SCA IN THE NEWS

Coach DW
Jul 14
2 min read

SCA Journey Podcast: Episode #8 – Tobias Esche

This month, I welcomed Tobias Esche to Episode #8 of the SCA Journey Podcast. Tobias’s incredible path spans from youth soccer in Germany to Division I college soccer in the United States, and eventually coaching in the Ivy League. He offers a rare look into the challenges and adversities he had to overcome along the way and not to mention the mindset required to succeed as an international student-athlete.

We delved deep into life as an aspiring pro footballer coming out of Germany, growing up in Bremen and eventually getting his shot in the lower leagues of German footballer as a teenager.

Having made the breakthrough into the German Regionalliga, one of the biggest programs in college soccer came calling. The one and only University of North Carolina. The struggles of having to navigate this process himself, transitioning to a new country, and not being the best at English didn’t exactly make it easy…

We pivoted, we talked about transferring, moving to Quinnipiac, meeting the love of his life and the transition into coaching.

He speaks with an authenticity that I’ve come to admire over the past few years of working with him. Tobias and I got connected in 2021 through the recruitment space, and it was only last year we finally managed to land a player together. We didn’t talk too much about our athlete Oli Sacks, who will be joining Columbia in the fall to compete in the Ivy League. The conversation was more situated about Tobias, his journey and the complexities of an Ivy League school. A great listen for any young athlete or parent looking to navigate the top end of college soccer.