Soccer Resilience

Brad Miller entered Wake Forest in 1988 when it first became a top-20 soccer program. While Brad had earned All-State honors as a high school senior defender, his technical skills were well below those of his teammates. Brad embraced this significant challenge and persevered over the years to slowly and continually make progress toward earning more playing time. Brad’s perseverance and work ethic were recognized by his legendary head coach, Walt Chyzowych, and legendary coach, Jay Vidovich (assistant at the time) as they named Brad the recipient of the 1990 Deacon Award. Brad was the first non-starter to win the award. Brad’s willingness to work very hard and use strategies to improve his areas of difficulty, propelled him to his goal of starting some significant games his senior year. During Brad’s career at Wake Forest, the program had much success and participated in the NCAA Men’s Soccer tournament in 1988, 1989, 1990 and 1991. In 1989, Brad was a member of the program’s first ACC Men’s Soccer Championship and first appearance in the round of 16 in the NCAA Men’s Soccer Tournament.

After graduating from Wake Forest, Brad moved to California and became a clinical psychologist in 2001. Brad has spent over 20 years helping youth, adults and athletes learn how to overcome difficulties and grow while experiencing adversity. Brad noticed that while many teams and coaches spend much time and energy on developing players’ technical, tactical and physical skills, there was often very little time spent developing their players’ mental toughness and resilience. Understanding that players’ mental toughness needs to be taught and grown like other soccer skills, in 2018 Brad began providing presentations to teams and clubs to provide soccer players with the specific skills and strategies to grow their resilience on and off the field. As Brad combined his passion for soccer and psychology in presenting to more players and teams, he looked for a way to reach more players.

In June 2020, Wells and Brad Miller first connected when Wells posted a comment about the challenges of navigating life after professional soccer. They both quickly realized that they shared two passions: soccer and helping others. By combining Wells’ experiences of the challenges and opportunities from playing and winning on the biggest stages of the MLS with those of Brad’s clinical knowledge and experiences of working with youth, adults and athletes the past 20 years, a unique program for soccer players was born. Their interactive Soccer Resilience program presentations and workshops provide players with a wealth of knowledge and expertise from a former MLS player and a clinical psychologist. We know that mental toughness and resilience are like a muscle that any players can grow stronger, if a player is willing to hard work, step outside of their comfort zone and use strategies.

Wells and Brad know personally how their mindset toward games and practice helped them grow beyond what they thought was possible. At other times, their mindset fed their performance anxiety and limited their development. They know the ups and downs players can go through and they have developed a road map for players to learn the four fundamentals of Soccer Resilience:

With the Covid-19 pandemic, now, more than ever, players need support in strengthening their mental toughness and resilience on the pitch and in life. We look forward to the helping your players grow both individually and as a team.