In 1997 my family moved from Toronto to Vancouver. Vancouver’s temperate coastal climate
means that soccer is a year-round sport.
I’ll never forget my first day of grade four. Jen Luther walks up to me in the cloakroom and announces that
I will be on her soccer team. In Toronto I had been into dance (I’m sure right
now my teammates are rolling around on the ground laughing
picturing eight-year-old Allie tap dancing in sequins and feathered headdresses
– yes, I did that) but if soccer was going to help me make friends in a new
city then sign me up!
Her dad, Doug Luther, was my first coach in organized sports. I played soccer for the North Shore Flyers for nine years.
Her dad, Doug Luther, was my first coach in organized sports. I played soccer for the North Shore Flyers for nine years.
A few years later I started playing basketball and I fell in
love. From Cleveland Elementary and
Junior Grizzlies to Handsworth Secondary I had so many amazing coaches.
Although they probably didn’t know it they each held my
confidence in their hands. Had
they hurt me I probably wouldn’t have kept playing. As a kid and a teenager basketball made me happy and kept me
out of trouble. The game has given me so much. You’ll always hear players say that a sport has taught them
skills and it has revealed their character. I agree, to an extent, but the majority of the lessons I
have learned have come from my coaches.
Over the course of my post-secondary career I’ve had four
head coaches. It’s unusual to have
so many coaches in such a short time but I consider myself blessed to have
taken something special away from each of my seasons with them.
Norm Hann, Todd Jordan, Mike Woollard, and Jeff Speedy, this
one is for you guys.
Norm was my first coach. He took a chance on me at a time in
my life when not a lot of coaches would have. He gave me the opportunity to do something that I didn’t
think I was capable of and it radically changed my life. At the end of my rookie season when he
decided not to come back I was rattled, to say the least, but then he taught me
the lesson that I needed the most:
that my path and potential are of my own determination. A coach is there to lead, to guide and
to teach but no matter what I need to control my own happiness.
The next year we hired Todd Jordan. Todd and I didn’t always see eye-to-eye
but he taught me a lot of lessons that I needed to learn and that still
contribute to making me the teammate that I am. Todd introduced to me weight training and terrible,
terrible, soccer field sprints. Todd
taught me the importance of sacrificing myself for the team and how to keep my
mouth shut even when I wanted to say something. He taught me that no one person is more important that what we are as a team.
Mike treated me like an adult. He taught me that my opinions have value and to trust my
gut. He let what I said have an
impact on how he ran the team, which was a lot of pressure but a challenge that
I enjoyed. Mike had an amazing
faith in our team and program, a lesson that I still draw on today.
Now I'm heading into my second season with Coach Speedy. The thing that impresses me the most about Coach Speedy is
how much he cares about all of us, and it’s not superficial. He doesn’t just keep tabs on us because
he wants to win games. If someone
is going through a tough time we all know that we can rely on him for whatever
we need. He’s empathetic and
caring and I think sometimes we take that for granted. Plus, Speedy puts so much work into the
community and we are expected to do the same. Yes, the players look good because we do it, but it’s Coach
Speedy’s initiative that is behind all of it. Speedy has taught me that no matter what I have going on
there is always time in my day to take on helping someone else. Be it with a teammate who is struggling
with the offense or a grade 4 team that needs a guest coach for a
practice. Speedy teaches us every
day to respect each other and to be leaders in our community.
Cory Russell and Dan Goggin are our current assistant
coaches. I haven’t forgotten about them but I’m already tearing up and I’ve
written too much so I need to wrap this up. I’ll get to them another week.
A blog post doesn’t even begin to say the thank yous that I
owe those four men. No matter what
I do I know I won’t ever be able to pay them back. I think that, as players, we do the only thing we can – we pay
it forward. We coach camps and
clinics with the VReds program and when we’re older (and have a bit of time) we’ll
coach our own teams. When the day
comes that I’m at the helm of my own team I’ll know that I’ve learned from the
best.
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