Issue: Spring 2003

How One Accountant Gets His Kicks

Weeks after his Los Angeles Galaxy team won the Major League Soccer championship, head coach Sigi Schmid MBA ’78 arrives 20 minutes late for an interview. “Sorry,” he says, entering his office beneath the Galaxy’s home field – the Rose Bowl. “It’s been hectic the last two days.” In addition to preparing for next season, Schmid is also scouting prospects at college and international games.

Schmid still works hard despite the 1-0 victory over New England in the championship game last season – because one title isn’t enough.

“We’re the L.A. Galaxy. Expectations always run high,” says the 49-year-old coach in his large, comfortable office. “I’ve been head coach for four years, and we’ve played in three Major League Soccer finals.”

Schmid doesn’t seem stressed. “I’m fine with pressure, goals or expectations. They’re always there,” he says, sitting at a conference table strewn with team posters. “I think the mark of a true champion is being able to sustain accomplishments. Everyone can climb to the top of the hill once. Staying there is difficult.”

Schmid had displayed consistency even before joining the Galaxy. He won three NCAA championships from 1980-99 while coaching UCLA. He excelled as a player too: Schmid was inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame in 1996 as one of the first members of the American Youth Soccer Organization, and he had a successful career with the Bruins as a four-year starter from 1972 to ’75.

But when it came to business school, Schmid chose USC.

“I knew I wanted an emphasis in accounting,” he says. “At that time, the [major] textbooks used in accounting had been written by E. John Larsen, Walter Meigs and Andy Mosich – and they all taught or had taught at USC. I decided that was good enough for me.”

The soccer-savvy CPA says his graduate training at the USC Marshall School of Business frequently helps in coaching. A class in organizational behavior, for example, taught him how to put working groups together. “You have to do a little bit of that every day in coaching,” he says.

Schmid also applies leadership skills, like trusting his instincts. “My mother always told me: my first thought was the correct one. Everything after that is probably a rationalization,” says the German-born father of three. Yet he is hardly impulsive. A consummate professional, he believes in being honest with players, setting an example by being passionate in his work, and looking beyond statistics in his recruiting efforts. “You want players who have good character,” he says, “because talent can take you only so far.”

Though he’s grown accustomed to winning trophies, Schmid doesn’t take them for granted. “I always say that teams that have reunions are championship teams. Teams that finish 5-5 don’t have them.”

– Gary Libman