Rochelle Zell soccer days with coach Morry
By Bill McLean
In between his two stints with the professional A-League soccer team the Charleston Battery in South Carolina, Morry Steinbach — a 1988 New Trier graduate — returned to the Chicago area in 1996 to enter a new world.
“The real world,” recalled Steinbach, a residential home builder and Rochelle Zell’s second-year volunteer girls soccer assistant coach. “But I’m glad Battery requested that I return to the team in 1997.
“I met my future wife [Melanie] then, at a synagogue in South Carolina.”
They got married in 1999.
The younger of the Glencoe couple’s two daughters, Rochelle Zell junior midfielder Noa Steinbach, netted a team-high 21 goals for the Tigers’ 13-2-1 squad last spring.
“I enjoy volunteering as a coach,” Morry Steinbach, 49, admits. “Lately, it’s allowed me to spend more time with Noa, which is key.”
Where there’s soccer, there’s also family in Steinbach’s current world.
Dad Steinbach first offered his time and soccer acumen to Noa’s FC United club a couple of years ago. Earlier in his career as a serial volunteer assistant, he helped an FC United boys side and a pair of youth men’s teams (ages 17-18) at Maccabiah Games in Berlin and in Chile.
“All great fun, all great experiences,” said Steinbach, an all-state forward as a New Trier senior in 1987 and a left-footed midfielder at the University of Maryland.
“One of the rewards of coaching is seeing progress, either in a team or in players. You work on something technically or tactically, week after week, and then you see a player’s face, you see that expression — ‘Yeah, I get it now.’ It’s that flip-of-the-switch look.
“But the best part of coaching is when you see that progress carry over to game situations.”
Before the start of Noa’s sophomore season on varsity at Deerfield-based Rochelle Zell, Morry Steinbach contacted Tigers girls soccer coach/RZHS athletic director David Martinez and essentially said, “I’m available to coach for free.”
Martinez learned about Steinbach’s soccer background — as a player, as a coach — and liked what he heard immediately.
“That was a no-brainer, welcoming Morry to our program last spring,” said Martinez, whose 2019 crew captured the Chicago Prep Conference regular season title and reached a Class A regional final.
“He has a wealth of soccer experience, a wealth of soccer knowledge. Whenever we split up as coaches, in practice, I trust him completely to lead the girls in dribbling drills, in passing drills, in any type of drill.
“And he holds the girls accountable, while being sincere about it,” Martinez continued. “If a player doesn’t get something, doesn’t understand a concept he’s teaching, Morry works with that player and encourages her.
“He’s more than a capable volunteer assistant; he could serve as a head coach at any high school. We’re fortunate to have Morry on board.”
A contingent of men’s soccer players (ages 35 and older) felt the same way in 2005, when Steinbach and his Team USA mates collected silver at the Maccabiah Games; Steinbach also suited up for the Maccabiah Games in 2009.
“Being a part of a team is an awesome thing, and there’s nothing like working together to accomplish a goal or several goals in a season,” said Steinbach, who, like everybody else in the Rochelle Zell program, hopes he’ll get to watch a team of Tigers compete in matches this spring. (Because of the pandemic, the latest target date for the resumption of practice for all prep sports in Illinois is May 1.)
The Steinbach family travelled to South Carolina a couple of weeks ago and intends to stay in the Palmetto State through the end of Rochelle Zell’s spring break.
Noa and her older sister, RZHS senior and Washington University (Mo.)-bound Lila, have e-learned in South Carolina. An optimistic Noa — an all-CPC selectee last spring — works out regularly.
“She’s putting herself through some high-intensity training, with the help of apps,” Steinbach said. “She’s staying hopeful and positive through this difficult and sad time.”
Steinbach considers himself a demanding coach. Nothing, to him, is more important in the beautiful game than that of an effective first touch.
“If you don't have a good first touch, you won’t be a competitive soccer player,” Steinbach insists. “It’s that simple. A good first touch is the foundation of a player’s game. Once you get the first touch down, you then need to develop spacing and movement — two other keys to the game.
“I’m a stickler when it comes to form and technique. I’m a firm and fair coach.”
The coach saw Noa’s game evolve from her freshman season to her sophomore season markedly.
“She got better technically,” Steinbach said. “She’s very coachable, takes advice well. She probably feels I pick on her often when I coach, or that I’m harder on her than I am on other players. I like it when her head coaches, be it at the club or high school level, give her advice or makes suggestions, because she probably absorbs those words better than when they come from me.”
But Noa Steinbach hadn’t just upped her game before the start of her sophomore season at RZHS.
“Noa became more of a leader,” Steinbach noted. “She had a voice, a significant one; teammates listened to it. Older players on the team looked to her for leadership and guidance. Her attitude got better. Her confidence grew.
“Those two characteristics,” the proud father/coach added, “have nothing to do with soccer.”
By Bill McLean
In between his two stints with the professional A-League soccer team the Charleston Battery in South Carolina, Morry Steinbach — a 1988 New Trier graduate — returned to the Chicago area in 1996 to enter a new world.
“The real world,” recalled Steinbach, a residential home builder and Rochelle Zell’s second-year volunteer girls soccer assistant coach. “But I’m glad Battery requested that I return to the team in 1997.
“I met my future wife [Melanie] then, at a synagogue in South Carolina.”
They got married in 1999.
The younger of the Glencoe couple’s two daughters, Rochelle Zell junior midfielder Noa Steinbach, netted a team-high 21 goals for the Tigers’ 13-2-1 squad last spring.
“I enjoy volunteering as a coach,” Morry Steinbach, 49, admits. “Lately, it’s allowed me to spend more time with Noa, which is key.”
Where there’s soccer, there’s also family in Steinbach’s current world.
Dad Steinbach first offered his time and soccer acumen to Noa’s FC United club a couple of years ago. Earlier in his career as a serial volunteer assistant, he helped an FC United boys side and a pair of youth men’s teams (ages 17-18) at Maccabiah Games in Berlin and in Chile.
“All great fun, all great experiences,” said Steinbach, an all-state forward as a New Trier senior in 1987 and a left-footed midfielder at the University of Maryland.
“One of the rewards of coaching is seeing progress, either in a team or in players. You work on something technically or tactically, week after week, and then you see a player’s face, you see that expression — ‘Yeah, I get it now.’ It’s that flip-of-the-switch look.
“But the best part of coaching is when you see that progress carry over to game situations.”
Before the start of Noa’s sophomore season on varsity at Deerfield-based Rochelle Zell, Morry Steinbach contacted Tigers girls soccer coach/RZHS athletic director David Martinez and essentially said, “I’m available to coach for free.”
Martinez learned about Steinbach’s soccer background — as a player, as a coach — and liked what he heard immediately.
“That was a no-brainer, welcoming Morry to our program last spring,” said Martinez, whose 2019 crew captured the Chicago Prep Conference regular season title and reached a Class A regional final.
“He has a wealth of soccer experience, a wealth of soccer knowledge. Whenever we split up as coaches, in practice, I trust him completely to lead the girls in dribbling drills, in passing drills, in any type of drill.
“And he holds the girls accountable, while being sincere about it,” Martinez continued. “If a player doesn’t get something, doesn’t understand a concept he’s teaching, Morry works with that player and encourages her.
“He’s more than a capable volunteer assistant; he could serve as a head coach at any high school. We’re fortunate to have Morry on board.”
A contingent of men’s soccer players (ages 35 and older) felt the same way in 2005, when Steinbach and his Team USA mates collected silver at the Maccabiah Games; Steinbach also suited up for the Maccabiah Games in 2009.
“Being a part of a team is an awesome thing, and there’s nothing like working together to accomplish a goal or several goals in a season,” said Steinbach, who, like everybody else in the Rochelle Zell program, hopes he’ll get to watch a team of Tigers compete in matches this spring. (Because of the pandemic, the latest target date for the resumption of practice for all prep sports in Illinois is May 1.)
The Steinbach family travelled to South Carolina a couple of weeks ago and intends to stay in the Palmetto State through the end of Rochelle Zell’s spring break.
Noa and her older sister, RZHS senior and Washington University (Mo.)-bound Lila, have e-learned in South Carolina. An optimistic Noa — an all-CPC selectee last spring — works out regularly.
“She’s putting herself through some high-intensity training, with the help of apps,” Steinbach said. “She’s staying hopeful and positive through this difficult and sad time.”
Steinbach considers himself a demanding coach. Nothing, to him, is more important in the beautiful game than that of an effective first touch.
“If you don't have a good first touch, you won’t be a competitive soccer player,” Steinbach insists. “It’s that simple. A good first touch is the foundation of a player’s game. Once you get the first touch down, you then need to develop spacing and movement — two other keys to the game.
“I’m a stickler when it comes to form and technique. I’m a firm and fair coach.”
The coach saw Noa’s game evolve from her freshman season to her sophomore season markedly.
“She got better technically,” Steinbach said. “She’s very coachable, takes advice well. She probably feels I pick on her often when I coach, or that I’m harder on her than I am on other players. I like it when her head coaches, be it at the club or high school level, give her advice or makes suggestions, because she probably absorbs those words better than when they come from me.”
But Noa Steinbach hadn’t just upped her game before the start of her sophomore season at RZHS.
“Noa became more of a leader,” Steinbach noted. “She had a voice, a significant one; teammates listened to it. Older players on the team looked to her for leadership and guidance. Her attitude got better. Her confidence grew.
“Those two characteristics,” the proud father/coach added, “have nothing to do with soccer.”