Canadian Heritage committee  It's an interesting debate. Should we focus on the elite and then that drags everybody else up to that level because it gives them something to aspire to? I don't personally believe that's necessary, and I think you're going to have a lot of opposition to that as well. Ultimately, what is your goal in all of this?

Canadian Heritage committee  The first thing I would do is make coach education free. I would find a way to make coach education free. If that comes through government funding, through a combination of government funding and private sector partnerships.... I've suggested this to the Canadian Soccer Association.

Canadian Heritage committee  It's $7 million actually.

Canadian Heritage committee  When I started in Oakville in 2010, the coaching budget, the overall expenditure on salaries for coaches at the club, was somewhere in the neighbourhood of $350,000. That didn't include the technical director's position, but it did include the staff coaches and the part-time staff coaches.

Canadian Heritage committee  Phys. ed. is the first thing that goes.

Canadian Heritage committee  What's the first thing that gets cut when the funds aren't there for education in school?

Canadian Heritage committee  When I was growing up we had phys. ed. every day. I hate telling “when I was a kid” stories because it makes me feel really old, but we had phys. ed. every day. I looked forward to that so much because that was my avenue to explore different things. I'll go back to my earlier point.

Canadian Heritage committee  I got an 80% in soccer in grade 9 phys. ed. The next year I turned pro. So I'd say, no, teachers don't generally have an eye for that. Again, you have to go back to lack of training for coaches at those key development stages. My daughter is 10. She plays house league soccer at the Oakville Soccer Club.

Canadian Heritage committee  No offence to anyone from Saskatchewan, but you see it all the time. Can you develop into an NHL player in that environment? No. But the talent is there, and that talent knows that it needs to move to an environment where it can grow and develop.

Canadian Heritage committee  Absolutely.

Canadian Heritage committee  Absolutely. We have a great opportunity as well. Canada will be hosting the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup, and the 2014 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup. We have a great chance to expose the game to the nation, and not just on the female side. I believe the success or failure of either of our programs, male or female, can inspire both genders.

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes, I think the holistic approach is one I definitely believe in. The CSA launched their LTPD, which is the soccer-specific adaptation of LTAD back in 2008, and I've spent the last five years researching the science behind it. Comparing it to my own upbringing as a child, I definitely had that rounded background in multiple sports which helped me.

Canadian Heritage committee  Are you any good?

Canadian Heritage committee  I'm sorry to cut you off, but if you watch the behind the scenes stuff, a lot of the NHL guys will juggle a soccer ball as a warm-up before they go out on the ice. The Montreal Canadiens do it. They've had a lot of Swedish players. They're very big on that.

Canadian Heritage committee  I think one of the challenges we have as a society is that our kids are overscheduled. All of their activities are on the family planner. They do soccer twice a week for an hour and they do hockey twice a week for an hour, and parents are unpaid chauffeurs shuffling them from one activity to another.