tradesman. The good times were rolling, great salaries and health benefits and in time GM transferred him from Atlanta, Georgia, to the Saturn Corporation in Springhill, Tennessee. Sandy’s natural skill in working with others had seen him grow into teaching roles in his day job. When son Ian came along and his team needed a soccer coach his old man was the natural choice. Sandy said, “We had a great little team and we wanted to give the kids more so we formed a travel club called Williamson County United. It grew so quickly and we eventually became a far bigger entity called Tennessee Football Club in 1998. I was still working at GM when I ran the Chicago Marathon at the age of 47. I loved the experience but I was disappointed because I missed qualifying for Boston by three minutes. When I was training for that I would get up for my 6-8 mile run at 3:45 am. I’d get to work at 6 am for my shift through to 2:30 pm and then rush to training at Centennial High School, where I was the Head Coach for a decade, for training from 3 pm-5 pm. Then it was on to the club facility for two sessions from 5:30 pm-8:30 pm then I’d go home and get ready to go again.” At least when he was running a marathon he kept his feet on the ground. One of his other passions, saw this most humble of men living with his head in the clouds. He reveals, “I have made over 600 plus SKY DIVES in my life, I really enjoyed that as a hobby. It was thrilling but then I started coaching and I guess that took over a little.” When the global financial crisis battered the United States in 2008 Sandy came to a career crossroads. Shutdowns loomed and GM were offering him a buyout or a transfer to Detroit. He said, “At the very same time Brentwood Soccer Club, where my friend was Director of Coaching, showed interest in me. Detroit which was the last place I wanted to go after being in the south for so long. All of a sudden I was working full-time in football.” Sandy threw himself into his second career, earning his USSF A License, educating himself on internships like an unforgettable 10-day stay at Dutch giants Feyenoord that he relished. These days Sandy is the U15-U19 Boys Director at Tennessee Soccer Club and the story of the birth of that organization sums up this special Scottish football man. Sandy reflected, “I’d been at Tennessee Football Club and then I’d gone to also work at Brentwood Soccer Club. The rivalry between the clubs was massive but it was not nice, we’d have parents going crazy at games between the teams, bitter competitions for try-out players. It wasn’t right. In 2012 the coaching groups at both clubs got together and we decided to put an end to it and have a merger. We managed to get through that process and 13 years later we have 3,000 players and 28 full-time staff.” From working on fundraisers to buy Christmas presents for kids in need to his newest project, Sandy’s big heart shines through. His next coaching gig? He will be an Assistant Coach of Major League soccer franchise Nashville SC’s Unified Team. What does that mean? Sandy explains, “Every MLS club has one, they contain Special Olympics athletes and partner players and they travel with the first team and play at the MLS stadiums after the main games. It’s an incredible initiative and they have MLS players as ambassadors, it’s the coolest project.” In Joe Ehrmann’s iconic book Inside Out Coaching there are two key questions he believes seep into the soul of those in our profession. Why do I coach? Why do I coach the way I coach? Sandy answers: “I coach for moments like the one I had just last night. I’m watching a 9 v 9 game on our training field and I hear a guy shout from the field behind: “Sandy!” “There was a guy there coaching his own kid one to one and he was a player I coached when he was 16. Now he’s out there with his 12-year-old son passing on the love of the game. That’s so satisfying. The way I coach has changed so much. At the start it was all about ME, then after a few years I realized it has to be the opposite. Now I don’t say much, I watch them make their own decisions and I try to help them at half-time or whenever I can quietly influence them. I remember when I was on that internship at Feyenoord I watched the former Dutch international Gaston Taument coach a game and he said almost nothing. He told me afterwards he had done all his coaching on the training field and this was his time to let them express themselves. That has always lived me. All I tell parents at the start of the season is that their kid will have fun in a positive environment and he will come out of it a better player by the end of the season. Will we win? Who knows? I under-promise and over-deliver! I am in the youth game and the pros are completely different but my idols are Sir Alex Ferguson, Walter Smith, Jock Stein, Bill Shankly. I feel those Scottish legends displayed the best of my country and what I believe in.” Sandy, a close friend of former Bournemouth, Norwich City and Scotland striker Ted MacDougall, reached out to NASCA to attend the first gathering in 2014. The two pals made the trip to Philadelphia for the United Soccer Coaches Convention and they loved every minute. Sandy grinned, “I just love the banter of those Panels and the guests we’ve had on the Speaker Series have been unbelievable. Being a part of those Zooms is special and such an education. It was through NASCA too that I did the SFA Talent Identification course with my son Ian which I thoroughly enjoyed. NASCA ties all the Scottish coaches in North America together and I feel that’s invaluable. In a way it’s a full circle that I’ll be back in Philly next year for the 2026 Convention to see someone else get this incredible Coach of the Year honour. I’m looking forward to that already.”
