The Long Game with Lisa Mitchell

The Long Game with Lisa Mitchell

From The Struggle Bubble by Chad Kutting and Craig Surgey

April 27, 2026 · 41 min · Episode 40

About this episode

Lisa Mitchell discusses her experiences as a youth soccer coach and the pressures faced by young athletes.

Our guest this week is Lisa Mitchell. Lisa is the girls varsity head soccer coach at Los Gatos High School, a PE teacher at Fisher Middle School for the last 21 years. She's also a three-time NCAA Final Four captain at Santa Clara, a pro on the 2001 CyberRays team that won the first WUSA championship 25 years ago, and mom to three, including a set of 7-year-old twins. Few people see youth soccer the way Lisa Mitchell does. She teaches PE at Fisher Middle School, then watches those same kids move into the high school program — and she's seen firsthand the pressure club coaches put on players to skip high school soccer entirely. "We see the long game here," Craig says. "A lot of the club coaches see the today and to the end of the season."

People in this episode

Hosts: Chad Kutting, Craig Surgey

Guest: Lisa Mitchell

Topics covered

  • youth soccer
  • coaching
  • high school sports
  • parenting
  • pressure in sports

Keywords

  • youth soccer
  • coaching
  • high school sports
  • Lisa Mitchell
  • parenting

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Los Gatos High School, Fisher Middle School, Santa Clara, CyberRays

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