Today we’d like to introduce you to Yossef Al-Mashouq.
Hi Yossef, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Like most parent coaches, I got started by helping out my son’s rec team during the spring of 2015. His coach at the time was busy with work and couldn’t be available during the week. After a year of coaching rec myself and the then head coach decided our boys would tryout for select thinking we were both done coaching. Once my son made it to the select team I again ended up helping the head coach with sessions even though I had no previous experience in select soccer, especially being a rec coach for two seasons, it was thanks to my good friend Tommy Miller that I was able to learn so much about coaching and guiding these players. Over time I gradually became the head coach of my son’s select group and remained there until spring of 2023 when he graduated. As a result I was able to see so many players come and go, but being able to give back and be a part of their journeys was an amazing feeling. During that time I was able to gain two USSF coaching licenses a License D and C as well became the college recruiting advisor and mentor and served over 6 years on the board of trustees at the club he played at. I stayed on for 2 more years to coach the junior team which became the senior team on the boys and girls side as well as a freshman and sophomore team. After my son went off to play Junior college soccer. I as asked my a coaching friend Coach Mike to reach out to a UPSL semi professional team out of Killeen, Texas. Once I came in to coach that group we turned our season around after going 0-4 to 4-0 the last for games getting into UPSL playoffs with a 4-4-1 record. That year we lost the first round but I was able to stay on as head coach for the second time. During spring of 2025 I ended up moving clubs and began coaching high school girls and have opened up a new challenge in my coaching career since before this I had only coached on the boys side but being able to help grow the girls program at my new club has been an honor.
I’ve held senior nights for over 30 players from the class of 2023 to class 2025. It has been a tremendous honor to have coached and been a part of so many stories and the best feeling is to have my former players come back and say hi, or reach out and tell me “they miss those days” it means the work I have done means much more than just soccer. It’s a way to create a world they can all cherish.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It has not been a smooth road. Being a coach in youth sports is like being a teacher. There’s very little praise when you do good but much criticism when you do something “wrong” early on in my select coaching career results meant the world to everyone, parents and players considered winning with development and it took nearly 8 years to learn that winning was a result of consistency and dedication. It took time to realize that coaching soccer was not just about kicking a ball around, but building meaningful sessions with lesson plans to get each player to learn the sport, their role in the team, the overall mission of the team. Once they got to high school there was real world implications, teaching real world lessons. Teaching punctualness, communication, responsibility, etc. These are real world skills I had to teach these players that would carry with them beyond soccer but into their young lives after school was done. As well I had to grow and learn myself as a coach by going through the US Soccer federation coaching licensing programs to be able to properly coach. With that comes challenges with making mistakes as a coach, learning to be a good teacher was the hardest part. No one tells you that this is what you will run into, you have to be a coach, a mentor, a nutritionist, a psychologist, a cheer leader, a motivator, a college scout, a social media expert, a social worker, and on and on. My whole life outside my immediate family has been about soccer and the time dedicated to making it a meaningful journey for those players is my life goal.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
During my time as a coach I took up photography to help promote my players, we had been taking pictures on phones for the longest time and having that one parent send you an ultra zoomed in grainy photo doesn’t help to promote the kids when we’re trying to get them noticed on social media, so I picked up a nice used DSLR camera that had a few lenses and then that was the end of my spare money. Since then I’ve taken thousands of team photos, as well as multiple portrait sessions. My passion in photography is taking landscape pictures, specifically clouds and sunsets, I’ve since got into 35mm and 120 film photography which has brought in a whole new light to this passion. I will continue on with it for as long as I can afford it.
How do you think about happiness?
Being with my players. Seeing them succeed at whatever goal they strive to accomplish brings me the greatest joy. Being with them in the ups and the downs, being an ear when they need and sometimes a shoulder to cry on makes it much more than just coaching soccer. One of my greatest moments as a coach was during my class of 2023 team, at the time I had a player who was a freshman who moved up from the 8/9th grade team to play with us. We had a team meeting where we gathered in a circle and all shared what we loved most about soccer and what they wanted out of it. This player described that they wanted to eventually coach because of how well I mentored them and how much he admired me as a coach and it was in that moment that I realized that I don’t get to have a bad day when I with these young players. Each and every day they came out to learn, I had a duty to be ready to listen, to be there for them, and if I had a bad day or didn’t take it serious I could ruin their enjoyment of the sport, the culture, the team they cherished so much. So from then on making sure I was 100% ready for the commitment it took to lead them is something that truly brings me joy. Of course there’s good and bad days, days where I’m extremely exhausted and can’t do one more thing but I always come back to that moment and realize that these players rely on me and it’s my duty to be there for them.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Www.Mixtumunited.net
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coachyossef?igsh=eHhhMHl3M3pubWpv&utm_source=qr
