Unity on the pitch: Washington High soccer coach leads diverse teams to harmony, wins

As Joseph Janner looked around at his Washington High players in 2016, he knew this was going to be more than just a coaching job. He had to help teach his players more than just soccer.

The team was made up of Latinos, kids with Tanzanian, Burman and Thai backgrounds ... Some of them didn’t speak much English, which made it even harder for them to connect. Even the coach was a foreigner, at least to his new players: a white American who didn’t grow up playing with kids with such diverse backgrounds.

But they shared common ground that broke the barrier.

Soccer.

“I quickly realized we have that common language and love and passion for the game,” Janner said. “The idea of being different from somebody vanishes very, very quickly.”

Janner started his coaching career in 2011 with Benton High in St. Joseph, Missouri, as an assistant coach. Janner was doing it for fun then, but he quickly fell in love with coaching and wanted to make it a career.

It wasn’t a bad choice. He’d go on to win the Kansas City Atchison League Coach of the Year award in 2018, the 2019 Kansas East Region Class 5A title with Washington High and collect eight soccer licenses and diplomas.

Janner coached four teams in a diverse part of Kansas City, Kansas and is currently one of Sports Recruiting USA’s scouts. He’s still coaching the Washington High team and also leads Borussia Dortmund International Academy’s U-16 side. Both teams are comprised of players from different corners of the world.

The challenges that come from leading such diverse teams molded the 41-year-old into a stronger coach.

“It forced me to be better,” he said. “I have to be conscious to the idea that people don’t learn the same way. Some of that comes from cultural perspective, upbringing or coming from a different place.

“I can’t deliver the same message the same way. I’m communicating the same information, but I have to be more aware how to do it with different players. People want to be spoken to differently, people want to have relationships differently.”

Diligent communication is invaluable for a soccer coach. It’s such a universal sport. Janner has built a strong relationship with many of his high school players, including striker Van Thang, a Burma native.

“I can talk to Coach Janner about anything,” the 16-year-old said, “and he’ll listen to me and tell me if I need help. We always talk to each other about the game plans and what we need to do to improve the games and things like that. I really enjoy talking to him about it.

“I think Coach Janner really loves coaching this team and he knows we want to play for him, too. He goes the extra miles for the team.”

The Wildcats have also drawn close to one another. One of Chris Galvan’s best friends on the Washington team, defender Erick Lwango, was born on the other side of the world, in Tanzania.

At first, the players had a hard time connecting with each other, to the point that they weren’t passing the ball to teammates who weren’t from their country.

“The Burmese players would play with each other,” Galvan said. “And as for us, Mexican-American players, we would struggle because we wouldn’t know how to receive the ball. It made us frustrated because it cost us the game sometimes.

“But we realized that we needed each other. We wanted to make it far on the season. Coach helped us bond.”

Janner explained that it was natural for the players to pass the ball to their compatriots because they had the same playing style and were more comfortable with each other. One of the ways he helped them unite was by placing players from different backgrounds next to each other on the field.

“I put them in positions that forced them to learn how to play with someone who’s different,” Janner said.

Practices after practices, games after games, the diverse group started to click both on and off the pitch. The team had a bit of Asian flavor, a bit of Hispanic flavor and a bit of African flavor all mixed into one.

Their unity showed in the results. Washington High finished a sterling 13-3 last fall.

For Janner, the ultimate reward was seeing young men from different parts of the globe smiling with each other. A couple of years ago, they might never have thought they’d even meet someone from some of these countries.

Now, the coach is eager to help unite more diverse players.

“That’s the icing on the cake,” he said. “You can see the joy they had from spending time with each other.

“If people are looking for someone who had the opportunity to work with a diverse team, that’s me.”

This story was originally published March 12, 2020 at 5:15 PM.