Youth: Cote ousted from RSL Florida

Jim Cote is no longer the Girls Directors of Coaching for RSL Florida Soccer Club after being asked to resign by the club’s Board of Directors earlier this week.

Cote, whose girls under-18 side went 4-0 in the Predator division of the Disney Soccer Showcase last week, said he was shocked when the board asked for his resignation. Cote became the DOC when current University of Tampa head coach Adrian Bush resigned his position with the club in August 2008.

“When I took over for (Bush), the club had started to falter a little bit,” Cote said. “They asked me to step in, I stepped in, there were still major concerns at the club, and I did what I was asked to do. I hired seven new age-group coaches on the boy’s side, I put in coordinators to make the training under the proper structure. You’re going to ruffle some feathers along the way because it’s part of the job. People aren’t going to want to just change, but you have to change in order to be able to develop.”

RSL Florida Club Administrator Ellen LaVielle said via e-mail that RSL President David Laxer was travelling, and unavailable to comment until Monday. The board is holding a meeting on Sunday at 6:30 p.m. at the Bern’s Steakhouse business offices, neat Bern’s in South Tampa, and Cote said he will be allowed to make a statement at that meeting. Cote also said he has received great support from the parents and players since the decision was made, and hopes that the club’s season won’t be derailed with the FYSA State Cup beginning in late March.

Cote said that no matter what comes out of Sunday’s meeting, he will remain committed to the remainder of the season with the team’s he is involved with coaching.

“I made a commitment to those kids, and I won’t let them down, I’ll stay and coach the teams,” Cote said. “There was just no pre-warning, no forewarning. I was in Miami two weeks ago for the Orange Classic, I didn’t even have a team down there, I just went down to help because we had five teams down there, and the president never said a word to me about it the whole time. And they won’t give me a reason, I said ‘just give me a reason, that way I know what I’ve done wrong, and for future endeavors I can fix it,’ but there’s been no reason given. They’re just going in another direction.”