Soccer has always been woven into Coach Ming’s journey. He started playing at age six and never really stepped away from the game. At Morehouse College, he played club soccer and co-led the effort to elevate the program to NCAA Division II status — an upgrade that was finally approved the year after he graduated (He likes to joke that this spared him the “fifth-year student” dilemma — although part of him wishes he’d stayed for one more season).

A pivotal period came in his early twenties, when he began coaching travel and training recreational teams with Washington Soccer Club and D.C. Stoddert. During that same period, from 1999 to 2002, he also played amateur soccer in the WISL and in competitive tournaments such as the US Cup and Copa Taca with La U, a local DMV team with Peruvian roots. Those years cemented his adult love not just for playing the game, but for teaching it — understanding its rhythms, its demands, and the mindset required to grow.

Ming went on to serve as the Director of Soccer for DC SCORES, where he trained coaches and built grassroots programs for underserved communities. He holds his U.S. Soccer Federation Grassroots 7v7, Grassroots 9v9, and D Licenses, grounding his coaching in modern, player-centered development. His 20+ years of experience in learning experience design and digital/communication technologies also deeply inform his approach — bringing a structured, evidence-based, and highly engaging methodology to how he builds sessions, delivers feedback, and designs long-term development pathways.

He has remained closely involved with DC SCORES ever since and is currently serving his third three-year term on the Board of Directors. These experiences — along with countless hours on the field training his own daughter and learning from her journey — reshaped how he sees youth development, the athlete experience, and the power of access and opportunity.

After a long break from coaching soccer, he found himself, unexpectedly, back on the pitch with his daughter. What began as simple support turned into a roulette — Maradona’s iconic pivot and turn — back into the beautiful game he’d loved since childhood, a reminder of the joy, frustration, hope, and magic the sport carries. That unexpected turn ultimately led to the creation of SportWorX Accelerator, his modern training framework focused on skill, speed, and access. This return to the game is captured in his first entry,When the Ground Disappears, Find the Ball.

Coach Ming’s coaching philosophy is rooted in empathy, technical development, and the belief that every player deserves the tools, confidence, and space to write their own story in the game.