He walks with a limp!
From a knee replacement he is still rehabilitating.
But rather than an outward symbol suggesting some sort of limitation, it has been far overshadowed by a life well-lived and achievements that will last beyond his mortal days. At present his Lake Hills team is riding high having won the WSYS Founders Cup Boys U-17 State Championship. But I digress.
PATRICK DANIEL O’ROURKE was born March 4, 1960, in Newry, Ireland as one of six children to Michael and Ellen O’Rourke. His father was one of four children: his mother one of eleven. His was a typical Irish family of the 1960's. Close, tightly knit - with 31 ‘first’ cousins in a small community. Patrick’s home for most of the years – before coming to America – was in Carlingford, a scenic coastal village, overlooking a body of water known as Carlingford Lough. The border with Northern Ireland was only 6 miles away. (Incidentally, Newry is where Game of Thrones was filmed!)
Asked when he was first attracted to soccer, he replied: “There were two dominant sports we knew (from birth until he left for America); it was either Gaelic football or soccer!” Soccer was played at every recess at school. (We had to play with tennis balls in order to avoid breaking the windows of nearby buildings.) As soon as we arrived home
from school, we would toss our school bags in the house and head for the streets where we would play soccer until dark. (“We tried to play with our own age group, but often played with much older boys.”) No one ever ‘cried’ foul.... No one would have listened anyway. (Take note Neymar…) Weekends were spent the same way - if we were not working. If a regulation size ball was not available, we used a tennis ball. One simply played for the joy of the sport.”
The idea that these countless hours and hundreds of pick-up games were based on our technical drills did not even register. Without them, we would have had a hard time keeping up with our childhood friends. (It was yourself, a ball and a wall, or some unfortunate neighbors garage door which became our Wembley as we ‘shot’ and trapped, controlled, and returned. The wall eventually won!”)
In the 1960's/70's, working from an early age was the norm, not the exception. Grocery stores, farms and harvesting seafood are just three examples of where he worked. The pay was poor, but the work ethic was engrained. No one was poor, but larger families worked to lighten the burden on parents. It was the simplest of ways to engender a lifelong work ethic.
Patrick’s favorite team growing up was Chelsea - the years of Osgood, Harris and Hudson. Georgie Best defied the physics of the game, and Jimmy Gabriel, Bobby Howe and Alan Hinton were familiar names. “Alan was known as the one who ‘broke the mold’ as the first player – ever - to wear
white shoes. Televised games were Saturday night or Sunday afternoon – no option to tape or see highlights".
"My father and Uncles from both sides of the family were talented, well-known local players. I lacked their skill but exceeded their fitness. Local spectators were seldom shy about reminding me of this." (“We were not savvy enough to retaliate with something like ‘it’s better to be fast than last!”)
After high school he attended Trinity College Dublin – from 1978 thru 1984 - where he majored in business and economics before emigrating to America in 1984 where he enrolled at the University of Washington and continued his study of economic and marketing. It was at Trinity that he got his first opportunity to coach. The College Gaelic Football team were short of a Second team coach, so he volunteered for the position, quickly learning that his playing peers expected a plan and turned into both the loudest yet most supportive critics.
So far, this story has followed the usual formula of personal interviews which seek to describe the ‘subject’ being featured. Now, the good stuff.
The real reason – behind COFFEE TOWN FC’s “Coaches Corner” - is to focus on the coaching insights gleaned from the people being interviewed. Patrick Daniel O’Rourke will be the ‘first’ and ‘last’ to ever consider himself a model of a championship soccer coach, let alone a Hall of Famer. But rest assured he is all of that and more. Indeed, the challenge this author faced (am still facing) is how to synthesize the
myriads of insights my time with him provided. But I can say, unequivocally, Patrick is a walking compendium of knowledge about coaching kids. And the game of soccer!
It all started with my endless visits to Winners Sportswear in Bellevue. Gordon Lacey - the longtime owner of Winners - is the ‘visionary’ that birthed COFFEE TOWN FC and hired Patrick as salesman whose duties notwithstanding, still allow him the freedom to continue coaching which, currently, is with the Lake Hills Soccer Club. Current Winners’ owner, Nick Karis, knowing the peerless coaching value Patrick represents, continues to support Patrick’s service to the soccer community.
When asked to ‘size up’ Patrick, longtime employer – and former owner of Winners Sportswear – as well as other soccer and sporting goods companies – said this about Patrick: “He’s a tremendous father; a tremendous husband; a tremendous coach…very dedicated, respectful and very VERY LOYAL! Plus, he’s a great salesperson!” (Editor’s note: “In other words he’s TREMENDOUS!”)
So how to consolidate the vast wisdom Patrick embodies as man and coach – without tomes of books paralleling the works of Richard North Patterson, Tom Glancy or all the great writers combined?
‘Where’ and ‘how’ Patrick’s life began has been partially covered in the previous notes. But the historical vignettes are easy to Google. The real insights come from his tours of duty with THE GAME. He watched his dad, uncles and other
relatives (remember he had 31 first cousins…) excel in Gaelic football, soccer and, amazingly - curling.
He is well known in Seattle soccer circles and, as aforementioned, his U-17 boys’ team is the reigning state champions. Those of us who know him on a more personal level have long admired his honesty and insights and his wizardry as a peerless storyteller. (Aren’t all Irishman great storytellers?) But it is always a good thing to check in with those under his guidance as players and fellow coaches - as well as his family.
His teams are strongly Latino in nature; indeed, one guesses he invaded the United Nations to assemble his current teams. Just ask Carlos Trejo, Angel Rodriguez, Ricardo Guerrero, Conor Frigelle, Max, Daniel J, Reuben, Ahmed Yusef, Damian, Henry Trima. And his ‘coaching’ staff – comprises former players Jovanni Rodriguez, Jackson Lukens, Owen Porkka, Eric Gonzalez, as well as his two sons, Tiernan and Niall. (His daughter Claire is one of the best women players in the state.) Similarly, his U-19 team represents the United Nations with players from Sweden, Italy, Spain, Austria and the Czech Republic. When the question was asked: “What kind of coach is Patrick O’Rourke?” They answered as ‘one’: “He knows the game from A-Z but makes every player feel like he is the most important person on earth!” When asked what he says – or does – when the team is playing badly, they echoed that he never rants or raves, he merely says things like: “Well, Lads, we obviously didn’t do what we have been working on in
practice.” Or “…maybe it would be a good idea if we tried another approach!”
His wife Linda, and kids - Tiernan, Claire and Niall - expand on Patrick THE MAN, husband and father. Linda says - with a smile: “the day we first met he told me l was a “troublemaker”! He married the ‘troublemaker’ and together they have three awesome kids – the oldest Tiernan and Claire and Niall. But, in one way or the other they all agree on what it does not take a Third Grader long to figure out: He’s an educator, teacher, ‘trainer’ and coach. He has a quick wit. Then there’s the comical side. Long remembered were the shopping and hiking trips - or the visits to Linda’s Montana childhood environs. Linda would assign Patrick the task of ‘watching’ the ‘troops’ which, frequently resulted in all four ‘ganging’ up on him (faking getting lost in the store or the ‘brush’…) all of which they say was part of the family fun they had. They never, really, did manage to outsmart him and, all agree, these times were highlighted by his smiles, good humor and, always his patience. His teams and assistant coaches all are in accord that one of his most durable virtues is his patience. This trait is the single most dominant description of how he manages the stresses that most humans – and, for sure, coaches, face when things are not going well. For example, all of us coaches – if not the sporting public – know about football’s Vince Lombardi and Woody Hays, as well as baseball’s Earl Weaver, basketball’s Bobby Knight et al, who were famous (infamous?) for their outbursts when their teams were not playing well. In the best of terms, Patrick is an anomaly. First, he never allows himself to take the credit for his teams’ successes. And,
contrary to what most coaches do when their teams are not doing well, he, rarely, if ever, “blows a gasket!” Players, assistant coaches, opposing coaches – and his family - all agree that he never yields to the impulses of anger and frustration that accompanies poor performance. Asked what he says - and how he acts - when the inevitable ‘screwups’ occur…family, players and all who know him are in accord. This writer asks: “What does he do or say?” The answer is very specific: In a calm manner he sometime says, “Obviously we are not playing the way we practiced and prepared for this game?” Another option that his players – and family agree he employs - is: “Maybe we should try ‘this’ or ‘that’ or a different approach.” However, there is one hot, red, button (mistake?) that associates, opponents - and others close by - do not want to err in doing: that is degrading his players or family or friends that are close to him.
The final ‘takeaways’ to this profile of Partrick Daniel O’Rourke are:
He is a walking, breathing model of what coaches – at any level – might well study to help better themselves – as coaches and men and women!
His principles of coaching the Great Game are oft repeated but seldom seen:
Give credit to the players and assistants…
Let the game be the best teacher…
A team is never as bad as they think they are…AND…
They are not necessarily as GOOD as they may think they are…
Losses are not the ‘end of the world; they are classrooms for considering options that they may have practiced but failed to enact when the game begins.
In a phrase: OUR WORLD IS A BETTER PLACE BECAUSE PATRICK DANIEL O’ROURKE IS IN IT!
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