"The Importance of Unstructured Free Play: Coaching with a Street Soccer Mentality"

Giovanni Pacini is a soccer professional whose career spans 40 plus years and over that period has had the opportunity to formally collaborate with some of the foremost coaching education and player development specialists in the world. In that realm, Pacini has worked alongside World Cup, Olympic Gold Medal, and national team head coaches. He is a United Soccer Coaches Master Coach and serves the organization as a member of its National Staff and National Goalkeeper Staff. He is the former NSCAA State Director who has overseen coaching education in MA, NH, and RI. Pacini has served as a member of the USYS East Region coaching staff and has overseen training for NH North ODP. He was the Director of Coaching Education for The Super Liga of Rhode Island where he was responsible for coach and player development for 38 clubs, 542 coaches and over 10,000 players. He is a featured clinician in the United Soccer Coaches video series on goalkeeping, has presented numerous sessions at the NSCAA / United Soccer Coaches national conventions, and has served as Chairman for the then NSCAA Technical Committee and was a member of its Education Committee as well. In addition, he has served as a member of the NSCAA Goalkeeping Technical Committee. Pacini is the author of numerous articles related to player and coach development in a variety of publications. As a passionate teacher of the game, Pacini also enjoyed a successful 28 year career as a collegiate head coach and now serves as the Goalkeeper Coach at Regis College (MA). As a broadcaster, Pacini launched the GP Soccer Podcast in 2019 and hosted the soccer show “Direct Kick” on WJDA and WMEX in Boston. Broadening his expertise in the game, Pacini has had the opportunity to have traveled to several foreign countries researching coach and player development. Most importantly, for 24 years he served as a health and physical education teacher and teaching mentor in his hometown of Weymouth, MA. He is at his core… a teacher.