With his USYF mates in tow, New Hampshire Owner Strikes Futsal Gold in Spain

By David Knopf, Futsal World Editor

davidknopf48@gmail.com

Tom Bellen, 42, lives in a town of around 25,000 people in a state with 1.3 million. While there were enough rooftops to ensure the success of Futsal New Hampshire – 60 teams registered for each of two sessions in the first year – Bellen wanted to know more about coaching techniques, development strategies and styles of play.

So he and several other USYF league owners and futsal enthusiasts did something unconventional: They went to Spain.

Tom Bellen

“Frankly there aren’t many people to bounce ideas off of,” he said of a sport that, while quickly growing in popularity, is still relatively new in North America. “Spain we felt was a good step. A great league, good contacts.”

Bellen made the trip with Jon Parry, owner of the Kansas City league and a founder of USYF; Otto Orf, owner of leagues in Ohio; Soorena Farboodmanesh, director of officials, Massachusetts Futsal Association; Ty Stauffer and Chris Booker from the SportsTutor program in Owensboro, Ky.; and Darby Pope, a futsal enthusiast who sometimes works with Bellen in New Hampshire.

The coaches attended a clinic put on by coaches from Spain’s famed professional league and also attended games at the Super Cup of Spain in A Coruña.

Bellen attended the 2012 US Futsal Nationals in Kansas City in February and met Ivan Pico Martinez, who led a coaches’ clinic the night before tournament play began. Martinez is the coach of Azkar Lugo in the Spanish professional futsal league.

“I met Ivan and when I found out what he was doing, I wanted to get involved,” he said.

In a clinic classroom in Spain (Photo courtesy of Soorena Farboodmanesh).

In Spain, Bellen and the other U.S. futsal enthusiasts learned about all phases of the game – formations, patterns of play, rotations – and how Azkar Lugo tries to build its first-division team through its youth academy. 

The emphasis, Martinez said, is on technical development at the younger ages with tactical training coming later.

Bellen said that Martinez brought in academy coaches and the team’s goalkeeping coach to supplement his own lectures at the clinic.

“They kept it simple enough that not a lot was lost in translation,” he said.

“The other reason I wanted to go there is that in this country there’s no licensing (for futsal coaches). Maybe we build this relationship and have these guys come over here and do some more, maybe give some clinics before the national tournament, even travel around the country.”

Bellen, left, and the other American futsal enthusiasts in Spain. (Soorena Faboodmanesh photo).

While futsal is growing in importance in soccer-development circles in North America, Bellen said the game is deeply imbedded in Spanish culture.

“In Spain, the kids learn it so early,” he said. “Everywhere you go you see outdoor futsal courts with the lines, goals, everything.”

At home, Bellen said he and his Brazilian coaching partner, Bruno Victal, have found success in building a futsal league, as well as an assortment of clinics and training activities. His enthusiasm for the game began almost a decade ago when he adapted futsal techniques to training an outdoor team.

“I’m a strong believer in futsal,” he said. “I picked it up about nine years ago with one of the teams I was coaching. I loved it, the parents loved it, the kids loved it.”

Bellen, an auditor for a health care company, played soccer through high school but a serious knee injury derailed his career. He plays adult soccer now, but his emphasis is on coaching and running Futsal New Hampshire and skills clinics.

The leagues and clinics Bellen has offered in New Hampshire have been popular.

He and Victal have organized combination soccer/futsal camps, overnights, even a summer Futsal League Brazil where players are placed on teams and encouraged to develop the imagination and confidence to attempt things they might not during the regular season.

“It was to promote creativity,” he said. “It was interesting to see the difference between the beginning and the end of the season.”

Coming from a relatively small state that competes with more heavily populated ones in regional competition, Bellen said he turned to futsal to give his teams a technical edge.

“We’re New Hampshire and we’re small, so when we go to regionals we get our butts whipped,” he said. “I think part of it is the lack of creativity and the lack of goal-scorers.”

There is so much emphasis on team play, shape and passing patterns that the American outdoor game at times seems mechanical and predictable. Coaches often discourage players from trying to take people on, preferring that they pass.

“I think there’s almost a taboo against individuality and creativity,” Bellen said.

Bellen and Victal are doing their small part to change that in New Hampshire, where their 60-team futsal league is already in several cities and looking to expand into Dover, a coastal area, and their skills programs and camps are well received.

“It’s becoming popular,” Bellen said. “Everything we do is like gold. (USYF Director of Development) John Sciore and Jon Parry were thrilled that we got that many teams the first time.”

Have a story idea or comment? Contact the editor at davidknopf48@gmail.com.