This story is part of Peak, The Athletic’s desk covering the mental side of sports. Sign up for Peak’s newsletter here.Cobi Jones is the United States men’s national team’s all-time leader in appearances. He played in three World Cups and also played 12 seasons in Major League Soccer with the LA Galaxy. These are the three best leaders he played with on the USMNT and in MLS.Sigi Schmid, Los Angeles Galaxy coachHe was my college coach at UCLA, and then I played for him with the Galaxy.As a walk-on at UCLA, I was going into the No. 1 recruiting class in the country. But he had a belief in me and saw that I had something special to give.And then he worked with me to pull it out of me.Sigi was all about just improving yourself a little bit more each day. Yes, I was good at taking a player on one-versus-one, but what’s next? What can your next step be? Can I cross from the right side a little bit better? Once I got through that, then it was like, “What about the left foot?”It was always just about improving yourself a little bit every day with him.Sigi would always tell these stories: “Look at what you guys are doing. You could be working in a coal mine or you could be digging a ditch.” His view was: We’ve got it easy, so enjoy what you’re doing.He was willing to do the 10 minutes extra every single day as a coach. He would ask it of us as players, but he was also willing to do it. We always used to talk about with Sigi that the ball never stopped bouncing, because he was always researching, scouting and continuously trying to improve his ability as a coach.That was a good example for me to try to improve as a player.Earnie Stewart, USMNT forward/midfielderI started to get close with Earnie before the 1994 World Cup.We ended up being roommates, and we still call each other roomies to this day.