The November Coach of the Month is Head Varsity Boys Soccer Coach, Hikmet Aslan. Coach Aslan embodies what it means to be a great coach and mentor. He is more than qualified for this position with his impressive and extensive soccer background. This is his second year coaching the team and has already impacted the team greatly through their impressive record.
Coach Aslan started playing soccer when he was seven in his local league in Turkey. After that, he got picked for a premier club when he was 10. At age 12 he tried out for another premier league team in Turkey called Ankaragucu and was selected to play for this professional youth team. He played there for two years and then was selected for the highly competitive U14 Turkish national team.
He went on to become a U16 Turkish national team player. He then chose to move to another first division club in Turkey called Petrol Ofisi Club. While he played for this team he also attended college and graduated.
He then played for another club named Duzcespor and signed a two year contract with them. Coach Aslan went on to play for another 10 different clubs throughout Turkey before coming to the United States.
Then in 1994 Coach Aslan got an offer from the New York Metro Star now known as the New York Red Bulls. He said that it was not the soccer he expected and did not play that much. So, he only played for three months and then went to Hartford for an education. He studied at the University of Hartford English Language Institute to learn English. During this he played for the Hartford semi professional league. He also finished and received his MBA in just nine months.
Coach Aslan then coached at Watkinson School and Farmington Sports Arena. n 1999 he got an offer from the University of Hartford to be an assistant coach of the men’s soccer team while he was doing his Master of Science of Organizational Behavior. He brilliantly balanced his education and coaching.
At the time that Coach Aslan coached soccer at the University of Hartford, he got an offer to be Director of International Students at the university and he worked there for 14 years. For seven of those years he was both the assistant coach and the director of international students in the University of Hartford.
After Coach Aslan’s son was born he stepped down from soccer to help his family as his wife was new to the United States, so to provide for his family he worked full time as the international director. In 2013 he resumed coaching at the Farmington Sports Arena.
Coach Aslan now coaches at Sporting CT in Middletown, Connecticut while also coaching at KO. He said that his soccer inspiration was Ruud Gullit. He also said that his fondest memory as a soccer player was playing against his brother who told him to not score and he did. “My fondest memory as a coach was last year when my 2005 Sporting CT team reached nationals after passing the regionals,” Coach Aslan said.
