Of all the approximate 470 to 490 players over the twenty years of junior high/middle school soccer, this coach found many joys in coaching and in realizing the growth and maturity as these players developed into husbands...fathers...and responsible wage earners who are making a difference in their lives and the lives of many people. Over the next few... weeks...months(?)...years(?) this coach dad intends to mention the joys of some of these players between '85 through '04 who were key players and the impact their lives may have had.

One sweeper in the early years of junior high soccer...(I found out)...to have been a soccer coach for approximately ten years and is now a middle school assistant principal in Virginia...The pride that this coach dad has is found in a player I once coached as an eighth and ninth grader....and now thinking about him and having emailed on a semi-regular basis...I am extraordinarily pleased and proud as we converse via email when possible and find we have like preferences such as travel soccer and the education field. Over the short time we have shared, we agree about teaching....coaching (what a coincidence!!)...faith....and the differences in young people as they may have changed compared to my insights of the 70's...80's....and 90's.........and now.

Being able to communicate and share similar things with a former student or player proves to this teacher the honest rewards and (yes)...joys of teaching and coaching...!!!

Being a coach dad in several rec sports .....rec and school soccer included.....proved to be interesting and enjoyable. I was blessed with two sons who were roughly two years apart and accordingly played on different age bracket rec soccer teams. Beginning with my third rec soccer team, my two sons......being young in the formation of soccer in those early years......played on my instructional soccer team and did well, and naturally my wife and I enjoyed having them together both because of convenience and the joy of watching them win their first tournament at such a young age.

After that first pleasurable year of playing and winning together, they remained separated for roughly 6-7 rec soccer years of being on different age bracket teams. As it worked out, I was able to coach the younger boy's rec soccer teams for about 4-6 consecutive winning years; my older son played on usually less fortunate teams during that same span. As both sons grew older....near their teens.....they both played on different teams uncoached by this coach dad and had very successful rec soccer teams coached by different fine men.

Starting soccer play in their teens, my sons played on successful older age teams as I had the blessed opportunity to work with both teams either as head coach for one team and assist the other team. If memory sustains my thoughts, I served as rec soccer commissioner during those last few years while I coached and assisted coaching another son's team.

During the last 3-4 years of my coaching rec soccer and being rec commissioner, my wife noticed my time at home and with her was being more stretched and harried.......not even mentioning the stress that I may have secretly felt. Having realized that fact, this coach dad by the end of the season made plans to be just a dad and not a coach...at least in rec soccer..!


Coaching soccer has been this dad's joy...and blessing..!! Add two fine young men who have done well athletically...educationally...spiritually....and are themselves now dad; this dad is grateful for the time I've had and for an understanding and giving wife.

My very first year of being a coach-but-not-a-dad did involve the two or three dads of the boys I coached in youth football my first year of graduation from college which was my first year of teaching high school in a small delta town in Mississippi. Memories fall short when one tries to gather all the memories of getting the head job.....having the key fathers volunteer to assist.....day to day practices.....and remembering names which have long flown away.

What this coach will not forget are the pleasantries that very first year as the dads so eagerly and thoughtfully showed me as they gave me free reign....trust....cooperation.....and....amazing support during my first coaching season as we celebrated a seemingly brief, yet undefeated season...!! My mind reflects on the few pictures of the boys at the celebratory party which I have no idea where those snap shots are now.

This coach has to admit that this delta town was a small country town where recreational sports played a major role in the lives of those around me, and being a teacher-coach must have made great impact as a "visiting" coach from out of state..!! I, as a first year coach that was trusted with such marvelous responsibility, cannot but be humbled to have had such a blessed and special experience for my first year of coaching.

The second year of middle school soccer was another promising year for seventh and eighth graders. The players were talented...challenging...enthusiastic...and, again,....absent their senior year. My count since these 17-18 years has weakened somewhat, but a coach's memory still hangs on...maybe feebly...but it tries...!

Granted....each individual player has his own varied talents, so this coach cannot be too judgmental. I do know that there may have been two-three of the middle school soccer players who eventually excelled in tennis by their sophomore year in high school. Baseball was another real competitor that provided a place for previous middle school soccer players. Recently, as more prevalent these last eight to ten years, track was a legitimate opponent to soccer also. That would be ironic because many up and coming varsity soccer players tended to have difficulty with extreme running...and, as it would turn out,...they may have turned to track..!!

This second year of middle school was a mix of talent...skill...and eager energy. The young men played excitedly and attacked; their talent was evident as they fought back against their skilled foe to come back and win in a tough away game. The last game of the season was away against a tough private school on a changed home field involving a loss of time and upset parents. If we win.....we complete the first perfect 12 and 0 season. A coach's key substitution in the last minute of the game allowed our talented and strong halfback to make a long , beautifully placed cross from the right tying the game at one and one...thus insuring an undefeated, but not perfect....11 - 0 - 1 season.

The spring of '92 began with the new middle school soccer rules. The format was instituted with the idea of giving all players some playing time by establishing a fifth quarter (post game) for any player who had not played in the primary contest. This new segment of middle school soccer was a positive idea to this coach dad as it allowed every player who practiced to get some earned playing time. Coincidentally, having coached rec football and other rec sports, this coach saw and understood the obvious need for playing time for all team members on the middle school team.....and I had initially tried to make an effort to use most players.....even before the advent of the new middle school rules.

The initial '92 spring season saw the difference in level of play as we opened with twenty eighth graders and 7-8 seventh graders. What I eventually recognized (and knew beforehand..!!!) was the tremendous potential of talent that this team possessed. These young men wound up the first season with an impressive 11-1 record...actually being upset by a lower place team on that team's home field. This first year middle school coach learned an important lesson that almost any team...on a given day or home field...can beat another team; this coach dad learned also never to take a certain team for granted.

At the end of this new middle school season, I met with the team (as I usually do) and challenged the older players to do their best and stick in sports (hopefully soccer). Point of interest: I always followed my players through high school sports (hopefully soccer) and kept track of their progress. In their senior year of high school, the high school soccer team went to double overtime...double shoot-out...and lost the state championship. This coach, and coincidentally a dad of a starting sophomore and starting senior, will never
forget that of the twenty eighth graders I had coached five years previously....only eight former eighth grade players were seniors on that high school "almost state champion"......makes you think...doesn't it???

Junior high soccer officially ended in the spring of '91. From the beginning season in '85 to the last junior high season in spring of '91, there were several county schools who were structured as junior highs.....but Byrd was originally intermediate, changed to junior high. The first four years in the soccer league for junior highs, Byrd was season co-champion ...tournament champion...and third place....averaging about 75% in win/lost. The last three years before the middle school designation, our soccer team hit a mediocre series of soccer seasons with one loss and two "so-so" records.

Our next blog will begin with this school's first middle school team in '92............!!!!

In our first season as junior high soccer, we were eventually competitive with a far southwest county team that seemed to often compete with us as champions during my twenty years of school soccer; the tone was set in our return match with this team in our first season in an away game. Trailing 1-0 in the first half, our tri-captain was yellow-carded for playing aggressively and pushing his opponent. In this first season of junior high soccer, being yellow-carded was like a warning, but I immediately took control by substituting my tri-captain to give him a chance to cool off and to say a word to him.

He was very animated...wanting to get back into play. As a rookie coach, a bad decision was made followed by a (I believe) wise decision...............for this new coach..!! The bad decision was to relent to my heated and aggressive tri-captain to quickly substitute him back in where upon he immediately went straight to the opponent he had pushed and pushed again even more forcefully......thereby being red-carded which automatically meant he was thrown out of the game.

I was in a quandary; my team had to play the last minutes of the first half and all of the second half with one less player compared to the opposing team. The wise decision I felt I made as a "rookie" coach "on the fly" was to drop the three man attack to a two man front which helped cover for the ejected player and use the stronger and more talented middle striker more as a half back who could play more defensively. To my comfort and encouragement, one of my dads I had previously mentioned to you had (without notice) sidled up to me and mentioned the same idea....not recognizing what I had just done..!!!!

We won 2 - 1.........!!!!!!!!!!!

The first day of try outs was exciting...94 players were trying out...!! This coach dad was surprised and wary of taking two-three afternoons to use drills..running..and previous insights to narrow the choices to below thirty.
As it turned out the choices were plentiful and difficult; finally my choice was thirty. As it became symbolic eventually, my numbers of those who made the team yearly turned out to be twenty-two to thirty....mostly near the high twenties.
Our first game was in windy and cold (snow flurries) Robert Patterson Stadium (home) against our arch rival who competed with us almost evenly in twenty years for first. The weather and conditions typically involved wind and some extreme weather...........and, as typical of our team and our arch rival, they won the first game of the twenty years.......2 - 1.
Since we played home and away each season, we met this competitive team at a neutral field which was their home field later in the season .......A most important play set the tone for coach dad that made an impact in the following twenty years of coaching junior high/middle school soccer..!!

Previously I had mentioned dads and their presence with rec sports who had helped me in rec football....t-ball....and rec soccer. This is obviously true more so in recreational sports because you have volunteers who graciously help each other out and usually have a tight schedule after work to make time to coach ten...fifteen...or.... twenty young, excited sons or daughters thereby keeping the rec program viable.

Starting coaching junior high/middle school soccer initially seemed like rec sports the first year when automatically I had three very considerate....kind....extremely helpful fathers who were previous rec/travel soccer coaches who knowingly stood aside as I began my stint at school coaching. I assume they were trying to be helpful (which they were)......maybe fearful that this supposed novice of a assumed coach did not know what to expect (which may have been true)....and were gracious enough to be available if the need came. High school soccer had just begun about three years previously, and the county school parents had pressured and won their effort to make (then) junior high soccer viable and real.

Naturally, those coach dads had a real and important investment in their sons and soccer, and I was aided by those three dads who stood by the sidelines ...readily willing to offer even the slightest of advice or (if need be) some help in running the soccer drills.
(next post:)...first try-outs and first game