 |
 |
|
Running with the Pintos by: Daniel Elswick, Class of 2001
I have been involved with community service for most of my life. As a member of a rural community, I saw the importance of personal involvement with the people around me as a means to promote unity and pride. As a Boy Scout, I saw service as a way to have fun and develop leadership. After graduating from college, I worked full time for a year as an AmeriCorps volunteer in rural West Virginia. This experience showed me the value of service to facilitate change. My dedication to service continued as I pursued my professional endeavor as a medical student. Last fall, I became involved with a activity that turned out to be one of the most challenging and rewarding experiences in my life. I began coaching youth soccer with four other medical students. Looking back, this project had a greater personal influence on me than I could have ever imagined. THE BEST WAY TO SPEND YOUR FALL During the first three years of medical school, I tried to be involved in community service as much as possible. With the stress that accompanies being a medical student, it was difficult to be involved in large projects that required a great deal of time commitment. I found myself helping out here and there doing things like trail work and health fairs. I had a lot of fun with these endeavors but none of them seemed to be “my project”. After passing my national boards in my fourth year of med school there was more time and opportunity for service. I wanted to be involved in a community activity from start to finish. In August, one of my roommates told me that a faculty member from the School of Medicine was looking for students to coach youth soccer in the fall. My roommate and I had been looking for additional community service hours and this seemed perfect. There was only one problem: I had never coached soccer before and neither had my roommate. Actually there was another problem: my roommate had never even played soccer. It had been quite a while since I had played in a league myself. With this in mind, we decided to get some “helpers” from our med school class to coach the team with us. Since our schedules were still quite busy, we thought it would probably be best to get as many people as possible involved so there would always be a few coaches at practices and games. After a rigorous search among the “best and brightest” of our class; Coach Jeff, Coach Hannah, Coach John, Coach Troy and myself, Coach Dan, agreed to spend our fall on the soccer field. THE WHISTLE “You’ll be coaching the St. Francis Under 8 Pintos,” said the lady from the youth soccer league the first time I spoke to her on the phone. “Do eight year olds actually play soccer?” I nervously asked. She replied, “Well, most of your kids will be six or seven and have never played before. You’ll just need to show them the basics and make sure no one gets hurt. Oh, and don’t forget to buy a whistle.” Coach Troy and I promptly went to Walmart and after much discussion over the proper type of whistle to buy, we were on our way to our first practice. I decided on a shiny metal one and Coach Troy went with a plastic model. Our first meeting with the kids was a little overwhelming. A big hurdle to overcome was learning everybody’s name. I was not aware that there were so many first graders named “Andrew.” We sat in a big circle and played the name game until everybody started substituting the name of their favorite Pokemon for their own. After introductions, one of the kids inquired, “What’s a Pinto?” We did our best to explain that a Pinto is a type of horse; a fiery horse that runs free and wild. One of the other kids insisted that a Pinto was actually a type of bean. We told him that he was correct but it was also a type of horse. This caused quite a bit of controversy as most of the kids did not want to be named after a bean. Frustrated, we decided to move on to the rules of practice:
After running a few drills, rule number three was quickly forgotten. “It’s like herding cats,” Coach Hannah observed. Fresh from a Psychiatry rotation, I decided all of the kids had a very severe form of Attention Deficit Disorder. Rule number three quickly was changed to: “Everybody needs to FREEZE when the whistle blows and listen to the coaches.” Somehow, this worked and practice became a little more structured. Afterwards, a coaches meeting was held to decide how to make things run more smoothly. We decided to use only positive reinforcement and most importantly, make sure everybody would have fun. BUNCH BALL After the first few practices, it was readily apparent that the coaches were having as much fun as the kids. Most of the time, all five coaches were there. This was great because we were able to work in smaller groups and give more individual attention to each child. The activity that turned out to be the most fun for players and coaches alike was the scrimmage at the end of each practice. We would have the kids play each other for about 15 minutes and then all the kids would be on one team and play against the coaches. They were learning not only by playing but also by watching us. For me, Tuesdays and Thursdays from five to seven became the highlight of my week. At our first game on a warm Sunday afternoon, all the time we had spent working on positions and “the basics” took a back seat to the kids playing “bunch ball”. The first few games consisted of essentially seven Pintos and seven kids from the other team circling around the ball running back and forth between the goals. As practices progressed and the warm evenings of late summer turned into the coolness of fall, the team had already advanced through most of the drills from the St. Francis Youth Soccer Handbook. Consequently, I started looking for coaching ideas from the Internet. It was amazing how many resources were available and we found new drills that the kids loved. The people from the league also set up an email system to keep the coaches updated on schedule changes, news, and events. Technology was an awesome tool that really facilitated our coaching. The best advice on coaching probably came from a web page that said it was best to use your imagination when practicing. We would develop new games and would also encourage the kids to think up new games to play. We would give “homework” assignments such as drawing a picture of Pokemons playing soccer and practice passing with your mom or dad 10 minutes each day. We kept working and eventually the kids started to get pretty good at playing positions. With a little patience, the kids really progressed as soccer players by the end of the season. THANKS COACH It was apparent that there was more to coaching than just teaching kids soccer skills. In a way, we became role models for them. Conflicts needed to be resolved among players, problems needed addressed, and questions needed answered. When there was an argument or a fight among players we would have the whole team stop practicing and would try to work through why the players might be angry. Winning was never the focus for the team. Instead, we focused on teamwork and helping others. We also worked on friendship and sharing. We worked on setting goals and following through with them on the field and off. For example, all of the players climbed a tree near the field after practice but one of the children was afraid to do it. She would always try but gave up on the first branch. We kept working with her and helped her with her climbing and eventually she was able to do it all by herself. She was so proud in her accomplishment and so were we. Nothing felt better than when the kids would give me a big hug and say, “Thanks coach.” Throughout the season, the rest of the coaches and myself worked with the parents of the team members in order to help encourage their playing. We even persuaded the parents to play in scrimmages against the kids. The parents were very appreciative of our dedication to teaching the children and for sparking their interest soccer. One mother even said that her child was very apprehensive about playing initially but by the end of the season all the child talked about was soccer. “All of you have really been a great influence on the kids,” she said. THE FINAL SCORE I now see that being a soccer coach was a great way to get involved with my community. Spending time with the team meant so much more than community service hours. I was able to pass on my love of soccer to a younger generation. I also built a strong bond between myself and the players, parents, and other coaches. Looking back I realize that the kids taught me just as much as I taught them. I often run into the players and their parents always get a big hug. The energy and spirit that the Pintos had will always be with me. |
